The Wolf by the Ears - Thomas Jefferson and Slavery (Paperback, New edition)

This examination of Jefferson's political and personal views of slavery finds him an increasing defender of the system's expansion after his efforts in the 1780s to ban it from the western territories. As president, he "opened up a new world" for chattel holders by allowing them to move into the new Louisiana Purchase for economic reasons; and as of 1819-21, Miller writes, he became an "ardent exponent" of the spread of slavery to Missouri and elsewhere. Jefferson never abandoned his belief that the institution was degrading to whites; his preference for the deportation of blacks, or his fear that to let "the wolf" go through abolition would result in interracial war. In practical terms, this meant that he became enmired in defense of a plantation economy that had to encroach on new land to survive. This predicament has already been described with somewhat more explanatory force by Robert McColley in Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia (1964); what Miller adds is scrutiny of Jefferson's alleged liaison with his quadroon slave Sally Hemings, a half-sister of his deceased wife. Partly from a horrified disbelief that Jefferson would "cross the color line," and partly because the originator of the story was a wholly disreputable British journalist, Miller thinks that the affair never occurred, either as the love match depicted in Fawn Brodie's Jefferson: An Intimate History (1974) or as an exploitative relationship. Jefferson's romantic friendships with other - usually married - women are also surveyed and found innocuous. An inconclusive restatement of a saddening story. (Kirkus Reviews)

The Wolf by the Ears is a book-length treatment of Thomas Jefferson's attitudes toward slavery. Through a close examination of Jefferson's personality and the influences of his social and political environment, John Chester Miller provides clear, well-reasoned answers to such plaguing questions as: Why Jefferson did not play a more forceful role in the antislavery movement? To what extent was the Declaration of Independence intended to serve as a charter of freedom for the slaves? Why did he couple the emancipation of slaves with the removal of the black population from the United States? Why did he insist upon measuring the intelligence of illiterate, disadvantaged black slaves by criteria applicable to free white Americans? And foremost, why did Jefferson remain a slaveholder throughout his lifetime and even fail to direct that his slaves be freed after his death?

General

Imprint:	University of Virginia Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	November 1991
First published:	November 1991
Authors:	John Chester Miller
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	336
Edition:	New edition
ISBN-13:	978-0-8139-1365-0
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > 1750 to 1900 Books > Humanities > History > American history > General Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Slavery & emancipation Books > History > American history > General Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
LSN:	0-8139-1365-9
Barcode:	9780813913650

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