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I'm writing this note because I don't know if or when I can come back to this entry, and I'm nowhere near finished with the Labunski book whose ref I just added--which seems to have either whiffed or ignored the slavery issue. The book does mention that Madison's letters to Dawson were destroyed, although Madison saved Dawson's letters.
I've also edited the wikipedia article for Edward Coles, Madison's secretary in this era, whose opposition to slavery has only recently been written about, and whose dealings with Dawson I hadn't noticed, although Coles thought Madison would free his slaves in his will (over a decade after Dawson's apparently early death). Several of Virginia's anti-Federalists, particularly George Mason and William Grayson and the Brent who became the District of Columbia's new clerk, also thought slavery contrary to the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and earlier Virginia documents in part drafted by Mason. But that stance got them forgotten, as Virginia's planters and lawyers became slavery's biggest defenders. I don't know which side Dawson, apparently of Fredericksburg and Spottsylvania County, took, but would be interested to learn.Jweaver28 (talk) 15:27, 22 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]
