Talk:Daniel Drew

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War of 1812 and other issues

According to the Clifford Browder biography, Drew did serve in the war of 1812. He may not have seen face to face combat, but he did serve, and would be classified as a "veteran" in modern terminology. Browder also reveals that Drew's only known source of income at the tail end of his life was a modest pension for this service. The idea that he didn't serve is a factual mistake from White's book.

According to Browder, although Drew is credited with popularizing the "watered stock" term, there is no evidence that he himself did this to his own stock as a drover. It's a practice Drew certainly knew about, and he may have done this, but the only "proof" is from White.

Use of White's The Book of Daniel Drew as a source

White's "Book of Daniel Drew" is a fictionalized account and should not be used as a secondary source. The author, Bouck White, claimed to have "found" Drew's private journal; White was a well-known socialist reformer, however, and he used the fictional journals to depict Drew as an exaggerated exemplar of capitalism's flaws. White, who published the book well after Drew's death (so he could not dispute the work), used the fictionalized account as a political commentary.

The quote "He that sells what isn't his'n Must buy it back or go to pris'n" appears in The Book and Daniel Drew, but may nevertheless be an accurate quote. Drew is credited with the quote in a 1903 Harper's Weekly article (Volume 47, page 705), which predates the publication of White's work by 7 years.