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Daniel B. Thorp

Daniel Thorp, Associate Professor of History

Daniel Thorp, Associate Professor
Daniel Thorp, Associate Professor of History

Department of History
441 Major Williams Hall, 220 Stanger St.
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-5155 | wachau@vt.edu

Daniel Thorp, an associate professor in history, is currently researching freedom suits in antebellum Virginia. 

  • Comparative History of British Colonies
  • History of African Americans in Southwest Virginia
  • European Colonization and Exploration of North America
  • Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University
  • M.A., The Johns Hopkins University
  • B.A., Davidson College
  • Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences (2017-2021)
  • Director, Curriculum for Liberal Education (2010-2013)
  • Chair, Department of History (2005-2010)
  • Associate Chair, Department of History (1995–2004)
  • Staff, University Honors
  • Colonial America, Co-Consultant Editor, 1998
  • William E. Wine Award for Teaching Excellence, Virginia Tech, 2013
  • Teacher of the Week, Center for Instructional Development and Educational Research, 2012
  • Favorite Faculty, Office of Residence Life, 2010
  • Faculty Excellence Award, History Graduate Students’ Association, 2009
  • XCaliber Award for Excellence in Technology-assisted Teaching and Learning, 2007
  • Advancing Women Award, Virginia Tech Women’s Center, 2006
  • Alumni Award for Excellence in Academic Advising, Virginia Tech, 2000
  • Certificate of Teaching Excellence, Virginia Tech, 1991, 1999, and 2013

Books

Facing Freedom: An African American Community in Virginia from Reconstruction to Jim Crow (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2017).

Lewis and Clark: An American Journey (New York, 1998).

The Moravian Community in Colonial North Carolina: Pluralism on the Southern Frontier (Knoxville, TN, 1989).

Journal Articles

“Soldiers, Servants, and Very Interested Bystanders: Montgomery County’s African American Community During the Civil War,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 126 (2018), 379-421.

“Cohabitation Registers and the Study of Slave Families in Virginia,” Slavery & Abolition, vol. 37 (2016), 744-760 (DOI: 10.1080/0144039X.2016.1174518).

“The Beginnings of African American Education in Montgomery County,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 121 (2013), 315-45.

“New Zealand and the American Civil War,” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 80, no. 1 (February 2011), 97-130.

“Going Native in New Zealand and America: Comparing the Experiences of Pakeha Maori and White Indians,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History,  vol. 31,  no. 3 (September 2003), 1-23.

"Equals of the King: The Balance of Power in Early Acadia," Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region, vol. XXV (Spring 1996), 3-17.

Textbooks

The Digital History Reader, coauthored with Tom Ewing, (Project Director), C. Edward Watson, Robert Stephens, Marian Mollin, David Hicks, Hayward “Woody” Farrar, Mark V. Barrow, Jr., Kathleen Jones, and Daniel Thorp, 2006

  • Co-Principal Investigator, “Developing an Interpretive Plan of African American History for the Log Building at Solitude,” Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2015
  • Co-Principal Investigator, “The History Survey Online: Digital Resources for European and U.S. History,” National Endowment for the Humanities, Exemplary Education Project 2003-05
  • Co-Principal Investigator, “Putting American History Online: The Next Phase,” Center for Innovation in Learning, Virginia Tech, 2002–03

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