5) What was the "wolf by the ears" quandary that Takai suggests late century American slaveholders found themselves to be in? What were they afraid of? What solutions to the problems created by slavery were possible considering the existing conditions and mentalities in American societies at the time?
The problem of slavery had become pressing, not just insofar as it represented a serious humanitarian crisis for the U.S. But even further, as it presented the U.S. And many of its citizens a serious threat to stability. Jefferson's comments, which sound derisive enough, were actually couched in the understanding that the slave class of the United States was justifiably angry, restless and therefore, dangerous to its master. Accordingly, Takaki reports that "As it is,' Jefferson cried out, 'we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is on one scale, and self-preservation in the other.' Jefferson wanted to abolish the institution that had denied 'liberty' to the people he owned as property: it represented a 'moral reproach' that 'tormented' his conscience." (Takaki, 71)
Here, Jefferson feared the simultaneous backlash of repealing a system upon which the
Takaki goes further to note that "holding what Thomas Jefferson had called the 'wolf by the ears,' masters lived in constant dread of slave insurrection. Southern newspapers frequently reported news of slave unrest and 'evidences of a very unsettled state of mind among the servile population.'" (Takaki, 106) All indications were that slavery would soon be ending, and not by the accord of the slavemasters, who would ultimately live to see their fears verified. As Jefferson predicted, there could be no bloodless resolution on this point, with war serving as the only way to instigate such momentous cultural and economic change. Moreover, the demonized African-American bogeyman of the evening news and police blotters is a demonstration of the continued sense of fear manifested today between the freed slave class to its former master.
Works Cited:
Diner, H.R. (1983). Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Takaki, R. (2008). A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Back Bay Books.
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