Press Release

"Returning to his native tribes (The Long Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians, 1993), Bancroft Prize-winning historian Wallace gives us a book that immediately becomes the best among very few other studies of its subject. A searching scholarly study of one of the great American dilemmas."
--Kirkus Reviews

For Immediate Release
Contact: Mary Kate Maco
Publicity Director
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Distinguished Anthropologist and Historian Examines Thomas Jefferson's Complicated and Ambivalent Relationship with the First Americans

While much has been written about Jefferson and his seemingly contradictory attitude toward African Americans, there has been little scholarship devoted to our third President's attitude toward the other non-white peoples who populated the North American continent at the time of our nation's birth. In JEFFERSON AND THE INDIANS: The Tragic Fate of the First Americans (Harvard University Press; October 29, 1999; $29.95), esteemed anthropologist and historian Anthony F. C. Wallace examines in detail Jefferson's ambiguous relationship with Native Americans.

In particular, Wallace explores the tensions between, on the one hand, Jefferson's philosophical writings on freedom and equality, and on the native Americans with whom the American colonists shared the land (he was, in Wallace's words, an "admirer of Indian character, archaeology, and language") and, on the other hand, his actions toward them during his presidency. Truly a man of his time, and in keeping with the eighteenth-century notion of "the noble savage," Jefferson held Native Americans and their culture in high regard, studying their language, excavating their ancient burial grounds, and mourning their fate in the wake of western expansion. Strong as they were, however, these feelings were at odds with Jefferson's overarching agenda: the settlement, by whites of northern European descent, of lands west of the original thirteen colonies. Wallace shows that "Manifest Destiny" ultimately lent moral justification to Jefferson's early attempt to assimilate, and then subsequently remove, Native Americans.

The son of a land speculator, Jefferson came of age in a climate where land was essentially stolen from the Indians (as they were called then) and sold for a profit. Jefferson's ambivalence toward Native Americans increased during and after the American Revolution, when many tribes allied themselves with the British. Further complicating these sentiments were Jefferson's own very strong anti-monarchial feelings, which manifest themselves so eloquently in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson had no use for a hierarchical system of government--such as the one that existed in England--wherein everyone, from peasant to king, had their station in society. Jefferson's brave new egalitarian world had no place for hierarchy--and no room for diversity.

Wallace identifies a potentially "fatal flaw" in Jefferson's character, and shows how integrally it played into this picture: Jefferson had a need to be in control, and saw himself as truly the father of the country, whose role it was to determine how his "family" should pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Because this family included Native Americans (and African Americans), Jefferson at first adhered to the Federalist policy of "civilizing" the Indians--that is, teaching them to be white. When it became clear that many Native Americans did not want to be "civilized," Jefferson changed his position and determined that, as they no longer needed their land, they would have to be cleared from it to make room for the white settlers of the new nation. Jefferson, then, is portrayed as the architect of the Indian removal policies that were to become so commonplace in the nineteenth century, the most notorious of which became known as the "Trail of Tears," the route by which the Cherokees were expelled from their lands in the South.

In taking as his subject matter a hitherto unexplored aspect of Jefferson's personal and political character, Wallace expands upon and enhances what we've already come to understand about Jefferson's complicated, contradictory relationship with non-white Americans. Elegantly written and rich in history, JEFFERSON AND THE INDIANS is a unique and learned contribution to Jeffersonian scholarship.

About the Author:
Anthony F. C. Wallace is University Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, at the University of Pennsylvania, winner of the Bancroft Prize in American history for his book Rockdale, and the author of The Death of the Seneca and The Long, Bitter Trail.

Harvard University Press
Publication date: October 29, 1999
Pages: 394 Price: $29.95 ISBN: 0-674-00066-8