![Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/569/299/9780374299569.ME.0.m.jpg)
![Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/569/299/9780374299569.ME.0.m.jpg)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves
by Wiencek, Henry
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Like New/Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0374299560
- ISBN 13
- 9780374299569
- Seller
-
New Castle, Colorado, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Farrar Straus Giroux, 2012. Hardcover. Like New/Fine. 6x1x9. Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Master of the Mountain, Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive bookâbased on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papersâopens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money.So far, historians have offered only easy irony or paradox to explain this extraordinary Founding Father who was an emancipationist in his youth and then recoiled from his own inspiring rhetoric and equivocated about slavery; who enjoyed his renown as a revolutionary leader yet kept some of his own children as slaves. But Wiencek's Jefferson is a man of business and public affairs who makes a success of his debt-ridden plantation thanks to what he calls the "silent profits" gained from his slavesâand thanks to a skewed moral universe that he and thousands of others readily inhabited. We see Jefferson taking out a slave-equity line of credit with a Dutch bank to finance the building of Monticello and deftly creating smoke screens when visitors are dismayed by his apparent endorsement of a system they thought he'd vowed to overturn. It is not a pretty story. Slave boys are whipped to make them work in the nail factory at Monticello that pays Jefferson's grocery bills. Parents are divided from childrenâin his ledgers they are recast as moneyâwhile he composes theories that obscure the dynamics of what some of his friends call "a vile commerce."Many people of Jefferson's time saw a catastrophe coming and tried to stop it, but not Jefferson. The pursuit of happiness had been badly distorted, and an oligarchy was getting very rich. Is this the quintessential American story?
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Michael Patrick McCarty, Bookseller
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- SKU2010027564
- Title
- Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves
- Author
- Wiencek, Henry
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- New
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 0374299560
- ISBN 13
- 9780374299569
- Publisher
- Farrar Straus Giroux
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2012
- Size
- 6x1x9
- X weight
- 20 oz
Terms of Sale
Michael Patrick McCarty, Bookseller
All books sent media mail unless otherwise requested. International shipping at cost (please ask for shipping quote). All items returnable if not as described. Please notify us immediately with any problems.
About the Seller
Michael Patrick McCarty, Bookseller
Biblio member since 2005
New Castle, Colorado
About Michael Patrick McCarty, Bookseller
Buy with confidence! We have been full time booksellers for over 25 years.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...