Summary Of Negro President: Jefferson And The Slave Power By Gary Wills

Through history Thomas Jefferson has always be shown as a national hero in his efforts to help create American during its early stages after the Revolutionary War. While this strong and beloved vision of Jefferson has been written down in textbooks for centuries, Jefferson to had a dark and negative side that is sometimes forgotten. In Gary Wills novel Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power displays the dark submissive side of Jefferson that few choose to focus on. Wills criticizes the historians as they fail to show the “slave power” that the South and its slaveholders influenced during Jefferson's time. Ultimately, Wills main focus in his novel is how slavery in America during 1790-1848 affected America as a nation, but its own leaders

Once started, the book is organized in a way that it gives readers a solid understanding of this clause and how it allowed Jefferson to beat out Adams for presidency. Wills mentions repeatedly that Jefferson came to power “on the backs of Negro Slaves”. Perhaps the one element that sets Wills’ book apart from other authors that bash Jefferson is his interesting take on the conflicts between Jefferson and Timothy Pickering. Pickering, though rarely even mentioned in U.S history, was one of Jefferson’s main opposers and obstacles in Jefferson’s battle to keep and extend slavery. Pickering labeled the new president “Negro President” do to the fact that Jefferson had relied on the “slave power” votes as Wills put it, “if real votes alone had been counted, Adams would have been returned to office”. This book must be read with an open mind as some of these facts may seem unimportant at first but become much more valuable as the audience reads

Though Wills undeniably does an excellent job recounting the never ending problems of Jefferson throughout the novel, his organization and jumping of one idea to the next leave much to desire. This jumping of one subject to the other might be in place to keep the reader alert and interested, it causes for a jumble of topics that at some points make it hard to grasp the main concepts. Another flaw of Wills is not so much of the ideas but of the direct quotes from his sources that at so points in the book can confuse readers with it wide vocabulary usage. His intricate quotations help not only in supporting his ideas but allow a small challenge to be undertaken. Wills’ uses an exceedingly varied group of sources that strengthen the credibility of his book as it helps reiterate his main arguments. His use of books, newspapers, historical documents, and other sources raise his credibility as well. The notes placed at the back of the novel help readers gain more background knowledge and the index allows the audience to have a convenient and fastly accessible list of the important sources and topic expressed in the novel. It provides further historical context on events displayed and documents