Jefferson’s Wolf: A Founding Father’s Troubling Answer to the Problem of Slavery

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) condemned the enslavement of people as incompatible with the American nation, yet he enslaved more than 600 people, owned two plantations encompassing thousands of acres, and fathered four children with an enslaved woman. In this highly readable and well-researched account, Dierksheide (history, Univ. of Virginia; Beyond Jefferson) and Guyatt (history, Univ. of Cambridge; The Hated Cage) argue that Jefferson opposed the practice not on egalitarian grounds but because he was concerned that a revolt from enslaved people would endanger white Americans. At various points, he advocated for gradual manumission and for abolishing the Atlantic trade of enslaved people. These plans depended on the exclusion and mass resettlement of Black people to other countries or continents, such as Haiti or Africa. Jefferson believed that the United States would only be recognized by world powers if it was considered a white republic; the country’s sizable Black population could prevent it from taking its rightful place alongside other European nations. Based on extensive primary research, Jefferson’s opposition to enslavement must be viewed alongside his continuous support for Black exclusion and resettlement.