In “ Negro President” the Pulitzer Prize– winning historian Garry Wills explores a pivotal moment in American history through the lens of Thomas Jefferson and the now largely forgotten Timothy Pickering, and “ prods readers to appreciate essential aspects of our distressed but well-intentioned representative democracy” (Chicago Tribune).
In 1800 Jefferson won the presidential election with Electoral College votes derived from the three-fifths representation of slaves — slaves who could not vote but were still partially counted as citizens. Moving beyond the recent revisionist debate over Jefferson’ s own slaves and his relationship with Sally Hemings, Wills instead probes the heart of Jefferson’ s presidency and political life, revealing how the might of the slave states remained a concern behind his most important policies and decisions.
In an eye-opening, ingeniously argued exposé , Wills restores Timothy Pickering and the Federalists’ dramatic struggle to our understanding of Jefferson, the creation of the new nation, and the evolution of our representative democracy.
“ Garry Wills is a thinker of first rate. He combines the vigor of the social critic with the depth of the historian, and to these he adds the even rarer gifts of the philosopher. ” — New Republic
“ A thorough political analysis of another founding father’ s involvement in slavery. ” — San Francisco Chronicle
Garry Wills, a distinguished historian and critic, is the author of numerous books, including the Pulitzer Prize– winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Saint Augustine, the best-selling Why I Am a Catholic, and Henry Adams and the Making of America.
