Stamped from the Beginning: Chapter 10: Uplift Suasion Summary & Analysis

Benjamin Banneker is a free Black man born to a free biracial woman (who was herself the daughter of multiple generations of free interracial marriage) and an enslaved Black man. A talented tobacco farmer, his inherited farm provides him enough free time to devote himself to reading and writing. In 1790, Benjamin Franklin, now 84, gives a speech to Congress demanding the end of slavery, which he characterizes as an “inconsistency” in “the land of liberty.” He dies shortly after, but the ensuing debate rages on. Proslavery advocates argue that Black people’s supposedly inferior characteristics mean that they will not be able to properly cope with freedom. In 1790, the first law defining American citizenship is passed; it states that only “free white persons” can be citizens.

Assimilationists fervently argue that if Black people are granted freedom, they will be capable of using it properly (which they understand to mean acting like white people). Of course, the whole debate is beside the point, as enslavers are not actually concerned about anything other than losing the profit and power they gain from slavery. In 1791, in the midst of these discussions, Banneker writes a letter to Jefferson. He invites Jefferson to offer real assistance to Black people and help stop the “train of absurd and false ideas and opinions” about them. Banneker’s letter is clearly and resolutely antiracist. In his response, Jefferson assures Banneker that no one wants slavery to end more than he does and notes that he is impressed by Banneker’s intellect.

The ongoing Haitian Revolution, meanwhile, is a manifestation of every enslaver’s worst fear. In 1793, Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, which allows enslavers to pursue Africans who’ve fled and criminalizes those who assist the escapees. To Jefferson, the Haitian Revolution is a “tragedy.” During the 1790s, the number of free Black people in the North increases while the enslaved population declines. Abolitionists pressure those who are free to live respectable lives—attend church, become educated, marry, behave soberly—in order to “prove” that Black people should be allowed freedom. This comes to be known as “uplift suasion”; it places the responsibility for eradicating racist ideas on Black people themselves.

Uplift suasion is grounded in the racist idea that Black people have to disprove the negative stereotypes with which they are associated. It also misses the point that racist ideas are not logical and thus cannot be disproved anyway. However, this did not stop both white and Black activists from being optimistic about what uplift suasion could accomplish in the 1790s.

In 1793, Benjamin Rush falsely informs Black people that they are immune from yellow fever, an untruth that results in thousands of avoidable deaths. Jefferson, meanwhile, is days away from retiring as secretary of state when he receives a patent application from Eli Whitney. Whitney’s hope that his invention, a cotton gin, will drastically speed up production of fabric comes true. Uplift suasion, never a reliable strategy to begin with, has no chance against the tsunami of profit generated by “King Cotton.”

In 1796, Thomas Jefferson is running for president against John Adams. Benjamin Rush makes what he believes to be the extraordinary discovery of Henry Moss, a Black man with vitiligo, a condition that lightens skin. Moss has been exhibited across the country, perceived by some as a “freak” while heralded by others as an assimilationist miracle. Jefferson, who never sees Moss himself, knows a number of “white Negroes”—who likely have albinism—because they are enslaved on his own plantation. However, Jefferson does not share the excitement of “physical assimilationists,” believing that whitened skin or features does not stop a Black people from being Black.  

In 1797, Rush tells Jefferson that he is writing a scientific paper in which he proposes that Black people’s dark skin is “the effect of a disease.” Rush, an abolitionist who considers himself a champion of racial equality, claims that this fictional skin disease causes Black people’s supposed laziness, hypersexuality, and insensitivity to pain. He argues that Moss is evidence that “Nature had begun to cure Black people.” The Northern assimilationists who support Rush’s views come to hate Jefferson, whom they view as proslavery and anti-Black. Nevertheless, Jefferson wins the presidential election when he runs for a second time in 1800.

Shortly after he is elected, it is revealed that Jefferson is the father of several children with Sally Hemings. However, the rape of Black women by white men is so common at the time that this doesn’t trigger much of a scandal, and in 1804 Jefferson is successfully reelected for a second term. To many, the rape of enslaved women—and the corresponding hypersexualization of Black women in the public imagination—are permanent parts of American society. Among those who are troubled by slavery, many accept it as a “necessary evil.” Others are sympathetic to the plight of the enslaved but terrified of a vengeful race war. As the national territory expands westwards and cotton profits soar, the question of abolition is further marginalized. In this economically booming, increasingly secular environment, the polygenesis theory gains new life.