Jefferson's Faulty Math
The Question of Slave Defections in the American Revolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4886485 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cassandra Pybus (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 243 |
| Publication date | 2005-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3491601 |
| OpenAlex | W1994127003 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
In London in April 1786, Thomas Jefferson found himself in theawkward position of negotiating with British merchants to whom heowed a great deal of money. On more than one occasion, Jeffersonexcused his incapacity to pay by claiming that General Charles Cornwallishad carried off thirty of his slaves, "the useless and barbarous injury he didme in that instance was more than would have paid your debt, principaland interest." Writing from Paris to a putative historian of the Revolution,Jefferson 'amplified this claim, saying Cornwallis "carried off also about30. slaves: had this been to give them freedom be would have done right,but it was to consign them to inevitable death from the small pox andputrid fever then raging in his camp. This I knew afterwards to have beenthe fate of 27. of them ... I supposed the state of Virginia lost under Ld.Cornwallis's hands that year about 30,000 slaves, and that of these about27,000 died of the small pox and camp fever." When he was Secretary ofState, Jefferson took the part of his fellow Virginians to argue they shouldnot be obliged to pay their debts because the British made the first infractionof the Paris Peace Treaty by refusing to return their runaway slaves.Virginia, the state that had incurred the greatest debt, also had incurredthe greatest loss, he reasoned
Political science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,35 |
| Citation span | 2006 - 2026 (21) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |