“Thomas Jefferson, John Witherspoon, and the Problem of Slavery in the Declaration of Independence”

Scottish Enlightenment discussions of historical advancement influenced Thomas Jefferson. Ironically, they complemented his tendency to connect Scottishness with foreignness. That connection underscored the common cause of American independence, including with respect to institutions such as racial slavery. Slavery was said to have remained in the American union as an unfortunate but also unmovable historical legacy of earlier Anglo-Scottish corruption. As a regrettable remnant of their historical mistreatment, enslaved people had become akin to a foreign entity. Consequently, according to Jefferson, they could not necessarily be trusted to support American civic norms after their immediate emancipation. That characterization contributed to the broader intellectual context in which John Witherspoon lived and worked, including his role as a Scottish-born signatory to Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Witherspoon promoted a greater degree of anti-slavery sentiment than Jefferson and was relatively progressive in his support for biracial higher education. Yet ambiguities and tensions remained in his approach to racial slavery, including his support for gradual rather than immediate emancipation. Witherspoon hoped that his signature on the Declaration of Independence would help uncouple Scottishness from Patriot discussions of historically rooted foreign danger. But it also appeared at the foot of a document that described immediate emancipation as a security threat to American civic life.