Author: Wills, Garry
Title: Negro President : Jefferson and the Slave Power
Description: Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2003. First printing. Hardcover. 274pp. 22 cm. very good condition/very good d.j. Wills looks 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.

Keywords: Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826--Relations with African Americans; Pickering, Timothy, 1745-1829--Political and Social Views; Presidents--United States--Biography; Slavery--Political Aspects--United States--History; United States--Politics and Government--17


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