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The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery by John Chester Miller Review by: Holman Hamilton The American Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Jun., 1978), p. 803 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1862000 . Accessed: 25/06/2014 00:25 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Oxford University Press and American Historical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Historical Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.2.32.60 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 00:25:41 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slaveryby John Chester Miller

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Page 1: The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slaveryby John Chester Miller

The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery by John Chester MillerReview by: Holman HamiltonThe American Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Jun., 1978), p. 803Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1862000 .

Accessed: 25/06/2014 00:25

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Oxford University Press and American Historical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to The American Historical Review.

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Page 2: The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slaveryby John Chester Miller

United States 803

arranged chronologically, but each has a discrete focus. Starr's description of the problems of the establishment of government after 1763 and the early impact of the American Revolution provides good basic information for the more critical period that followed. Willing's raid receives careful atten- tion, reaffirming the conclusion that its effect was principally detrimental to the revolutionary cause among the Floridians. Subsequent chapters focus on the efforts of British officials to strengthen the military posture of the colony in the face of Span- ish attacks out of New Orleans, and the several phases of the conquest of West Florida by Gover- nor Bernardo de GAlvez. Finally, Starr analyzes the larger reasons for Spanish success and then concerns himself with the fate of British loyalists in West Florida after 1783.

His conclusion is that West Florida had little connection with the American Revolution because of isolation, the influence of royalist refugees, the lack of meaningful grievances against the mother country, the relatively large number of troops pres- ent in the colony, and the compelling factor of the war with Spain. He finds the most significant out- come of the entire course of events to have been the reacquisition of Florida by Spain, a nation too weak to resist subsequent American expansion.

The principal weakness of the book is its style. The writing is somewhat stiff, formalistic, and un- necessarily wordy. Redundancy is not uncommon. Quotations are used much too frequently; espe- cially brief excerpts which serve none of the func- tions which quotations normally provide. And one splendidly provocative sentence slipped through all the readings: "Following his death on March 2 I, I 779, Chester appointed a five-man commission to run the office of superintendent . . ." (p. 137).

For fairness of emphasis, however, allow me to repeat the original assessment. The study is thor- ough, competent, and workmanlike.

BERNARD E. BOBB

Washington State University

JOHN CHESTER MILLER. The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas 3efferson and Slavery. New York: The Free Press. I977. Pp. xii, 319. $I2-95-

Here is neither a stereotyped Jefferson nor a quasi- fictional creation. Here we meet the man of Mon- ticello and the thinking of that man as the evidence shows them to have been. John Chester Miller presents a discussion of Jefferson, slavery, and the Declaration of Independence, chapters on "Slavery and the Rights of Man," "Slavery and the Revolution in Virginia," and "Slavery and the Ordinance of I 784 "-with Jefferson 's name promi- nent in the discussions although absent from the titles. The latter generalization likewise applies to

most of the next fourteen chapters, from "Slavery and the Decline of 'Republican Virtue' " through "The Abolition of the Slave Trade."

Slightly beyond the halfway mark, we find a model summary of "Jefferson and James Call- ender: The Politics of Character Assassination." This is followed by "The Sally Hemings Story"; "Jefferson and Maria Cosway"; "Jefferson, Mrs. Walker, and the Freedom of the Press," and "Jef- ferson, John Marshall, and Slavery." The last fifty-nine pages guide the reader from "The Mis- souri Controversy" through "The Last Word from Monticello."

Among the points excellently developed are Jef- ferson's hatred of slavery; what he did-and what he did not do-to oppose the institution; the rela- tionships between ideas or ideals and action or negation in the Jefferson record, and his view of blacks as temporary residents on American soil. Removing blacks from the United States was clearly what Jefferson desired. But he "quailed" before the prospect of spending nearly a billion dollars for compensation, transportation, and re- settlement.

"We have the wolf by the ears," Jefferson de- clared in 1820, "and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self- preservation in the other." In I824, Jefferson "was prepared . . . to make his immediate objective the removal of black slave children." "The abolition of the evil [slavery] is not impossible," the octogena- rian said less than a year before his death. "It ought never therefore to be despaired of. Every plan should be adopted, every experiment tried, which may do something towards the ultimate object." Not only near the end but throughout the volume, Miller attempts to answer each pertinent "why" in addition to every "what" and "how". Thus things which Jefferson did or said are re- ported in context.

The book has a few typographical errors. The notes (in the back, and somewhat abbreviated) might have been improved on. And one wonders whether such offerings as "Price Hall" (p. 75) for Prince Hall and "Pee Wee" (p. 173) for Pee Pee (Ohio community of Madison Hemings) are in- deed to be blamed on typography. In the preface, Miller describes his analysis as "necessarily epi- sodic"; he may have been too self-critical, for "top- ical with chronological overtones" seems fairer. Still, no matter how one summarizes particulars of the Miller technique, emphasis should be placed upon its success. Balanced presentations of facts repeatedly are accompanied by discerning inter- pretations, accurately reflecting the author's judi- cious mind.

HOLMAN HAMILTON

University of Kentucky

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