Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
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reformulation of emancipation by a revolutionary become nation-state builder, that we<br />
can locate Jefferson's letters on colonisat~on.<br />
Jeffersonian colonisation and racial governmentality<br />
Jefferson's discourse on colonisation addresses itself directly to the disposal of<br />
'populations' More than that, his discourse on colonisation paradoxically renders the<br />
very idea of a rac~ally aiid nationally codified population as that which it seeks to<br />
address 111 this section, hy reading a crucial passage on colonisation from Jefferson's<br />
'Autob~ography' along with the inany letters 011 colonisation echoed by that passage, I<br />
will trace a racial governmentality, addressed to 'the probleni of population', running<br />
throughout Jefferson's writings. It is this racial governmentality that conjoins a<br />
d~scourse of emancipation aiid freedom with a discourse of racial and national<br />
codification. For as we will see, a power that, in Foucault's (1980.144) words,<br />
'distributes tlie living in the domain of value and utility', that 'invests life' with<br />
qualifiable, measurable, appraisable, and hierarchsable value, can be said to render a<br />
freedom both conditioned upon and limited by tlie articulation and eale~~lation of 'race'<br />
and 'nation'.<br />
Writing in 1821 about a debate in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1779,<br />
Jefferson offers an extremely condensed suiii~nation of his pro-colonisation discourse<br />
in tlils passage froin his 'Autobiography':<br />
The b~ll on the s~lblect of slaves was a Inere d~ge.;t of the cu~st~ng laws<br />
~espect~ng tl~em. w~thout any Intimalion of a plan for a future & general<br />
elnan~lpdllon It was thought better that th~s should be kept back, and<br />
attempted only by way of amendment whenevel the b~ll should be b~ought<br />
on The prlnclples of the amendment howeve1 were ag~eed on. that 1s to say,<br />
tlie freedom of all boln after a certaln day, and deportat~on at a proper age<br />
BLI~ ~t was found that the publ~c m~nd would not yet bear the proposltlon. 1101<br />
wlll rt bcal ~t even at t111s ddy Yet the day rx not d~stant when ~t must heal and<br />
adopt ~t. or worse wrll follow Noth~ng 1s mole ce~ta~nly w~~tten In the book<br />
of fate thdn that these people arc to be flee No1 IS ~t less ce~ tan1 that the two<br />
races, equally hee, cannot 11vc In the same govelninent Natulc. hab~t.<br />
op~rilon ha? diawn ~ndel~ble lines of d~sti~ictron between thern It 1s st111 In<br />
our powel to dnect the process ot emanclpatlon and deportat~on peaceably<br />
and 111 such slow degice as thdt the cvll wr11 wear okf ~nsens~bly, and the~r<br />
place be par1 passu filled up by flee whlte labo~ers If on the contrary ~t 1s left<br />
to lo~ce ~tselt on, human nature must shutter at thc p~ospect held up We<br />
sllo~~ld In valn look fo~ an evanlple In the Spanrsh depoltat~on 01 dclct~on of<br />
tile Moo~s Thts precedent would fall fa1 slio~t ot our case (Jcffe~so~l<br />
1984 44)<br />
As we have seen throughout th~s essay, Jefferson IS again concerned with the fact that<br />
slavery 112 the Un~ted States IS 'held up' for the world to see as d most glaring cl~allenge<br />
to the ploniise of un~ve~sal freedom The refelelice to Spain tells us that the Unlted<br />
Rncinl Goverrznzentaliiy: Thornas .JefJersorz ~rnd Afric~rn Colonisation<br />
s somehow exceeds Europe, even when analogies suggest themselves; and yet the<br />
act of referring to Spain suggests that Jefferson is looking to Europe again and<br />
estion of a solution, but rather surveillance and judgement oftlie<br />
es Jefferson respond to this 'prospect held up'? In the<br />
e, he articulates a dilemma: 'Nothing is more certainly written<br />
that these people are to be free'. The fact of emancipation for<br />
ure of something already written in the fbture, sometliing that 'will<br />
cture, that is, of the future anterior. Jefferson is familiar with this<br />
cture, for he made use of it as the tense of revolution when lie wrote, in the<br />
laration of Independence: 'we ... solernnly publish and declare, That these linited<br />
lonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independent States'. Both tlie<br />
aration of Jndependence's 'are and ought to be' and the 'Autobiography's' 'written<br />
e book of fate that these people are to be free' figure what Derrida has called the<br />
' ofthe people inventing themselves in the very utterance of their<br />
pendence: we will have been free once we say 'we are fiee' (Deuricla 1986: 100.<br />
Jefferson is, however, not willing to considcr this meal-is of emancipating the<br />
ow he was terrified about the prospect ofa black revolution. In<br />
assage, he prophecies that 'worse will follow', and that 'liunian<br />
colonisation is not adopted and slavery 'is left to force itself<br />
y that resonates throughout his writings. In the 'Notes on the<br />
r example, he recognises that two discrete revolutionary<br />
ssibilities exist in the colonies, and registers his terror ofone:<br />
The whole commerce between master and slave is aperpettlal exercise of tile<br />
most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part.<br />
and degrading s~lbniissions on the other ... of the proprietors of slaves a very<br />
small proportion indeed are ever seen to labour. And can the liberties of a<br />
nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a<br />
conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God?<br />
That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my<br />
country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever:<br />
that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the<br />
wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events: that it<br />
may become probable through supernatural interference! The Almighty has<br />
no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest (Jefferson<br />
1984:288f).<br />
ere, Jefferson figures freedom for enslaved African Americans as the inevitable but<br />
any of Jefferson's letters on colonisation mark this scene of con~parison with, and<br />
lance and judgement by, a generalized 'Europe'. For example. see a letter to St. George<br />
Tucker (28 Aug. 1797) (Jefferso 1899.VII:168).