John Navin
Professor, History

Contact John Navin
843-349-2437 jnavin@coastal.eduBrittain Hall 363
Spring 2023 Office Hours
Wednesdays 9:00am - 12:00pm
*Please email for an appointment.
Biography
A Boston native, John Navin joined the department of History in 1999 after teaching at Brandeis and Pfeiffer universities. He specializes in Early American history and has published works that focus on race, warfare, gender, and the impact of colonizing ventures on groups and individuals. Navin served as Associate Dean in Edwards College from 2001 to 2008 and as interim Chair of Communications in 2009-10. Before completing his doctorate he managed the Communications departments for several Massachusetts firms and operated a consulting business. Navin holds two U.S. Patents for four-way chess and spends summers in Maine.
Education
Ph.D., History, Brandeis University, 1997
M.A., American Studies, Boston College, 1989
B.A, English, University of Massachusetts/Boston, 1972
Teaching Areas
Early American History
- Colonial
- Revolution
- Early Republic
- Antebellum
Crime and Punishment in Early America
Critical Moments in American History
The Vietnam War
Research Areas
Early America
Publications
The Grim Years: Settling South Carolina, 1670-1720 (University of South Carolina Press 2020).
“A New England Yankee Discovers Southern History” in Becoming Southern Writers: Essays in Honor of Charles Joyner.
“Intimidation, Violence and Race in British America,” The Historian.
“Mothers, Warfare, and Captivity in the Eastern Woodlands of North America, 1607-1763,” in Motherhood and War: International Perspectives.
“Servant or Slave?: South Carolina’s Inherited Labor Dilemma,” Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association.
“’The Time of Most Distress’: Plymouth Plantation’s Demographic Crisis,” The History of the Family.
“John Billington and Family: Doomed ‘Knave’ of Plymouth Plantation,” in The Human Tradition in the Atlantic World, 1500-1850.
“’Decrepit in Their Early Youth’: English Children in Holland and Plymouth Plantation,” in Children in Colonial America.
“Cross Cultural ‘Murther’ and Retribution in Colonial New England,” in Murder on Trial.