Roger G. Kennedy (1926–2011)

The plantation system is Kennedy's bete noir in this wide ranging account of the economy and politics of the south during Jefferson's political ascendancy. He is critical of the plantation mentality of Jefferson's class, who felt it was cheaper to move on to new lands than to use good farming practices. That mentality led to a dependence on foreign markets, single crops, the expansion of slavery and ultimately, to civil war. He is unsparing in his criticism of what he calls Jefferson's persistent and deep anti-black animus, which he feels in turn affected Jefferson's dislike of industrialization and of cities in general. "Throughout most of his career, Jefferson was too constrained by prejudice against artisans and multiracial towns to give support to urbanization in the South" (with the exception of Eli Whitney's cotton gin and the manufacturers in Richmond) . . . "The slaves seemed ungrateful and the yeoman unworthy". Kennedy's reading is broad and deep, as it is in his other books, but he makes frequent assertions about Jefferson's motives and psychic needs which I find are often unsupported. I have no argument with his characterization of the effects of the plantation system, but the overriding impression I take away is one of regret for what might have been for blacks, Indians, and the early republic.… (mehr)