Abstract:
This article examines potential causes for University of North Carolina professor Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick'a steadfast antislavery beliefs which, among other things, led to his dismissal in 1856. The university stated its reasoning for the decision came from its belief that the university was no place for rancorous political debates. Effectively banished from his native North Carolina, Hedrick worked for the US Patent Office in Washington, D.C., and never again lived in North Carolina on a permanent basis.