Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power

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Summary: Not about Jefferson but America
Review: Critics of this work that carp about small points concerning Jefferson miss the point entirely. The book is a useful corrective that puts slavery ands its preservation front and center in early US history. Too often, early American history barely mentions slavery until is suddenly surfaces to split the country. It was often the only issue that mattered. An abolitionist could not get elected in the Slave states, no matter what other stands they took. They would be lucky to get out alive, since many were beaten, jailed and lynched. The Free states, while solidly prejudiced, stoutly opposed the spread of slavery and the plantation system. The constant push of Slave states to spread slavery to new territories and the resistance of the Free states is the story of America from 1770 to 1865. Thanks to Wills for reminding us of that.

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Summary: Did Freedom's Champion Have A Moral Blind Spot?
Review: Garry Wills reminds us at the beginning of this book that he's previously written two volumes that praised aspects of Jefferson's life and work. He insists he's still an admirer of Jefferson, though he concedes readers may differ with that claim after they finish this book. The reason? In these chapters, Wills lays out a persuasive case that Jefferson's presidency was largely shaped by the "slave power"--the constitutional provision requiring that each slave be counted as three-fifths of a person in determining congressional representation.

Without the "slave power," Jefferson would have never won the presidency in 1800. Wills examines how Jefferson's determination to preserve and extend the rule of the slave states drove many of his most important decisions. The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory was seen as an opportunity to add more slave territory to the emerging nation. The embargo, one of Jefferson's most controversial acts, seems to make more sense when considered in the light of its positive benefits for the agrarian south and negative impacts on the commerce of the northern states. Even the selection of the site for the nation's capitol, Wills argues, was heavily influenced by the slaveholder's desire for a setting where their values and way of life would be embraced instead of shunned.

Jefferson's questionable political and moral decisions were not made without opposition. Wills sheds the spotlight on, and helps to rehabilitate Timothy Pickering, secretary of war under Washington, secretary of state under Adams, and consistent critic of Jefferson during his years in congress. After Pickering passed from the scene, John Quincy Adams emerged as the chief moral spokesman against the influence of slavery.

To dismiss this book as mere Jefferson-bashing would be facile. As Wills himself notes, though Jefferson devoted much energy to preserving the slave power, he was not the worst offender in this regard; and he did not argue, like some, that slavery itself was benign. Rather, he says, "Jefferson belonged to that large class of southerners--including the best of them, men like Washington and Madison--who knew that slavery was evil, but felt they could not cut back on the evil without cutting the ground out from under them."

What Wills is asking us to do, I believe, is to set aside our prejudices, pro and con, and re-examine this nation's formative years in the harsh but honest light of how they were corrupted by slavery; and how even today, we are paying the price for the immoral bargains that men of good faith and character believed they were required to make.

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Summary: Good Addition to Wills Canon
Review: Garry Wills returns again to Thomas Jefferson, sort of. The title of the book is "Negro President", Jefferson and the Slave Power, but that can be somewhat misleading. The historical personage who sits front and centre in this discussion of the slave power is New England's own Timothy Pickering. The author provides a different take on this often maligned character. It is shown how Pickering doggedly fought againt the 3/5 federal ratio that allowed the Southern slave states to count their slaves (partially) in order to increase their place in the houses and, in the case of Jefferson, help elect a President of the United States. Jefferson's role in this extension of slave power is examined. Particularly enlightening is a new look at the selection of Washington as the site of the new capital. When focused must directly on these aspects, the book is strongest. The text does, on occasion, wander a little farther afield though. The sections on John Quincy Adams feel undeveloped in an appendix sort of fashion, although interesting in their own right. It is nice to see a reexamination of Pickering, particularly as a way to view Jefferson in a fresher light.

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Summary: The truth at last - thank you, Gary Wills
Review: Gary Wills has done a great service to the search for truth in American history. Thomas Jefferson's involvement in the slavery issue has recently been trapped in the dull and irrelevant arguement concerning whether TJ romped with his slave girls or not (practically all slave owners did, it was one of the perks of the institution that Jeff and his fellows loved so much.) What has been obscured was that Jefferson was the architect of the monstrous defense of slavery, disquised as states rights, which Calhoun and the others used to justify succession. One of the tired excuses always marched out in defense of Jefferson is that he was a man of his times, everyone owned slaves, we can't judge him by our standards, blah, blah, blah. By putting the brave and noble abolitionist Thomas Pickering center stage, Wills has given a human face to the struggle against one of history's terrible abominations. We Americans will never really have a mature understanding of our history until we stop idolizing the defenders of slavery (Jefferson, Lee etc.) and begin celebrating the brave men and women who oppossed it from day one. Thank you, Gary Wills. What a wonderful step in the right direction.

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Summary: Performing a Service by Stimulating Debate
Review: Gary Wills once more reveals himself as an author of courage who explores controversial issues with a microscopic eye. This time he has the author of America's Declaration of Independence and the nation's third president, Thomas Jefferson, in his analytical sights.

Despite being an admirer of Jefferson's and much of what he stood for, Wills also realizes that he was, as a member of the Southern aristocracy, standing in the middle of the fledgling nation's major controversy, which would ultimately rock America to its foundations, that of slavery. While Americans who have studied the history of the nation's early years were aware of the highly controversial three-fifths rule, the service Wills performs in this book is to analyze Jefferson's role in the ongoing debate concerning it and deduce that he was able to become presidency on the strength of a rule that was seen as a compromise between the north and the south on the subject of slavery.

Wills sees Jefferson as a "Negro president" in that he was the beneficiary of the controversial rule, achieving the presidency as a result of its application. By having large numbers of slaves counted as three-fifths of a person this segment made it possible for Jefferson to achieve the presidency. With so many slaves located in states where Jefferson had strength, the three-fifths rule provided a rocket thrust which made the difference in the election of 1800. The tragic irony is that fictitious votes of individuals who were not even considered persons in the legal sense, and had no right to vote, made the difference. Slavery ended up serving as a gigantic bonus, providing an electoral boost.

This is a debate that is certain to continue, and Wills deserves praise for setting it into motion. In order to know about ourselves as a people we must tackle all questions, no matter how tough or unpleasant.

Another point Wills covers is that Jefferson's founding of the University of Virginia, which he considered his proudest accomplishment, was also tied strongly to the ongoing slavery debate between the south and the north. Wills asserts that Jefferson wanted a university in his own state of Virginia to serve as a counter balance to strong anti-slavery sentiments at institutions of learning in the north such as Yale and Harvard.

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Summary: The Tragedy of the Three-Fifths Compromise
Review: While Wills begins this book by saying that he does not want to disparage Thomas Jefferson or cause people not to admire him, it was impossible not to see him and other Southern presidents like James Madison and James Monroe in a more tarnished light after finishing the book. NEGRO PRESIDENT presents a much clearer picture of how the Three-Fifths Compromise continued the appalling practice of slavery in this country and led the United States inevitably toward the Civil War. Readers learn, too, of the unsung hero of the anti-slavery movement, Thomas Pickering, whose death seems to have finally transformed John Quincy Adams into an unflinching opponent of slavery towards the end of his career. This is a very interesting book that everyone should read. There should be more done to counter the mythology of slavery and the South that has developed in this country since the end of Reconstruction. It's good to know that the Founding Fathers were not "supermen." They were simply the same flawed people that we all are.