Rethinking Thomas Jeffersons Writings On Slavery And Race

Revisionism has been the historical vogue for well over two decades concerning Jeffersonian scholarship. This movement has been an attempt to neutralize the avowed “hagiographical” scholarship on Jefferson by aiming to offer an all-too-human Thomas Jefferson. The regrettable result has been a depiction, iterated and reiterated uncritically by scholars, of a less-than-human Jefferson, presenting him as an inveterate hypocrite and racist. Thus, Jeffersonian scholarship, as argued here, has become an exercise in useless, fatuous repetition of the same claims that has impeded attempts by serious scholars to gain fresh insights into the mind of one of the greatest Americans. This book offers a stimulating, provocative challenge to the stale revisionist claims on Jefferson concerning his hypocrisy and racism. It will appeal to mavens of Jefferson, as well as scholars intent on moving forward with Jeffersonian scholarship. The book will also appeal to those persons who believe it is time to resituate Jefferson on his little mountain.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Fachbereich Angewandte Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft in Germersheim), course: ‘Democratic Vistas’ in American Cultural History, language: English, abstract: Thomas Jefferson can be considered as one of the most important Presidents of the United States of America. He was born in 1743 in Virginia and after having been enrolled in The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, he started his political career at the end of the 1760s. In 1769, Jefferson was elected as a legislator. In 1775, he was one of the delegates at the second Continental Congress. Four years later, Jefferson became Governor of Virginia. In 1797, he was elected Vice-President and in 1801, he finally became the third President of the United States of America (Dumbauld XI-XVI). Jefferson was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He lived during the time of revolution and American efforts to reach independence from Great Britain and to establish democracy in the United States. During his life, he published many writings on democracy, liberty, and equality. “The central feature of Jefferson’s political creed was his concern for human freedom.” (qtd. in Dumbauld IX). In 1774, he wrote his first published work A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Two years later, he became famous for writing the main part of the Declaration of Independence. Furthermore, he published the book Notes on the State of Virginia and during his presidency, his First Inaugural Address was very important. In all these writings, Jefferson emphasized democracy, liberty and equality, but he had many problems realizing his concepts, especially with regard to slavery, which became a fundamental problem for Jefferson and in the United States of America in general. In the following work, Jefferson’s above mentioned writings will be analyzed with regard to slavery and the inconsistency in his writings about the issue of slavery will be demonstrated. Furthermore, his personal behavior towards bondage will be presented by analyzing some family letters.

In this groundbreaking work, Cara Rogers Stevens examines the fascinating life of Thomas Jefferson’s book, Notes on the State of Virginia, from its innocuous composition in the early 1780s to its use as a political weapon by both pro- and antislavery forces in the early nineteenth century. Initially written as a brief statistical introduction to Virginia for French readers, Jefferson’s book evolved to become his comprehensive statement on almost all facets of the state’s natural and political realms. As part of an antislavery education strategy, Jefferson also decided to include a treatise on the nature of racial difference, as well as a manifesto on the corrupting power of slavery in a republic and a plan for emancipation and colonization. In consequence, his book—for better or worse—defined the boundaries of future debates over the place of African-descended people in American society. Although historians have rightly criticized Jefferson for his racism and failure to free his own slaves, his antislavery intentions for the Notes have received only cursory notice, partly because the original manuscript was not available for detailed examination until recently. By analyzing Jefferson’s complex revision process, Thomas Jefferson and the Fight against Slavery traces the evolution of Jefferson’s views on race and slavery as he considered how best to persuade younger slaveholders to embrace emancipation. Rogers Stevens then moves beyond Jefferson to examine contemporary responses to the Notes from white and black intellectuals and politicians, concluding with an attempt by Jefferson’s grandson to implement elements of the Notes’s emancipation plan during Virginia’s 1831–1832 slavery debates.

Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Master of the Mountain, Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book—based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers—opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money. So far, historians have offered only easy irony or paradox to explain this extraordinary Founding Father who was an emancipationist in his youth and then recoiled from his own inspiring rhetoric and equivocated about slavery; who enjoyed his renown as a revolutionary leader yet kept some of his own children as slaves. But Wiencek's Jefferson is a man of business and public affairs who makes a success of his debt-ridden plantation thanks to what he calls the "silent profits" gained from his slaves—and thanks to a skewed moral universe that he and thousands of others readily inhabited. We see Jefferson taking out a slave-equity line of credit with a Dutch bank to finance the building of Monticello and deftly creating smoke screens when visitors are dismayed by his apparent endorsement of a system they thought he'd vowed to overturn. It is not a pretty story. Slave boys are whipped to make them work in the nail factory at Monticello that pays Jefferson's grocery bills. Parents are divided from children—in his ledgers they are recast as money—while he composes theories that obscure the dynamics of what some of his friends call "a vile commerce." Many people of Jefferson's time saw a catastrophe coming and tried to stop it, but not Jefferson. The pursuit of happiness had been badly distorted, and an oligarchy was getting very rich. Is this the quintessential American story?

"In this groundbreaking work, Cara Rogers examines the fascinating early life of Thomas Jefferson's book, Notes on the State of Virginia, from its innocuous composition in the early 1780s to its appropriation as a political weapon by both pro- and antislavery forces in the early nineteenth century. Initially written as a statistical introduction to Virginia for French readers, Jefferson's book evolved into an intellectual tour de force that covered almost all facets of the state's natural and political realms. As part of an antislavery education strategy, Jefferson also decided to include a treatise on the nature of racial difference, as well as a manifesto on the corrupting power of slavery in a republic and a plan for emancipation and colonization. In consequence, his book--for better or worse--defined the boundaries of future debates over the place of Black people in American society. Although historians have rightly criticized Jefferson for his racism and failure to free his own slaves, his antislavery intentions for the Notes have received only cursory notice, partly because the original manuscript was not available for detailed examination until recently. By analyzing Jefferson's complex revision process, this book traces the ways his views on race and slavery evolved as he considered how best to persuade younger slaveholders to embrace emancipation. It then moves beyond Jefferson to examine contemporary responses to the Notes from white and Black intellectuals and politicians, concluding with an attempt by Jefferson's grandson to implement elements of the Notes's emancipation plan during Virginia's 1831-1832 slavery debates"--

Jefferson's moral and political thought are more complex than they appear at first glance, consisting of two Jeffersons, and evolving from a natural law, universal Enlightenment ethos to a more cultural relativist perspective. RIGHTFUL LIBERTY explores themes and events overlooked by other Jefferson experts, such as his response to the English abolitionist Thomas Branagan; the formative influence of Montesquieu on the young Jefferson's opposition to slavery; a comparison of his attitudes to slavery and abolition with those of Edward Coles; his relationships with Black slaves and freedmen other than those of the well-known Hemings family; and a more nuanced perspective on his view of the Missouri Compromises of 1820 and 1821 than is found elsewhere. As speculations about Jefferson's personal life, often based on little evidence prevail, this volume examines him from a more wide-ranging perspective, discerning his moral, political, and religious thought in relation to his actions.

The Transformation of Thomas Jefferson: The Dilemma of Slavery A Speculative FictionThomas Jefferson spoke out against slavery in no uncertain terms. He considered it contrary to the laws of nature that decreed everyone had a right to personal liberty. He called the institution an "abominable crime," an “assemblage of horrors,” a "moral depravity," a "hideous blot," and a "fatal stain." Early in his political career Jefferson took actions that he hoped would end in slavery's abolition. In his 1776 draft of Virginia Constitution he wrote "No person hereafter coming into this country shall be held within the same in slavery under any pretext whatever.” He further advocated a plan of gradual emancipation, by which all born into slavery after a certain date would be declared free. In 1784 he proposed an ordinance banning slavery in the new territories of the Northwest. This act in itself could have set the precedent for all future territories but it failed to pass in Congress by one single vote. If Jefferson had died in 1785, he would be remembered as an antislavery hero, as one of the first pivotal figures to advocate specific measures for eradicating slavery. After that time, however, Jefferson made no public statements on American slavery nor did he take any significant public action to change the course of his state or his nation – or of his own slavery dependant lifestyle.Countless articles and scores of books have been written trying to explain the inconsistencies between Jefferson's words and actions in regard to slavery. We know that during his 83 years he took no action that altered the institution. Yet one cannot help but wonder - what if? What if the great man had altered the course of his life? What if Thomas Jefferson had become an advocate for the free men and women of color who populated the southern states in the first quarter of the nineteenth century? What if he had first-hand knowledge of the accomplishments and economic successes of scores of free blacks? What if the race of people whose intelligence and ambition he had questioned were shown in successful commercial enterprises in existing free black communities? What if a person he highly respected had influenced Jefferson to become involved with advocacy for these free people of color, and further demonstrated viable plans for eradicating slavery itself? Might the course of history have been changed if the spirit of Jefferson's most famous words, “all men are created equal” had been transformed into sponsorship and action? Could the aura and influence of a transformed Jefferson be persuasive enough to influence the nation's other nineteenth century leaders? Could solutions be found to impact the divergent views and animosities of northern abolitionists and southern apologists? Ultimately, could a path toward the demise of slavery become a reality during Jefferson's lifetime? And could such efforts preclude the inevitability of a cataclysmic civil war?Of course, a story based on these “what ifs” is but speculative fiction. And as a work of fiction what is its intent? Is it a reaction to 21st century critique that lowers the pedestals of founding fathers who are seen as hypocrites for their ownership of slaves? Is there an attempt to gloss over the tragedy and inhumanity of slavery in order to justify monuments made to mere mortals? Or does the fiction create an appreciation for the rhythms and realities of the19th century? If the book is compelling enough to cause the reader pause in considering any of these questions, it will meet its intended purpose.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER Following Thomas Jefferson from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to his retirement in Monticello, Joseph J. Ellis unravels the contradictions of the Jeffersonian character. He gives us the slaveholding libertarian who was capable of decrying mescegenation while maintaing an intimate relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings; the enemy of government power who exercisdd it audaciously as president; the visionarty who remained curiously blind to the inconsistencies in his nature. American Sphinx is a marvel of scholarship, a delight to read, and an essential gloss on the Jeffersonian legacy.