Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power

0/5 ( ratings)

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 the creation of the new nation.

In "Negro President," Wills offers a bold rethinking of one of American history's greatest icons.

Language: English

Format: Hardcover

Release: January 01, 2003

ISBN 13: 9780786261192

Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power

0/5 ( ratings)

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 the creation of the new nation.

In "Negro President," Wills offers a bold rethinking of one of American history's greatest icons.

Language: English

Format: Hardcover

Release: January 01, 2003

ISBN 13: 9780786261192

More books from Garry Wills

James Madison

3.8/5 ( ratings)

What Paul Meant

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Scoundrel Time

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Why I Am a Catholic

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Saint Augustine

3.5/5 ( ratings)

What the Gospels Meant

3.8/5 ( ratings)

What the Qur'an Meant: And Why It Matters

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Christian Science

3.5/5 ( ratings)

The Soul of Politics: Beyond "Religious Right" and "Secular Left"

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Under God

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Martial's Epigrams: A Selection

3.7/5 ( ratings)

A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Under God: Religion and American Politics

2.4/5 ( ratings)

Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence

Jack Ruby

Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence

4.3/5 ( ratings)

A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government

Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence

Rate this book!

Write a review?