Richard Slator Dunn, author and historian, was born 9 August 1928 in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, USA. He completed his B. A. in 1950 at
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
, his M. A. from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
in 1952, and received his Ph. D. in history from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
in 1955. He joined
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
in 1950.
Upon retirement from his position at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in 1996, he was named the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor Emeritus of American History.
["Richard Slator Dunn Papers, Penn University Archives and Records Center"]
/ref> He was married to Mary Maples Dunn
Mary Maples Dunn (April 6, 1931 – March 19, 2017) was an American historian. Born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Dunn graduated from The College of William & Mary in 1954 and received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in 1959, where she taught and ...
; together they raised two daughters.
On 24 January 2022, he died.
Academic career
Dunn began his teaching career at Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
in 1954, moving to University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1955, then joined the History Department at the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in 1957, where he eventually became chair of the department. He founded and was the first director of the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies, now called th
McNeil Center for Early American Studies
according to his biography at the Penn Archives.
Awards and prizes
American Council of Learned Societies grant-in-aid 1961
Athenaeum of Philadelphia Award, 1963, for Puritans and Yankees
Huntington Library fellowship, 1965
Guggenheim fellowship, 1966-67
American Philosophical Society grants, 1969, 1972
Jamestown Foundation Award, 1972;
Walter D. Love Prize, Conference on British Studies, 1973;
National Book Award Finalist in History, 1973, for Sugar and Slaves
National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, 1974-75
Visiting Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1974-75
American Council of Learned Societies fellowship, 1977-78
Visiting Fellow, Newberry Library, 1978
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, 1982-83
Commonwealth Fund Lecturer, University College, London, 1983
Society of Colonial Wars Distinguished Book Award (with Mary Maples Dunn) for The Papers of William Penn, 1990
Visiting Scholar, Rockefeller Foundation Study Center, Bellagio, Italy, 1991
Lindback Teaching Award, University of Pennsylvania, 1993
Union Pacific Visiting Professor, University of Minnestora, 1994
John M. Greene Award for distinguished service, Smith College, 1995
The Richard S. Dunn Directorship named in his honor at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies
The Richard S. Dunn Fellowship for excellence in any aspect of Early American Studies at the MCEAS
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...
for a Tale of Two Plantations in 2015
The National Historical Association Award for Scholarly Distinction 2017
Scholarly work
Dunn is the author of many scholarly articles and books, including ''Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713'' in 1972. The book outlines the development of slave society and the Planter class
The planter class, known alternatively in the United States as the Southern aristocracy, was a racial and socioeconomic caste of pan-American society that dominated 17th and 18th century agricultural markets. The Atlantic slave trade permitted p ...
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 that made these colonies the richest, but in human terms the least successful, in English America."
His book, ''A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labor in Virginia and Jamaica'', was published by Harvard University Press in 2014.
The book earned Dunn the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...
in 2015.["Anisfield-Wolf Book Award"](_blank)
/ref> According to the book's companion website, Two Plantatio
Dunn was able to utilize slave holder records to recreate the genealogies of "1,103 slaves who lived at Mesopotamia amaicabetween 1762 and 1833, and the 973 slaves who lived at Mount Airy irginiabetween 1808 and 1865. And he has reconstructed the lineages of slave families from both plantations through four or five generations.""http://twoplantations.com"
/ref>
He and his wife
A wife (plural, : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally Dissolution (law), dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, ...
were co-executive officers of the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
from 2002 to 2007.["Memorial to Mary Maples Dunn, American Philosophical Society, 3 April 2017"](_blank)
/ref>
Books
Puritans and Yankees: The Winthrop Dynasty of New England, 1630-1717 (Princeton University Press, 1962); paperback edition by W.W.Norton, 1971.
The Age of Religious Wars, 1559-1689 (W. W. Norton, 1970), Expanded 2d ed., 1559-1715 (Norton, 1979)
Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713 (University of North Carolina Press, 1972)
The Papers of William Penn edited with Mary Maples Dunn, Richard Ryerson, Scott Wilds, Jean Soderlund, Marianne Wokeck, Craig Horle, Joy Wiltenburg, and Alison Hirsh (University of Pennsylvania Press)
Volume One, 1644-1679 (1981)
Volume Two, 1680-1684 (1982)
Volume Three, 1685-1700(1986)
Volume Four, 1701-1718(1987)
William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania, 1680-1684: A Documentary History, General Editor, with Mary Maples Dunn, ed. Jean R. Soderlund (University of Pennsylvania Press and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1983)
The World of William Penn, a volume of twenty essays edited with Mary Maples Dunn (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986)
Special issue of Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 112, no. 2 (April, 1988), "Undergraduates as Historians: A Penn sylvania Sampler," Editor. Articles by five of his senior history honors majors at the University of Pennsylvania.
A Pennsylvania Album: Undergraduate Essays on the 250th Anniversary of the University of Pennsylvania, a volume of ten essays edited with Mark Frazier Lloyd (University of Pennsylvania, 1990)
The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630-1649, edited with Laetitia Yeandle and James Savage (Harvard University Press and the Massachusetts Historical Society)
The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630-1649: Abridged Edition, edited with Laetitia Yeandle (Harvard University Press, 1996)
''A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labor in Virginia and Jamaica'' (Harvard University Press in 2014)
References
1928 births
University of Pennsylvania faculty
University of Pennsylvania historians
Princeton University alumni
Harvard College alumni
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, Richard Slator
Historians from Minnesota
21st-century American historians
20th-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Living people
20th-century American male writers