James Madison in an 1826 letter to the Marquis de Lafayette
James Madison’s Montpelier
(Photo: Kenneth C. Davis)
“…the two races cannot co-exist, both being free & equal. The great sine qua non therefore is some external asylum for the colored race.”
Source: James Madison’s Montpelier, “Madison and Slavery”
James Madison is known as the “Father of the Constitution,” which was signed by the men who wrote it on September 17, 1787. September 17 is now marked as Constitution Day.
Madison believed that the solution to slavery was creation of a colony where emancipated African Americans could eventually be moved. He freed none of the enslaved people at Montpelier, his home, although one of them –Paul Jennings– later claimed that the dying President had pledged to emancipate Jennings. Eventually, Jennings was able to purchase his freedom from an ailing and destitute Dolley Madison.
Read more about Paul Jennings, his life, and times in IN THE SHADOW OF LIBERTY: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives. (Holt/Penguin Random House Audio, September 20)
In the Shadow of Liberty (Available for pre-order and in stores on 9/20)
