Alexander Winchell
| Alexander Winchell | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 1st Chancellor of Syracuse University | |
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In office 1872–1874 |
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| Succeeded by | Erastus Otis Haven |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 31, 1824 North East, New York |
| Died |
February 19, 1891 (aged 66) Ann Arbor, Michigan |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Geologist, author |
| Known for | Adamites and Preadamites: or, A Popular Discussion (1878), Pre-Adamite hypothesis |
Alexander Winchell (December 31, 1824 in North East, New York – February 19, 1891 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) was a United States geologist, who contributed to this field mainly as an educator, and a popular lecturer and author. His views on evolution aroused controversy among his contemporaries; today the racism of these views is more cause for comment.
Winchell graduated from the Wesleyan University of Middletown, Connecticut, in 1847.
He then taught at Pennington Male Seminary of New Jersey, Amenia Seminary of New York (where he had previously been a student), an academy in Newbern, Alabama, and the Mesopotamia Female Seminary of Eutaw, the last of which was founded by him. He became president of the Masonic University at Selma, Alabama, in 1853.
In 1854 Winchell entered the service of the University of Michigan as professor of physics and civil engineering. Eventually he became professor of geology and paleontology at Michigan.
In 1859, Winchell was appointed as State Geologist of Michigan for the newly formed second geological survey of the state. He held the post until 1863 when the state did not appropriate funding to continue the survey. The survey was resumed in 1869, and Winchell was reappointed in April. Owing to conflicting opinions between Winchell and his superiors, he resigned in 1871.
He stayed at Michigan until 1872.
In 1863 Winchell took up a lease on a cotton plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi, under a plan devised by Gen. Lorenzo Thomas to lease plantations along the Mississippi River to loyal men from the North, who would hire black laborers on terms prescribed by the army. Winchell organized the Ann Arbor Cotton Company and sold stock to the university’s president, whereupon he received a leave of absence to engage in cotton planting.
General Thomas set wages at a low level ($7 per month for men, $5 for women, minus the cost of medical attention and clothing). Even then, many lessees defrauded the freedmen of their earnings. In the winter of 1863–64, the Treasury Department briefly assumed control of the Mississippi Valley labor system, mandated a substantial increase in black wages, and contemplated leasing the plantations directly to the freedmen. Winchell complained that the Treasury’s regulations were “framed in the exclusive interest of the negro and in the non-recognition of the moral sense and patriotism of the white man.”
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