Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves [Hardcover]

Henry Wiencek (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 16, 2012

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 book—based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson’s papers—opens 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 slaves—and 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 children—in his ledgers they are recast as money—while 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?

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A] brilliant examination of the dark side of the man who gave the world the most ringing declarations about human liberty.”
—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

“In this deeply provocative and crisply written journey into the dark heart of slavery at Monticello, Henry Wiencek brings into focus a side of Jefferson that Americans have largely failed—or not cared—to see. This book will change forever the way that we think about the author of the Declaration of Independence.”
—Fergus M. Bordewich, The Wall Street Journal

“As an engrossing investigation into Jefferson’s change of heart and mind, Master of the Mountain is narrative history wrapped around an incendiary device: surely, political pundits and Jeffersonians will be wrestling over Wiencek’s explosive interpretations of the historical evidence—some of it newly discovered—for years to come . . . One of the incontestable strengths of Wiencek’s book is the way it transports readers deep into the hierarchical world of Jefferson’s Monticello.”
—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

“[Wiencek’s] account of Jefferson’s evolving and convoluted position on the subject is all the more damning for his restraint . . . Every American should read it. As depicted by Wiencek, the older Jefferson resembles a modern-day 1-percenter . . . We try to persuade ourselves that the author of some of our most inspiring political works was not a self-serving hypocrite. But given the bountiful evidence offered in Master of the Mountain, it’s now impossible to see him any other way.”
—Laura Miller, Salon

“Compelling and utterly damning.”
—Tina Jordan, Entertainment Weekly

“Wiencek carefully probes the historical record, parsing the enormous body of Jefferson literature. His work is a thoughtful and well-documented contribution, offering a powerful reassessment of our third president.”
—Kevin J. Hamilton, The Seattle Times

“[Wiencek] reviews Jefferson’s record like a prosecutor, hammering away at the evasions, rationalizations, and lies that have preserved Jefferson’s reputation as a profoundly decent man trapped by the conventions of his own times. In Master of the Mountain, Wiencek does not reargue the tawdry details of the Sally Hemings affair. Rather, he invites readers to reflect seriously on one famous man’s stunning refusal to provide moral leadership for a nation that desperately needed it.”
—T. H. Breen, The American Scholar

“[A] meticulous account . . . Wiencek’s vivid, detailed history casts a new slant on a complex man.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Well-rendered yet deeply unsettling . . . Wiencek scours the primary sources . . . for a thoughtful reexamination of what was really going on behind the harmonious façade of the great house on the mountain . . . Beautifully constructed reflections and careful sifting of Jefferson’s thoughts and deeds.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Esteemed historian and author Henry Wiencek . . . creates a detailed, poignant analysis from Jefferson’s younger years as an emancipationist through his later years as a slave-trade profiteer . . . Master of the Mountain is a well-written, intelligently constructed account that captures years of controversy and debate surrounding one of the most revered founding fathers. Wiencek brilliantly and comprehensively reevaluates the revolutionary-turned-slave-owner’s reputation, questioning why America holds Jefferson as a pillar in its moral composition    . . . [Jefferson] is exposed as a beneficiary of America’s selective historical memory.”
—Anthony Steven Lubetski, Shepherd Express

“Master of the Mountain is a remarkable re-creation of Monticello’s economy and culture . . . Whether you agree or not with Wiencek’s provocative analysis, it’s a book worth taking seriously as we continue to struggle with slavery’s legacy.”
—Anne Bartlett, BookPage

“Henry Wiencek’s Master of the Mountain is the most important challenge to Jefferson on slavery since DNA suggested a link between him and Sally Hemings. Arguably it is even more significant, because it uncovers wider secrets about Monticello than a possible sexual liaison. Not everyone will accept all of Wiencek’s arguments, but no one who would understand our history can ignore this pathbreaking exploration of our foundations.”
—William W. Freehling, author of The Road to Disunion and The Founding Fathers and Slavery

“Master of the Mountain is bound to cause a firestorm. It completely upends our view of Jefferson and his attitudes on freedom, slavery, and wealth. It’s a tough-minded book by a master craftsman, completely convincing and a joy to read.”
—Richard Ben Cramer, author of What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Master of the Mountain is wonderful! Eloquent and carefully researched, this invaluable book takes us behind the curtain of Jefferson’s familiar public words and shows us Jefferson the Virginia planter, committed to slavery because he was utterly dependent on it for all his wealth, status, and power. Henry Wiencek’s insights help to debunk the whole myth of the ‘humane masters.’”
—Bruce Levine, author of The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South

About the Author

Henry Wiencek, a nationally prominent historian and writer, is the author of several books, including The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1999, and An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America (FSG, 2003). He lives with his wife and son in Charlottesville, Virginia.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (October 16, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374299560
• ISBN-13: 978-0374299569
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Jefferson, Thomas
  • #28 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Colonial Period
  • #36 in Books > History > Modern (16th-21st Centuries) > 18th Century

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 77 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sick Institution November 11, 2012

By Richard Alvarez

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Before reading Master of the Mountain I had viewed slavery and the role of Jefferson in bits and pieces. The details of his relationship with Sally Hemings, the treatment of his slaves on the mountain, the contradictions of his early and late attitudes on the institution, etc. It turns out that the details are the least important part of the picture. This book opened my eyes to the utter depravity of the institution. Master and slave were equally debased. Mulberry Row, the slave quarter, was the equivalent of a neighborhood bordello for the Jefferson family and for those residing nearby. Slaveholders, including Jefferson, became indolent, utterly dependent on the institution and indifferent to the human cost of enslavement.

Jefferson was a master wordsmith. In his writings, early and late, he dances expertly around the issues of slavery, leaving his reputation for enlightened thinking intact for history (until now). The fact is that Jefferson saw his slaves as assets which produced more profit from activities in the breeding shed than in the fields. He sold slaves away, broke up families and viewed his slaves as lazy wards who owed him a return on investment. The chilling aspect of this book, which is beautifully written and structured, is that conditions on the mountain, while simply appalling, were probably much better than conditions on other plantations, especially in the Deep South. Healthy young men who were sold south had a life expectancy of 18 months on the rice plantations. Slaves were cheap so they worked them to death and then bought more.

I was struck by Jefferson's skill at self justification. If it worked for him, he was able to conjure noble purposes for his actions, no matter how depraved. Jefferson's daughter, Martha and grandson, Jeff Randolph, repeatedly tried to nudge the old man in a liberal direction to no avail. Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the Polish hero of the American Revolution gave Jefferson $20,000 in his will and encouraged him to use the money to free his slaves . . . Jefferson did nothing.

Our family moved from New York to Virginia in 1956 when I was 10. This was during Jim Crow, and I heard over and over from respectable people, the 200 year old echoes of Jefferson's refrain, "the time is not right . . . be patient". Jefferson's reputation as an enlightened thinker is a sham. George Washington freed his slaves in his will (1799) and other prominent Virginians did the same . . . Jefferson talked and wrote a good game all his life but he didn't back it up.

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich, Original, Thoughtful October 31, 2012

By A Reader

Format:Hardcover

This is a remarkable book on Thomas Jefferson--it has already kicked up a great deal of controversy and no doubt will kick up more. And that's a good thing--we can't brood and argue enough about the nature of Jefferson. But what the controversies may obscure is what a thoughtful, detailed, intelligent and above all engrossing book this is. The author has spent many years studying Jefferson and his times and he has fully metabolized his subject, so that the portrait of the Founder that emerges is subtle,very serious and quite fresh. Is this a darker, more self-interested Jefferson than the one we have gotten to know? Yes, it is. But the portrait is patient and qualified and the overall sense of the man and his age that emerges is remarkable. By the time you're through, you know a lot more about Jefferson, about the 18th and early 19th century in America and (maybe above all) about American slavery than you did before. I've read quite a few books about Jefferson over the years (I'm a Virginian-it's almost mandatory), but I've never learned so much from a Jefferson book as I have from this one. Nor have I ever been so impressed by a Jefferson author's serious devotion to his subject. It's a wonderful book.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Master of the Mountain November 25, 2012

By John

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a Charlottesville, VA native and descendant of Jefferson's slaves, the book impacted me on many levels. Understanding (at the risk of sounding Marxist) that the American Revolution was more about economics than freedom, so many beliefs I have had about America were affirmed by this book. There are many but here are a few: 1) the inferior treatment of women by men; 2) the belief that the white race was superior to all groups of color; 3)the schizophrenic mentality Blacks have to this day regarding issues ranging from hair texture to skin complexion. Of course, all these issues resonate more loudly when it involves your family. I am fortunate as a black man to know my roots to the West African Fulani people that is my link to Africa on my father's side. I know this because of research of the Monticello Foundation's research that is the foundation of Mr. Wiencek's book. The fact that the journey involves Monticello is noteworthy for me because it is the Hughes family slave connection. The historical significance of the slave owner is noteworthy to the extent it highlights the hypocrisy of America and its peculiar institution.
When an otherwise historical account involves your biological family the emotions are bittersweet with pride in the fortitude of the people despite the toils they endured. Their experiences leave scars on me to this day.

John Hughes
Author
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