All Honor to Jefferson? - by Erik S Root (Paperback)

About the Book

This book fills a long neglected hole in American history and political thought. The debate over emancipation in 1829-32, and the success of the pro-slave interests in these debates paved the way for the development of the positive good thesis that was articulated and populari...

Book Synopsis

This book fills a long neglected hole in American history and political thought. The debate over emancipation in 1829-32, and the success of the pro-slave interests in these debates paved the way for the development of the positive good thesis that was articulated and popularized by John C. Calhoun. These debates were to become a bellweather for the union.

Review Quotes

Root convincingly defends the honor of America's Founders on the vexed question of slavery. He shows that it was the abandonment of the founding principles, not their fulfillment, that led Virginia and the South to embrace the cause of slavery as a positive good. I have never read a more convincing treatment, backed up with detailed discussions of major politicians and writers, of this transformation of opinion in Virginia. Root captures well the sincerity of the anti-slavery men, their soul-wrenching agony and perplexity over what to do about it, and the final disgraceful capitulation of post-1830 Virginians to the forces, intellectual and practical, that demanded the rejection of the idea that all human beings have a natural right to liberty.

Root provides an effective discussion of the arguments over slavery in Virginia.

Root's work is suggestive of the power of natural rights philosophy and its use (and abuse) by early republican Virginians.

This is a fine study. Root finds in the Virginia slavery debates a prelude to Calhoun's positive good theory of slavery. Of particular note is Root's solid understanding of political philosophy, a virtue usually missing in contemporary histories. In revealing the character of the defense of slavery in the young nation's most important state, Root sheds valuable light on the tragic decline of moral and political principle in antebellum America.

About the Author

Erik S. Root is assistant professor of political science at West Liberty State College.