| This dissertation studies the complicated ideological relationship between northern democracy and southern slavery in Jeffersonian America. It argues that slavery had a powerful influence on the formation of northern democratic ideology and political culture long before the antebellum period. The early national relationship between democracy and slavery was rooted in the Democratic-Republican party, which elected Thomas Jefferson to the presidency in 1800. The Democratic-Republicans encompassed the most powerful advocates of northern democratization in the early nation, but also the most powerful southern slaveholders. Northern Republicans thus had to come to terms with slavery after 1800, because the institution was fundamentally tied to their experience of democratic politics. Many did so by modifying previous antislavery convictions in order to form an uneasy reconciliation between their democratic idealism and their slaveholding compatriots. Other northern Jeffersonians, however, turned dissidents and began to develop a novel democratic argument against the power of slavery in American politics.;This dissertation primarily focuses on two northern states, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, as well as significant national debate over slavery in Congress. It studies newspapers, political pamphlets, Congressional records, personal correspondence, and literature in order to understand the ideological world of northern democracy and the ideological problem of slavery.;These sources demonstrate that slavery was a consistent problem for northern Republicans throughout the Jeffersonian era. They also demonstrate that racial thought was far less influential in the early nation than it would be later. While some northern Republicans clearly anticipated the racist polity of Jacksonian America, they did not rely primarily on race to facilitate their ties to southern slaveholders. Instead, they built and expressed those ties through democratic language and sentiment. This had deleterious consequences for northern Republicans who later tried to form democratic arguments against slavery. Wishing to argue that democratic ideology inherently opposed the peculiar institution, they came up against not only the power of slaveholders, but their own political tradition, in which democratic sentiment had long and convoluted ties to southern slavery. |
