Thomas Jefferson is admired for his elegant prose in the Declaration of Independence, but he was a world-class hypocrite.
While this letter has been published, and we cannot claim to have “found” it this year, in honor of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday — April 13th — we offer the text of this remarkable letter to Peter Carr, from Paris, dated August 10, 1787, which resides in our collections. Dear Peter, — I have received your two …
A library is an essential foundation of a healthy community. In the early days of founding America, books and libraries were crucial...
When early settlers migrated westward to establish themselves in North America, they introduced various elements to the world around them.
Abigail Adams was certainly an accomplished woman. An Englishman who visited her and her husband John Adams in Massachusetts told her she was "the most
About this product Product Identifiers Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company ISBN-10 0618343989 ISBN-13 9780618343980 eBay Product ID (ePID) 30285704 Product Key Features Book Title Negro President : Jefferson and the Slave Power Number of Pages 288 Pages Language English Topic United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), Presidents & Heads of State, United States / General, Historical Publication Year 2003 Illustrator Yes Genre Biography & Autobiography, History Author Garry Wills Format Hardcover Dimensions Item Height 0.8 in Item Weight 16.7 Oz Item Length 8.2 in Item Width 5.5 in Additional Product Features Intended Audience Trade LCCN 2003-056710 Reviews "An eye-opening, carefully argued expose of . . . one of the big sleeper issues in American political history." Kirkus Reviews, An eye-opening, carefully argued expose of . . . one of the big sleeper issues in American political history. Dewey Edition 22 Dewey Decimal 326.0973 Table Of Content Contents Key to Brief Citations xi Prologue: Coming to Terms with Jefferson xii Introduction: The Three-Fifths Clause 1 I. Before 1800 15 1. Pickering vs. Jefferson: The Northwest 18 2. Pickering vs. Jefferson: Toussaint 33 II. "Second Revolution" 47 3. 1800:Why Were Slaves Counted? 50 4. 1800: The Negro-Burr Election 62 5. 1801: Jefferson or Burr? 73 6. 1801 Aftermath: Turning Out the Federalists 90 III. Pickering in Congress 103 7. 1803: The Twelfth Amendment 106 8. 1803: Louisiana 114 9. 1804: Pickering and Burr 127 10. 18041805: Impeachments 140 11. 1808: Embargo 147 12. 1808: Pickering and Governor Sullivan 159 13. 1808: Pickering and J. Q. Adams 171 14. 18091815: Pickering and Madison 182 IV. The Pickering Legacy 195 15. J. Q. Adams: The Federal (Slave) District 200 16. J. Q. Adams: Petition Battles 214 Epilogue: Farewell to Pickering 226 Notes 233 Acknowledgments 259 Index 260 Synopsis In "Negro President," the best-selling historian Garry Wills explores a controversial and neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's presidency: it was achieved by virtue of slave "representation," and conducted to preserve that advantage. Wills goes far beyond the recent revisionist debate over Jefferson's own slaves and his relationship with Sally Heming to look at the political relationship between the president and slavery. Jefferson won the election of 1800 with Electoral College votes derived from the three-fifths representation of slaves, who could not vote but who were partially counted as citizens. That count was known as "the slave power" granted to southern states, and it made some Federalists call Jefferson the Negro President -- one elected only by the slave count's margin. Probing the heart of Jefferson's presidency, Wills reveals how the might of the slave states was a concern behind Jefferson's most important decisions and policies, including his strategy to expand the nation west. But the president met with resistance: Timothy Pickering, now largely forgotten, was elected to Congress to wage a fight against Jefferson and the institutions that supported him. Wills restores Pickering and his allies' dramatic struggle to our understanding of Jefferson and thecreation of the new nation. In "Negro President," Wills offers a bold rethinking of one of American history's greatest icons. LC Classification Number E332.2.W57 2003 Show More Show Less
