"Negro President: Jefferson & the Slave Power" by Garry Wills crams in quite a a bit of fascinating information in its 230 pages plus notes. (It has nothing to do with Sally Hemings.) The jacket of the book contains an excerpt which explains what was meant by calling Thomas Jefferson the "Negro President". Those calling him so "were challenging his boast that the election of 1800 was a 'Second Revolution' based on the expressed will of a popular majority. It was no such thing, they argued. In terms of actual number of votes cast, John Adams was re-elected." While slaves had no rights, they were counted as 3/5's of a person for establishing a state's representation in the House of Representatives by a bargain struck at the Constitutional Convention known as the "federal ratio". This ratio enabled Jefferson and Burr to garner sufficient electoral votes to eliminate Adams from consideration. The book deals quite a bit with Jefferson foe Timothy Pickering (Secretary of State under Washington, followed by terms in the Senate and House), Aaron Burr, the Embargo of 1807, JQ Adams, etc.
Wills is probably best known for "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America"(1992), however he has many other works to his credit including "Henry Adams and the Making of America" (2005), "Why I Am a Catholic" (2002), and "A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government" (1999).
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