History professor and Texts & Technology/CHDR-affiliated scholar Dr. Scot French was featured in the inaugural volume of a born-digital, journal published by the Center for history and New Media at George Mason university, Current Research in Digital History.
In his recent article, Dr. French examines the ideological differences in the correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and his friend William Short. Throughout their letters, both men engage in conversations about the fate of slaves in a post-emancipation future where slavery no longer serves as the agricultural basis for Virginia.
While both men expressed desires to experiment with alternative labor systems in place of slavery, they each held vastly different views on the fate of African Americans in a society where slavery no longer took place. In his article, Dr. French further discusses Jefferson’s well-known views of the early American republic and how the two men’s view on the future of blacks in American society differed.
The publications inaugural volume also features an essay co-authored by Texts and Technology and CHDR-affiliated scholars Amy Giroux and Marcy. In their essay, both scholars discuss the increasing need of the agricultural industry to modernize in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Click here to access both articles.