Julius S. Scott
{{Short description|American historian (1955–2021)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Julius S. Scott
| image = Julius Scott at the University of Pittsburgh 39.22 (cropped).png
| caption = Scott in 2018
| birth_date = {{birth date|1955|07|31}}
| birth_place = Marshall, Texas, United States
| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|12|6|1955|07|31}}
| death_place = Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
| workplaces = University of Michigan
| education = {{unbulleted list|Brown University {{small|(A.B.)}}|Duke University {{small|(Ph.D.)}}}}
| birth_name = Julius Sherrod Scott III
| thesis_title = The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of Revolution
| influences = {{unbulleted list|Henri Lefebvre|C.L.R. James}}
| parents = Julius Samuel Scott Jr. (father)
}}
Julius Sherrod Scott III (July 31, 1955 – December 6, 2021) was an American scholar of slavery and Caribbean and Atlantic history. He was best known for his influential doctoral thesis and later book The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution.{{Cite journal |last=Finch |first=Aisha |date=2020-06-03 |title=The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution, by Julius Scott |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/nwig/94/1-2/article-p121_9.xml |journal=New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids |volume=94 |issue=1–2 |pages=121–122 |doi=10.1163/22134360-09401010 |s2cid=219905723 |issn=2213-4360 |doi-access=free}}{{Cite news |last=Sinha |first=Manisha |date=2019-05-20 |title=Julius Scott's Epic About Black Resistance in the Age of Revolution |language=en-US |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/julius-scott-the-common-wind-book-review/ |access-date=2021-12-16 |issn=0027-8378}} Scott's original thesis has been regarded as "arguably the most read, sought after and discussed English-language dissertation in the humanities and social sciences during the 20th century", elevating the historian to the position of an intellectual "cult figure among scholars" in the field.{{Cite news |last=Roberts |first=Sam |date=2021-12-16 |title=Julius S. Scott, Groundbreaking Historian of the Caribbean, Dies at 66 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/obituaries/julius-scott-dead-common-wind.html |access-date=2021-12-16 |issn=0362-4331}}
Early life
Julius Sherrod Scott III was born on July 31, 1955, in Marshall, Texas, to Julius Samuel Scott Jr. and Ianthia "Ann" Scott née Harrell. Julius Jr. was a Methodist minister who later served as president of Paine College (1975–1982) and Wiley College (1996–2001); and Ann was a librarian.
According to his mother, young "Scotty" was a bright child with a precise sense for language.{{Cite web |last=Italie |first=Hillel |title=Julius S. Scott, author of 'The Common Wind,' dies at 66 |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/julius-scott-author-common-wind-dies-66-81629158 |access-date=2021-12-16 |website=ABC News |language=en}} In 1961, he began attending MacGregor Elementary School in Houston as one of the first Black students in its newly-integrated first grade class. Despite the instruction being officially integrated, Scotty and the Black girl in his class were only permitted to use a single segregated restroom outside the school. Scotty’s parents learned of this fact only after hearing him say "Thank you, God, for letting me have my own bathroom at school" during his prayers.
After Scotty completed second grade, his parents moved the family to Providence, Rhode Island, where Julius Jr. had accepted a job at Brown University. Scott enrolled at Brown in 1973 and received a bachelor of arts in history from the university in 1977. He attended Duke University for graduate studies, earning a doctorate in history in 1986.
Career
= ''The Common Wind'' =
{{Main|The Common Wind}}
Scott’s doctoral dissertation "The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of Revolution" formed the basis of his later, highly influential work of the same title. After spending time in North Carolina preparing for field research, in February 1982 he started examining archives of the British Vice admiralty court in Kingston, Jamaica, then proceeded to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in April 1982 to study Haitian archives.{{cite web |last=Wood |first=Peter H. |year=2019 |editor1-last=Julia Gaffield |editor1-first=Julia |editor2-last=Daut |editor2-first=Marlene L. |title=Doing Real Research: How Julius Scott Hooked a Marlin, in Forum on the Common Wind: In Honor of Julius S. Scott |url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/116796/blog/test-blog/3473234/h-haiti-forum-common-wind-honor-julius-scott |access-date=January 12, 2020 |website=H-net: H-Haiti |author-link=Peter H. Wood}} He submitted his completed dissertation in 1986.{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Scott III |first=Julius Sherrard |date=1986 |publisher=Duke University |title=The Common Wind: Currents of Afro-American Communication in the Era of the Haitian Revolution}}
As an unpublished dissertation The Common Wind was cited hundreds of times in scholarly literature.{{cite news |last=Bartlett |first=Tom |date=November 2, 2018 |title=An Underground Sensation Arrives |work=Chronicle of Higher Education |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/An-Underground-Sensation/245000 |url-status=live |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181217062844/https://www.chronicle.com/article/An-Underground-Sensation/245000 |archive-date=December 17, 2018}} In Time, historian Vincent Brown called the dissertation "so exciting, original, and profound" that it inspired "an entire generation to create a new field of knowledge about the past".{{cite magazine |last=Begley |first=Sarah |date=February 15, 2018 |title=9 Books to Read for Black History Month, According to Scholars |url=https://time.com/5157662/black-history-month-books-2018/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181208112900/http://time.com/5157662/black-history-month-books-2018/ |archive-date=December 8, 2018 |access-date=December 4, 2018 |magazine=Time}} Eugene Holley, writing in Publishers Weekly, described the dissertation as "renowned for its creativity, imaginative research and graceful prose".{{cite interview |last=Scott |first=Julius S. |interviewer=Eugene Holley Jr. |title=Spreading the News of Freedom: PW talks to Julius S. Scott |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/78658-spreading-the-news-of-freedom-pw-talks-to-julius-s-scott.html |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121203039/https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/78658-spreading-the-news-of-freedom-pw-talks-to-julius-s-scott.html |archive-date=November 21, 2018 |url-status=live |work=Publishers Weekly |date=November 21, 2018}}
Scott initially signed a contract with Oxford University Press to publish the dissertation in book form shortly after completing his degree, but did not agree with suggestions for revision and opted not to publish the book. Aside from a selection from one chapter of the dissertation reprinted in the 2010 volume Origins of the Black Atlantic, which Scott co-edited,{{cite book |last=Scott |first=Julius S. |title=Origins of the Black Atlantic |date=2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415994453 |editor1-last=Dubois |editor1-first=Laurent |pages=69–98 |chapter="Negroes in Foreign Bottoms": Sailors, Slaves, and Communication |editor2-last=Scott |editor2-first=Julius S.}} the dissertation remained unpublished until a Verso Books editor, referred by another historian, offered to publish the text with minimal revisions. The Common Wind was published by Verso in 2018.
= Academic positions =
In 1986, Scott was hired to teach for one year at Rice University.{{Cite news |last=Sendek |first=Joel |date=April 25, 1986 |title=Black culture, women's studies programs now at Rice |url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245636/m1/7/ |access-date=February 13, 2025 |work=The Rice Thresher |pages=7}} Scott taught at Duke from 1988 to 1994, where he helped to train scholars including Vincent Brown, Jennifer L. Morgan, and Claudio Saunt.{{Cite web |last=School |first=The Graduate |title=History Alumni Celebrate the Common Wind that Launched Their Careers {{!}} The Graduate School |url=https://gradschool.duke.edu/story/history-alumni-celebrate-common-wind-launched-their-careers/ |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=gradschool.duke.edu |language=en}} Subsequently, he held a joint faculty appointment in the departments of History and of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan{{Cite web |title=In Memory: Julius Scott {{!}} U-M LSA Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) |url=https://lsa.umich.edu/daas/news-events/all-news/search-news/in-memory--julius-scott.html |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=lsa.umich.edu |language=en}} in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he died on December 6, 2021, from complications related to diabetes.
References
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Category:Brown University alumni
Category:Duke University alumni
Category:Historians of African Americans
Category:Historians of the Caribbean
Category:Historians of slavery