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Jefferson's Faulty Math: The Question of Slave Defections in the American Revolution
Citation
Pybus, C, Jefferson's Faulty Math: The Question of Slave Defections in the American Revolution, William and Mary Quarterly, 62, (2) pp. 243-264. ISSN 0043-5597 (2005) [Refereed Article]
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DOI: doi:10.2307/3491601
Abstract
In London in April 1786, Thomas Jefferson found himself in the
awkward position of negotiating with British merchants to whom he
owed a great deal of money. On more than one occasion, Jefferson
excused his incapacity to pay by claiming that General Charles Cornwallis
had carried off thirty of his slaves, "the useless and barbarous injury he did
me in that instance was more than would have paid your debt, principal
and interest." Writing from Paris to a putative historian of the Revolution,
Jefferson 'amplified this claim, saying Cornwallis "carried off also about
30. 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 and
putrid fever then raging in his camp. This I knew afterwards to have been
the 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 about
27,000 died of the small pox and camp fever." When he was Secretary of
State, Jefferson took the part of his fellow Virginians to argue they should
not be obliged to pay their debts because the British made the first infraction
of the Paris Peace Treaty by refusing to return their runaway slaves.
Virginia, the state that had incurred the greatest debt, also had incurred
the greatest loss, he reasoned.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Thomas Jefferson, British, debt |
Research Division: | History, Heritage and Archaeology |
Research Group: | Historical studies |
Research Field: | North American history |
Objective Division: | Culture and Society |
Objective Group: | Understanding past societies |
Objective Field: | Understanding past societies not elsewhere classified |
UTAS Author: | Pybus, C (Professor Cassandra Pybus) |
ID Code: | 37198 |
Year Published: | 2005 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 31 |
Deposited By: | History and Classics |
Deposited On: | 2005-08-01 |
Last Modified: | 2013-01-23 |
Downloads: | 1 View Download Statistics |
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