“Negro President”: Jefferson and the Slave Power   Garry Wills
A deeply disturbing history of the “slave power” that dominated American politics until the Civil War. The title comes from Timothy Pickering’s appellation for Jefferson who was elected in 1800 solely because of the federal ratio, slaves counted as 3/5 of a person for voting. For me, there is too much about Pickering, and a little too much banter aimed at other historians who have gotten it wrong. But I learned a lot about the influence of slavery in American history, all of it horrible. For example, ¼ of all U. S. presidents owned slaves, and the war with Mexico was fought, and the annexation of Mexican territory occurred, to provide new slave states. Wills does an excellent job discussing really ugly history.