Master of the Mountain Contributor(s): Wiencek, Henry (Author) |
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ISBN: 0374534020 ISBN-13: 9780374534028 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux OUR PRICE: $18.90 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: September 2013 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Presidents & Heads Of State - Social Science | Slavery - History | United States - State & Local - South (al,ar,fl,ga,ky,la,ms,nc,sc,tn,va,wv) |
Dewey: B |
Lexile Measure: 1260 |
Physical Information: 0.92" H x 5.87" W x 8.69" (0.99 lbs) 368 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 18th Century - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Chronological Period - 1800-1850 - Geographic Orientation - Virginia - Cultural Region - South Atlantic - Cultural Region - Southeast U.S. - Topical - Black History |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive Master of the Mountain--based on new information coming from archival research, archaeological work at Monticello, and hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Thomas Jefferson's own papers--opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's faraway world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money. 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 profit gained from his slaves--and thanks to the skewed morals of the political and social world that he and thousands of others readily inhabited. 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. Slaves are bought, sold, given as gifts, and used as collateral for the loan that pays for Monticello's construction--while Jefferson composes theories that obscure the dynamics of what he himself called the execrable commerce. Many people saw a catastrophe coming and tried to stop it, but not Jefferson. The pursuit of happiness had become deeply corrupted, and an oligarchy was getting very rich. Is this the quintessential American story? |
Contributor Bio(s): Wiencek, Henry: - 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 the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1999, and, most recently, Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves. |