I’ve often wanted to sit down and write an essay on what I call the accidental novel. What, you may ask… Well, it’s a book that was written as a work of nonfiction but that shows a different story than it tells. Read along with me for a moment and you’ll see. The accidental novel isn’t so much a genre of literature as it is a way of looking at literature. My favorite example is Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson. I was introduced to this book in a history class and the professor (Barbara Fields) conjectured that you could see almost the entire cast of Jefferson’s mind in this book.
Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson
If you’re not familiar, the book was written as an exercise in geography. Some French diplomat wished for a pamphlet that would give him a sense of what Virginia was like. Its geographical boundaries. Its terrain. Climate. Principle natural resources. And of course the character of its people and their laws. Nowadays, travelogues and books or pamphlets written to help businesspeople familiarize themselves with unfamiliar cities or even unfamiliar continents have whole shelves at the bookstore. But at the time, the receiver of the inquiry forwarded it to Jefferson. And Jefferson went a bit nuts.
The result is the only unguarded outpouring of Jefferson’s feelings that we, as a nation, are ever likely to get. He famously lacked the ovaries to condemn slavery in his personal writings. But here? Well. Bear with me for a moment, because the juicy political stuff will come a bit later.
My first favorite nugget is this:
Query IV: A Notice of its Mountains?
The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point of land. On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain an hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches the Patowmac, in quest of a passage also. In the moment of their junction, they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea. The first glance of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion, that this earth has been created in time, that the mountains were formed first, that the rivers began to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly they have been dammed up by the Blue ridge of mountains, and have formed an ocean which filled the whole valley; that continuing to rise they have at length broken over at this spot and have torn the mountain down from its summit to its base…
If Notes is remembered at all, it is remembered for some particularly spicy things Jefferson says about slavery in later chapters. And this earlier gem is lost. Which is not surprising. But it is a shame. Knowing what we do about Jefferson the slaveowner, Jefferson the rapist, Jefferson the hypocrite, I think it heightens the tragedy to remember that they were one and the same with Jefferson the scientist and Jefferson the outdoorsman and Jefferson the poet.
What Aspect of Jefferson’s Character is revealed by this Passage?
Take a moment and let’s study this passage. I can’t think of when I have ever heard of the features of a landscape described so dramatically. Reading this passage I can somehow see the danger and splendor of what he is describing. The rising waters. The pressure building up against a rock wall… Jefferson is well known to have made some serious errors both in his private life and in his presidency. It’s tempting to say: Well he was an idiot. But he wasn’t, was he? Smart people can behave stupidly. And some smart-stupid people can write beautifully.
Let’s skip ahead to Query 18, which concerns “The Particular Customs and Manners that may Happen to be Received in that State?”
Starting on the fifth or so line, he gets down to it:
Query 18: The Particular Customs and Manners that may Happen to be Received in that State?
There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal…
Even here, Jefferson the scientist speaks almost as loudly and eloquently as Jefferson the armchair philosopher.
What if?
I think the most poignant thing about these few lines is that Jefferson is one of the most powerful people in his state; which makes him one of the most powerful people in his country. And yet even he feels powerless to take a stand against his culture. I find myself speculating. Almost to the point of writing fan-fiction in my head. What would have happened if Jefferson had freed more than just the Hemings children? What if he had attempted to convert only his plantation and some few others into a free market? How many other rich families would he have needed to gain the alliance of? Would it have helped? Elderly slaves were often granted a short retirement after their bodies were used up. Small concession. But even that concession might not be guaranteed by a market economy.
But it is late for such ideas. That story is written and the inks are long since dry.
Elsewhere in the same Query, he writes:
Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events.
But then he ends the paragraph on a (sort of) (guardedly) hopeful note:
I think a change already perceptible, since the origin of the present revolution. The spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust, his condition mollifying, the way I hope preparing, under the auspices of heaven, for a total emancipation, and that this is disposed, in the order of events, to be with the consent of the masters rather than by their extirpation.
Everyone Wants Peace and Justice, and Yet…
Something I am struck by in this season in which Passover, Easter, and Ramadan felicitously coincide. (Fun fact: there will be a day next year, too, that is all three: Ramadan, Passover, and Easter.) Peace is almost always achieved through violence. Jefferson prays to God for a resolution of the issue. Does he expect a peaceful resolution to this issue? He hopes for one, at any rate. But does he expect one? Doubtful
The Jefferson we get to read about in these pages is such a disappointment. But then. What do we really expect of people? I know that Thomas Jefferson is not the Biblical Amos to cast aside all manner of ceremony and instead declare: “Let justice well up as waters.” But… nothing? Professor Fields informed us that he never addressed the issue of Abolition again in his life. He lived more than forty years after he wrote these thoughts (more if you consider that he refused to publish at first).
Elsewhere in the Notes, Jefferson’s arguments are less defensible:
Query XIV: The Administration of Justice and Description of the Laws?
I would like to quote a larger passage. But the sheer length of his screed against the genetic inferiority of other races all-but-forces my hand.
Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me, that in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous.
I have several reactions to this passage.
Can we Just “Cancel” Jefferson and be Done?
The first is that here is cancel-culture in a nutshell. If Jefferson were not president, it would be very difficult to justify reading this book. But we must read it all the more because it is so despicable. The second is that it is possible for something to be beautifully written… and yet not worth reading. Here as elsewhere, Jefferson’s tone is musical. His word-choice is apt. Everything about his style is at the ready for him to express brilliant thoughts. And yet he does not.
Jefferson Sees what he Wants
The third is somewhat more involved: people see what they want. Jefferson was a scientist and an inventor. By definition, he was capable of following a thought to its logical conclusion. Why not here? Why did his mind refuse to see that if a black person had any intellect they would hide it from their plantation-owner? Or if they did not hide their ability to think, they would at least hide their thoughts from him as much as possible.
What possible benefit could there be to a slave to let their owner think them clever? A clever slave is more likely to run away; more likely to foment disorder; more likely to steal from the kitchens, no? God. It is so frustrating for someone as intelligent as Jefferson to show himself to be so blindingly stupid.
Accidental Novel as a Way of Life
The idea of the accidental novel proceeds like this. People say (and write) egregious things all the time. And many people (I include myself in this criticism) haven’t the least idea that what we are saying is horrible. Because it is in line with what we think of as normal. A good novel interrogates a culture; in short, it interrogates what is normal.
I try to read everything as if I were reading a novel. Not because I’m interrogating everything for its flaws. Absolutely not. But I want to see things from different sides. I want to know what someone like Jefferson thought of himself. But I also want to know what Sally Hemings thought of him.
If done properly, reading a novel can make you a better person. The same goes for reading an accidental novel. It gives you practice in empathizing with another person. And we could all use more of that. That is, if our disputes; our wars; our systems of slavery and oppression… are to be resolved peacefully rather than violently.
In that one respect I can’t disagree with Jefferson. As ugly as some American institutions are; and as ugly as some institutions are that exist around the world, I can’t wish for their violent overthrow. But I worry that violence is inevitable.
