Thomas Jefferson and Haitian Emigration

Thomas Jefferson and Haitian Emigration

Thomas Jefferson had shifting attitudes concerning slavery during his lifetime which influenced his views on and policies towards Haitian emigration. Jefferson’s ambivalence about slavery and emancipation was significantly influenced by his identification with southern land owners, specifically by those who ‘owned’ enslaved peoples. In order to better understand Jefferson’s decisions regarding Haitian emigration we must explore Jefferson’s changing views towards slavery over the course of his lifetime.

Jefferson's Views Towards Slavery

Much has been written concerning the sharp contradiction between Jefferson’s ownership of slaves and his expressed belief in the rights of all to enjoy liberty. Many historians argue often that Jefferson’s antislavery views were explicitly expressed in his draft constitution for Virginia, which stated that enslaved children born in Virginia after December 31st, 1800 would be free. Additionally, in 1784 he had drafted a report for the Congress of the Confederation regarding the western territories which would have banned slavery from the region after 1800.ref As early as 1791, Jefferson wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia that “the Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.”ref It is important to note that although Jefferson expressed antislavery views he continued to "own" enslaved people. Jefferson believed at this time that the emancipation of slaves was necessary because the institution of slavery was at its very core evil and against the laws of a true republic. Jefferson believed that slavery was “politically divisive, economically inefficient and morally unsound.” He further suggested that slavery could be gradually eliminated with an emancipation and colonization program.ref

Jefferson's Views Regarding Blacks

Other historians describe Jefferson’s views of slavery as resulting from the confluence of “two distinct nations whose natural relationship was one of war.”ref Jefferson further believed that both Blacks and Whites would always view each other in racial or national terms and when slavery no longer existed, the blacks would rebel due to the long years of intense and cruel oppression. This view of slavery led Jefferson to support the concept of colonization in a new country as the ultimate solution to the slavery problem. Jefferson wholeheartedly believed that emancipation without colonization would result in a racial war.ref

Jefferson's Foreign Policy Decisions

Thomas Jefferson’s changing views of slavery influenced his later foreign policy decisions. When Thomas Jefferson later became President, he did not follow the same foreign policy as his predecessor John Adams did towards the Haitian Revolution. Jefferson initially expressed to the French charge d’affaires Louis A. Pichion in July 1801 that the “United States opposed the island’s independence under Black rule and wanted to see French authority restored.”ref Pichion reported to Paris that it was Jefferson’s “dread of the blacks, not devotion to French interests” that influenced his decision to support France.ref Although Jefferson philosophically had supported emancipation, his offer of assistance to the French against Toussaint Louverture exposed that he still possessed ambivalence towards Black emancipation. Jefferson’s shift in policy was further influenced by his racial fears and his identification with southern slave owners.ref

Jefferson reconsidered his offer to aid the French against the San Domingan rebels when he learned by August 1802 about Napoleon Bonaparte’s plan to use Saint Domingue as the initial step towards building a colonial empire in the western hemisphere, which included the occupation of Louisiana and New Orleans territories.ref He however once again shifted his position regarding Saint Domingue. Jefferson’s new position was a policy of neutrality regarding France’s attempt to regain the island. Neutrality meant that war contraband would “continue to flow to the blacks through usual U.S. merchant channels and the administration would refuse all French requests for assistance, credits, or loans.”ref Jefferson’s policy contributed to France’s defeat in Saint Domingue. Thus concerns regarding the balance of power in the Caribbean and the “geopolitical and commercial implications” of Napoleon’s plans influenced Jefferson to evolve his policy regarding Saint Domingue.ref

Jefferson's Views About Emigration to Haiti

Jefferson’s views of slavery shifted from describing the institution of slavery as evil to believing that only when living separately could there truly be peace between Blacks and Whites. As early as 1780, Jefferson believed that a racial war would result from emancipation unless the slaves were colonized outside of the United States.ref By 1797, Jefferson had supported the views of St. George Tucker. Tucker was a law professor at the College of William and Mary, who advocated the gradual emancipation and colonization of freed slaves.ref This concept of slavery eventually led to Jefferson’s think opportune for Blacks to leave the United States.ref Additional support for this position can be found in a letter to James Madison dated February 5th, 1799, where Jefferson supported the need for emancipation because he feared that the enslaved population in America will be influenced by what occurred in Saint Domingue and it could possibly inspire a similar revolution in the United States.ref Jefferson believed that “it (emancipation) will come… whether brought on by the general energy of our minds, or by bloody process of Santo Domingo.” Further evidence of Jefferson’s support for the idea of colonization of freed Blacks can be found in Jefferson’s letters to Governor James Monroe of Virginia dated November 24th, 1801.ref Jefferson’s fears of a possible violent slave rebellion on a mass scale and his support for emancipation led to his support of Black emigration and colonization.

As the specter of the Haitian revolution influenced Jefferson's wish to see free Blacks depart, he dreaded the idea of having them emigrate to Haiti itself. Southern slave-owners had since the start of the Haitian Revolution lived in fear that a similar slave uprising would take place in the U.S. The existence of an independent Black state close to the southern shores, and originated from a slave rebellion, was not what southern planters wanted. Following suit, Jefferson disapproved free Blacks' emigration to Haiti believing that it would strengthen the rouge state and would inspire other slaves to revolt.

Jefferson's Shifting Attitudes Concerning Slavery

Historians note that many southern politicians argued that emancipation was not possible and pointed to the horrors of Saint Domingue. Southern slave-owners were increasingly fearful of the influence that the immigrants who had fled the Haitian Revolution would have on the slave population in the Untied States. Their concerns intensified after the Gabriel Prosser Conspiracy in 1800 and the Easter plot of 1802. Both these traumatic events led to the solidification of the southern conservative reaction in 1803.ref Historians argue that Jefferson was influenced by the southern conservatives and he again experienced a shift in his attitudes towards slavery. In a letter to William Burwell dated January 28th, 1805, he writes “I have long time given up the expectation of an early provision for the extinguishing of slavery among us.”ref Jefferson advocated that the two races must live separately and his views were clearly strongly affected by the slave owners in the south with whom he identified and who had elected him to office and his own ‘possession’ of Blacks. Jefferson, however, still approved of abolishing the African Slave Trade, and signed the bill which outlawed it in 1807.

In 1816, the American Colonization Society was founded with the purpose of removing blacks from the United States. Jefferson though not active in the American Colonization Society supported their mission, believing that the U.S. was not the place for Blacks to be really free.ref

Notes

1) Tim Matthewson, “Jefferson and Haiti,” The Journal of Southern History, 61 (1995): 22.

2) Peter S. Onuf, “To Declare Them a Free and Independent People: Race, Slavery, and National Identity in Jefferson’s Thought,” Journal of the Early Republic, 18 (1998): 1.

3) Eric Burin, Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society (Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 2005), 9-13.

4) Onuf, 4.

5) Onuf, 3-6.

6) Matthewson, "Jefferson and Haiti," 214.

7) Matthewson, "Jefferson and Haiti," 218.

8) Matthewson, "Jefferson and Haiti," 211.

9) Matthewson, "Jefferson and Haiti," 221.

10) Matthewson,"Jefferson and Haiti," 226-227.

11) Matthewson,"Jefferson and Haiti," 218.

12) Matthewson,"Jeffeson and Haiti," 244.

13) Alfred N. Hunt, Haiti’s Influence on Antebellum America: Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988), 121-122. 14) John Edward Baur, “Mulatto Machiavelli, Jean Pierre Boyer, and the Haiti of His Day,” The Journal of Negro History, 32 (1947): 325. 15) Tim Matthewson, “Jefferson and the Non-recognition of Haiti,” American Philosophical Society, 140 (1996): 23. 16) Brainerd Dyer, “The Persistence of the Negro Colonization,” The Pacific Historical Review, 12 (1943): 54.

17) Matthewson,"Jefferson and the Non-recognition of Haiti," 25. 18) Matthewson,"Jefferson and the Non-recognition of Haiti," 34.

19) Norman K. Risjord, Thomas Jefferson (Madison: Madison House, 1994), 185.

References

*Baur, John Edward. “Mulatto Machiavelli, Jean Pierre Boyer, and the Haiti of His Day.” "The Journal of Negro History" 32, no. 3 (July, 1947),http://links.jstor.org

*Burin, Eric. Slavery and the Peculiar Solution:A History of the American Colonization Society. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005.

*Dyer, Brainerd. “The Persistence of the Negro Colonization.” "The Pacific Historical Review" 12, no. 1 (March, 1943),http://links.jstor.org
*Hunt, Alfred N. Haiti’s Influence on Antebellum America:Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean. Baton Rouge:Louisiana State University Press, 1988.

*Matthewson, Tim. “Jefferson and Haiti.” "The Journal of Southern History" 61, no. 2 (May, 1995),http://links.jstor.org
*Matthewson, Tim. “Jefferson and the Non-recognition of Haiti.” "American Philosophical Society" 140, no. 1 (March, 1996),http://links.jstor.org

*Onuf, Peter S. “To Declare Them a Free and Independent People”:Race, Slavery, and National Identity in Jefferson’s Thought."Journal of the Early Republic" 18, no. 1 (Spring, 1998),http://links.jstor.org

*Risjord, Norman K. Thomas Jefferson. Madison: Madison House, 1994.