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Richard Slator Dunn

リチャード・スレイター・ダン

Richard Slator Dunn

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1928-08-09 （Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.）
Died
2022-01-24 age 93
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Minneapolis (birthplace) → Cambridge, MA (Harvard) → Princeton, NJ → Ann Arbor, MI (University of Michigan) → Philadelphia, PA (University of Pennsylvania)

Career

Occupations
Author, Historian, Professor
Active Years
1954-1996
Affiliations
University of Pennsylvania, McNeil Center for Early American Studies (founding director), American Philosophical Society (co-executive officer), Phi Beta Kappa
Memberships
Phi Beta Kappa, American Philosophical Society

Education

Harvard University (Harvard College)
Harvard College / Department of History
Degree: BA
Period: 1946-1950
Year of Graduation: 1950
Country: United States
Princeton University
Graduate School / Department of History
Degree: MA
Period: 1950-1952
Year of Graduation: 1952
Country: United States
Princeton University
Graduate School / Department of History
Degree: PhD
Period: 1952-1955
Year of Graduation: 1955
Country: United States
Ph.D. in History

Awards

Athenaeum of Philadelphia Award
1963
Work: Puritans and Yankees
Organization: Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Result: 受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship
1966
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞（1966-1967）
National Book Award (History) Finalist
1973
Work: Sugar and Slaves
Category: History
Organization: National Book Awards
Result: ファイナリスト
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
2015
Work: A Tale of Two Plantations
Organization: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
Result: 受賞
Award for Scholarly Distinction
2017
Organization: American Historical Association
Result: 受賞
Lindback Teaching Award
1993
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Result: 受賞
Jamestown Foundation Award
1972
Organization: Jamestown Foundation
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Puritans and Yankees: The Winthrop Dynasty of New England, 1630-1717

1962 History (Early American history)

A study of the Winthrop family that examines early New England society and power structures.

Puritanismfamily historycolonial society

The Age of Religious Wars, 1559-1689 (expanded 1559-1715)

1970 History (Religious history)

An overview of the religious conflicts of the 16th and 17th centuries and their political and social impacts.

religious conflictEuropean historyreligion and politics

Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713

1972 History (Atlantic world, slavery)

Examines sugar production techniques, the slave trade, harsh labor conditions, and high mortality to trace the rise of the planter class in the English West Indies.

slaveryplantationseconomic historyAtlantic world

The Papers of William Penn (editor, with Mary Maples Dunn and others)

1981 Documentary edition

A multi-volume edited collection of William Penn's papers providing key primary sources for early Pennsylvania history.

documentary editingcolonial historyWilliam Penn

A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labor in Virginia and Jamaica

2014 History (slavery history, comparative)

Based on plantation records from Jamaica and Virginia, reconstructs slave genealogies and compares labor and life across generations using extensive archival sources.

slave genealogycomparative historyplantation labor

Bibliography

  • Puritans and Yankees: The Winthrop Dynasty of New England, 1630-1717 (1962)
  • The Age of Religious Wars, 1559-1689 (1970; expanded 1979)
  • Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713 (1972)
  • The Papers of William Penn (editor, multi-volume, 1981–1987)
  • William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania, 1680-1684: A Documentary History (1983)
  • The World of William Penn (editor, 1986)
  • A Pennsylvania Album: Undergraduate Essays on the 250th Anniversary of the University of Pennsylvania (1990)
  • The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630-1649 (editor, Harvard University Press)
  • A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labor in Virginia and Jamaica (2014)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Archival-source driven academic proseComparative-historical approachCombination of narrative and analysis
Recurring Motifs
slavery and plantation societyfamily lineage and generational continuityeconomic and social structures of the Atlantic world

Legacy

A major scholar in early American and Atlantic history. Longtime professor at the University of Pennsylvania and founding director of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. His archival, comparative research advanced scholarship on slavery and influenced subsequent generations; fellowships and a directorship bear his name.

Academic Societies

  • American Historical Association
  • American Philosophical Society

Archives

  • Richard Slator Dunn Papers, Penn University Archives and Records Center

Quotes

  • By examining sugar production techniques, the vicious character of the slave trade, the problems of adapting English ways to the tropics, and the appalling mortality rates for both blacks and whites, these colonies were the richest, but in human terms the least successful.
    Source: Sugar and Slaves (1972) (1972)

Trivia

  • The Richard S. Dunn Directorship is named in his honor at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
  • Won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2015 for A Tale of Two Plantations.
  • Married to historian Mary Maples Dunn; the couple served as co-executive officers of the American Philosophical Society from 2002 to 2007.
  • Elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1950.
  • Retired from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996 and was named Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor Emeritus of American History.