Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause

Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase

Bibliographic Data

ID11676871
AuthorsJames E Lewis (0000-0002-2788-5043, corresponding author), James E Lewis Jr, Roger G Kennedy
Year2003
Volume23
Issue2
Pages283-283
Publication date2003-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Early Republic (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0275-1275 • E-ISSN: 1553-0620
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3125046
OpenAlexW2084094692
LanguageEN
Citations received8

Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and Louisiana Purchase. By Roger G. Kennedy. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. xiii, 350. Chronology, illustrations. Cloth, $30.00.)Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause shares both strengths and weaknesses of Roger G. Kennedy's other forays into history of early republic-Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study In Character (2000), Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization (1994); and Orders from France: The Americans and French in a Revolutionary World (1990). A swirl of environmental, intellectual, political, diplomatic, business, and social history, Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause is written in a style that is unmistakably Kennedy's own. Intended for both a popular and an academic audience, it will probably intrigue and infuriate each in its own way.What Kennedy does especially well in this book, as in all of his books, is to revisit a familiar story with an eye to hitherto unseen connections and forgotten characters. Accordingly, this book is as much about Creek nationalism, American expansionism, and British mercantilism as its ostensible topic: spread of plantation slavery and cotton agriculture across American South. Kennedy develops often-unexpected linkages between these-and other-developments, creating a rich web of stories. And he finds individuals who personify these linkages. may receive top-billing in this book, but Kennedy devotes nearly as much attention to self-proclaimed Creek chief Alexander McGillivray, powerful Indian trader William Panton, and minor American diplomat Fulwar Skipwith.But this book also suffers from same shortcomings as its predecessors. The organization is idiosyncratic, with author generally providing little advance warning of its many twists and turns. The citations are to what Kennedy describes, with joyous disdain for standard scholarly practice, as the most accessible source-generally partial quotations reproduced in monographs and articles rather than complete documents in microfilmed or published collections (307). As a result, many of his quotes lack context that would help to explain them. The book also is rife with basic factual errors. Kennedy discusses end of slavery in Delaware as something that occurred at turn of nineteenth century (54), refers to Federalist domination of Congress in 1783 (65), and suggests that was angling for presidency in 1785 (75). And, even though all of his quotes on subject come from early 1804, Kennedy dates Hillhouse debates over slavery in Louisiana to 1805-06 (210-13). Most distressingly, Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause displays Kennedy's tendency to dismiss any evidence that contradicts his own view. The moralizing is heavy-handed, and any mitigating circumstances that rescue its targets from opprobrium are either heavily discounted or entirely ignored.Kennedy directs his anger at Jefferson, blaming him for spread of slavery and, ultimately, for Civil War. According to Kennedy, the most important choices made by any single statesman for future of South arose from preferences, prejudices, and policies of Thomas Jefferson (236). Different outcomes in various contests over expansion of slavery in opening decades of nineteenth century, he argues, might have

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