Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase by Kennedy, Roger - 2003

Cary, North Carolina, U. S. A.: Oxford Univ Press. New in New dust jacket. 2003. First Edition. Hardcover. Thomas Jefferson advocated a republic of small farmers - free and independent yeomen. Yet as president he presided over a massive expansion of the slaveholding plantation system - particularly with the Louisiana Purchase - squeezing the yeomanry to the fringes and to less desirable farmland. Now Roger G. Kennedy conducts and eye-opening examination of that gap between Jefferson's stated aspirations and what actually happened. The author focuses on the character, ideas, and ambitions of Thomas Jefferson to show how he and other Southerners struggled with the moral dilemmas presented by the presence of Indian farms on the land they coveted, by enslavement of their workforce, by the betrayal of their stated hopes, and by the manifest damage being done to the earth itself. The pressures upon him, both psychological and economic, are detailed, as are the occasions on which decisions were made determining the future course of American history and the health of the land. Jefferson emerges as a tragic figure in a tragic period. 350 pages with notes, bibliography, and an extensive index. Eight glossy pages of photographs and maps. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. .