Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana PurchaseOxford University Press, 6. 3. 2003 - Počet stran: 376 Thomas Jefferson advocated a republic of small farmers--free and independent yeomen. And yet as president he presided over a massive expansion of the slaveholding plantation system, particularly with the Louisiana Purchase, squeezing the yeomanry to the fringes and to less desirable farmland. Now Roger G. Kennedy conducts an eye-opening examination of the gap between Jefferson's stated aspirations and what actually happened. Kennedy reveals how the Louisiana Purchase had a major impact on land use and the growth of slavery. He examines the great financial interests (such as the powerful land companies that speculated in new territories and the British textile interests) that beat down slavery's many opponents in the South itself (Native Americans, African Americans, Appalachian farmers, and conscientious opponents of slavery). He describes how slaveholders' cash crops--first tobacco, then cotton--sickened the soil and how the planters moved from one desolated tract to the next. Soon the dominant culture of the entire region--from Maryland to Florida, from Carolina to Texas--was that of owners and slaves producing staple crops for international markets. The earth itself was impoverished, in many places beyond redemption. None of this, Kennedy argues, was inevitable. He focuses on the character, ideas, and ambitions of Thomas Jefferson to show how he and other Southerners struggled with the moral dilemmas presented by the presence of Indian farmers on land they coveted, by the enslavement of their workforce, by the betrayal of their stated hopes, and by the manifest damage being done to the earth itself. Jefferson emerges as a tragic figure in a tragic period. Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause was a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2003. |
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... —Political aspects—United States—History. I. Title. E333.K46 2003 973.4'6'092—dc21 2002027402 1 3 57 9 8 64 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Once again, for Frances This page intentionally left blank Contents.
... —Political aspects—United States—History. I. Title. E333.K46 2003 973.4'6'092—dc21 2002027402 1 3 57 9 8 64 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Once again, for Frances This page intentionally left blank Contents.
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Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase Roger G. Kennedy. Once again, for Frances This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments, xi Chronology, xiii.
Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase Roger G. Kennedy. Once again, for Frances This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments, xi Chronology, xiii.
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... Once again, India Cooper demonstrated that copy editors may have minds of their own—fine minds, richly furnished with learning. I am indebted to librarians at the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Laboratory of ...
... Once again, India Cooper demonstrated that copy editors may have minds of their own—fine minds, richly furnished with learning. I am indebted to librarians at the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Laboratory of ...
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... once took a wager to do so and regretted his affront for the rest of his life.)3 Jefferson and Washington were the sons of two famous athletes, even larger men than they. Augustus Washington was known as “a blond giant”; Peter Jefferson ...
... once took a wager to do so and regretted his affront for the rest of his life.)3 Jefferson and Washington were the sons of two famous athletes, even larger men than they. Augustus Washington was known as “a blond giant”; Peter Jefferson ...
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... Once outside, wrote Locke, they were set to make the best use they could of a world God “hath given . . . to men in common . . . to make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience ... to appropriate ... some way or other ...
... Once outside, wrote Locke, they were set to make the best use they could of a world God “hath given . . . to men in common . . . to make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience ... to appropriate ... some way or other ...
Obsah
1 | |
The Invisible Empire and the Land | 85 |
Resistance to the Plantation System | 115 |
Acknowledgments | 169 |
EPILOGUE | 235 |
APPENDIX | 245 |
Notes | 262 |
Bibliographic Note | 307 |
Bibliography | 312 |
Index | 336 |
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