An American business journalist, statistician, and protectionist, James Dunwoody Brownson De Bow (1820-1867) was a proslavery propagandist for Southern sectionalism.

James D. B. De Bow, who was born in Charleston, S.C., on July 20, 1820, became an almost penniless orphan on the death of his father, a once prosperous merchant. After limited schooling and severe privations, he saved enough to enter the College of Charleston, graduating as valedictorian in 1843. Unsuccessful as a lawyer, he took up journalism in an effort to supplement his income. He contributed political and philosophical articles to the Southern Quarterly Review and became its editor in 1845.

De Bow was also actively involved in the campaign to promote Southern economic development, and at the 1845 commercial convention in Memphis he was a delegate and secretary for South Carolina. To further the cause of Southern commerce, he founded the Commercial Review of the South and Southwest, based in...