School Bios of Cooper
Colleges where Thomas Cooper worked remember his ties to slavery at varying degrees. While the University of Pennsylvania devotes a brief paragraph on Cooper's ties to slavery in his biography, Dickinson College does not even mention his political writing.[1] On the other hand, the paragraph-long biography of Thomas Cooper for the University of South Carolina focuses almost entirely on his involvement in slavery. The paragraph proudly ends with the naming of the library of the University of South Carolina after him in 1976.[2]
Memory of Thomas Cooper’s legacy as a scientist and professor was prevalent throughout the 1800s and 1900s at Dickinson College. The Dickinson College Archives recorded four instances in which Thomas Cooper was mentioned in the history of Dickinson portion of the Microcosm yearbook. Each time he was mentioned, it was with a different but favorable description. The 1896-1897 publication which gives a brief background on his law and professorial past. The entry refers to him as “one of the most distinguished men of the early part of this [the nineteenth] century."[3] The 1899-1900 publication views him even more kindly, claiming “he was a man of wide learning and great versatility. He was distinguished as a jurist…he was, likewise, distinguished as a scientist….”[4] The Microcosm of 1934-1935 was still more favorable yet teasing, claiming “…that universal genius, the brilliant but eccentric Dr. Thomas Cooper, whose militant atheism amused latent prejudices.”[5] Surprisingly, it was not until the 1948-1949 Microcosm yearbook that the focus was on his scientific accomplishments. Even still, his involvement with slavery and other politics was absent.[6]
Broadening his scope on understanding the political shifts Thomas Cooper experienced, Dumas Malone also wrote a book on Cooper’s life as a political and public figure entitled The Public Life of Thomas Cooper, 1783-1839. According to a review by Daniel W. Hollis, this book accurately describes Thomas Cooper as scientist, judge, secessionist, and professor. The piece recounts Malone’s assertion that Cooper’s strong support for secessionist ideas in South Carolina caused twenty-four of his former students to become delegates within the 1860 secession convention. In his review, Hollis claims that Thomas Cooper helped the University of South Carolina to become well-known and respected, yet as of 1963, the college was careful to avoid discussing him or his contributions. Hollis also mentions that school’s reprinting of this biography after years of it being out of print would “partially atone for [the school’s] past neglect” in addition to naming a building in his honor.[7]
Sources
[1] Penn Biographies, “Thomas Cooper (1759-1841),”(1995). [University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center]; John Osborne and James Gerencser, “About the Author Thomas Cooper (1759-1839).” 1-2. [Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections]
[2] “Slavery at South Carolina College, 1801-1865: The Foundations of the University of South Carolina,” Names on the Landscape. [Library of South Carolina]
[3] Microcosm 1896-97, 10 [[Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections]
[4] Microcosm 1899-1900, 19 [Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections]
[5] Microcosm 1934-35, 15 [Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections]
[6] Microcosm 1948-49 [Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections]
[7] Daniel W. Hollis, “Review: The Public Life of Thomas Cooper, 1783-1839 by Dumas Malone,” The South Carolina Historical Magazine vol. 64, no. 2 (1963): 119. [JSTOR]
[2] “Slavery at South Carolina College, 1801-1865: The Foundations of the University of South Carolina,” Names on the Landscape. [Library of South Carolina]
[3] Microcosm 1896-97, 10 [[Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections]
[4] Microcosm 1899-1900, 19 [Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections]
[5] Microcosm 1934-35, 15 [Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections]
[6] Microcosm 1948-49 [Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections]
[7] Daniel W. Hollis, “Review: The Public Life of Thomas Cooper, 1783-1839 by Dumas Malone,” The South Carolina Historical Magazine vol. 64, no. 2 (1963): 119. [JSTOR]