Summary
After Cotton Mather’s death, America entered the Enlightenment era. Led by Benjamin Franklin, this intellectual movement was rooted in racism. Thomas Jefferson was a member of Franklin’s American Philosophical Society, and although he was educated in antiracist thought, Jefferson ultimately decided to build his own plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia. While Jefferson was profiting from slavery, a young woman named Phillis Wheatley was garnering attention in Boston. Wheatley, an African who was purchased and homeschooled by a white family, was an accomplished poet.
Wheatley’s adoptive father wanted his daughter to be published, but racist American society prevented Philis from receiving full recognition. Many white American scholars used Wheatley’s story to defend their “assimilationist” perspectives. These scholars argued that Wheatley was only intelligent because she was not a slave. Wheatley’s work was widely accepted in England, a country that had abolished slavery a year prior. The British used Wheatley to denounce the American slavery system, and this placed pressure on the American economy.
The authors recap the racist ideas that have been chronicled in the book up to this point. They explain that Africans have been classified as “savages” for according to six different explanations: 1) the hot African weather, 2) the legacy of the Biblical character Ham 3) they have been created as an entirely different species, 4) they are at the bottom of the natural human hierarchy, 5) they are dark, which signifies that they are evil, and 6) they are slaves. Slavery had become an essential baseline in building the United States. American political leaders now felt the pressure to separate themselves from Britain once and for all.
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. Slaves, who were implicitly excluded from Jefferson’s famous assertion that “all men are created equal,” began staging rebellions for their freedom. Thomas Jefferson and other slave owners blamed Britain for inciting this rebellion. While Jefferson denounced slavery in his writing, the views he professed were contradicted by his continuing and prosperous business. The Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted each slave as 3/5 of a person for the purposes of determining a state's representation in Congress (though slaves were disallowed from voting themselves), was an important component of the U.S. Constitution. In this way, slavery and racism were “stamped” into the founding document of America.
The Haitian Revolution, which took place in 1791, was a revolt unlike any other. The Africans in Haiti defeated the French, and Haiti was hailed as a symbol of freedom in the West. American slaveholders, such as Thomas Jefferson, felt threatened by the Haitian revolution. They feared that American slaves would be inspired by this uprising and thus would revolt against their white owners.
As Black slaves began to run away to the Northern states where they could be free, they were pressured to conform to white culture in order to be considered non-threatening. This strategy is called the “uplift suasion,” and it is a racist idea that claims Black culture is savage and unacceptable in American society. The uplift suasion prompted Black people to fit into a “white mold” in order to deserve their freedom. This belief would later become the cornerstone of assimilationist thought.
After an insurrection in Virginia was thwarted before it came to fruition, many wealthy white landowners created new racist schemes that were fueled by their own desires for self-protection. Thomas Jefferson wanted to ship slaves back to Africa, but slaves rightfully wanted to stay in America and reap the benefits of their free labor. Jefferson continued to propose legislation that denounced slavery as an evil institution while simultaneously reaping the economic benefits of slave labor on his own plantation. Jefferson wanted to move all freed slaves to Louisiana to keep them separate from the white population.
Analysis
In Section II, Reynolds and Kendi dive into the major political events that have shaped the founding of the American republic. The book discusses Thomas Jefferson and the hypocrisy that surrounded his presidential platform. Although Jefferson was educated in antiracist thought, he ultimately decided to place profit over what he seems to have known was right. He was too dependent on slave labor to support his plantation, and he intended to preserve his financial position during his presidency. Ultimately, Jefferson’s self-interest prevented him from using his platform to advocate for the oppressed.
Jefferson’s political trajectory presents a theme that reappears throughout Stamped. The book shows that the American economy has been “successful” for a select few members of society. Ultimately, the nation’s economic system has been built upon the oppression of large populations. Although many leaders throughout history have vocally condemned slavery, they have simultaneously failed to pass legislation to remedy the racism at the core of the nation’s legal foundations. The authors draw upon numerous instances in which white male leaders have been too afraid to shake up a status quo that has benefitted them in order to help others.
Phillis Wheatley’s story is presented in this section in order to further exemplify how Blackness was perceived in the 18th century. Wheatley’s talent was depicted as an anomaly. Her success as a Black woman was deemed miraculous, and writers tried to capitalize on her art by separating her from her race. The “great American thinkers” that were impressed by Wheatley should have used their platforms to understand how slaves were deprived of an education and were banned from contributing intellectually to American society. Instead, Wheatley’s talent was not recognized in the United States, and she died in relative obscurity.
This section also depicts how fear has been used to control the population. The anecdote about the Haitian Revolution is important, as it demonstrates how the power holders in Western society were successfully overthrown through camaraderie and solidarity by the oppressed African population. American power holders feared that this kind of rebellion could take place on their own soil, and they took active measures to prevent this from happening. Insurrections were thwarted before they came to fruition. Additionally, laws were passed that continued to control and oppress slaves.
Although American history has often sugar-coated the narrative of runaway slaves, Stamped depicts the journey of runaways in its actuality. Black culture was universally depicted as “savage and unacceptable,” and Black people were discriminated against upon their arrival in free states. While they were no longer slaves, racism was alive and well. Black people were unwelcome, and they were forced to assimilate into white culture in order to have a chance of survival and success. This perspective fueled assimilationists, and many Black runaways were conditioned to internalize these ideas of their own inferiority.
