Jefferson promoted slavery’s western expansion as a route to eventual emancipation

Evidence

Jefferson, the nation’s most famous antislavery anti-abolitionist, longed for the Louisiana Territory, which he purchased in 1803, to become the republic’s hospital, the place where the illnesses of the original states could be cured—most notably, the illness of slavery. Enslaved Africans would be spread out in the vast Louisiana Territory (if not sent to Africa). The “diffusion [of enslaved Africans] over a greater surface would make them individually happier, and proportionally facilitate the accomplishment of their emancipation, by dividing the burden on a great number of coadjutors.” Jefferson dreamed that the vast Louisiana Territory could swallow slavery. Spread enslaved Africans out, and they will go away? — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 406

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clear example of the assimilationist position: dissolve the ‘problem’ by spreading Black people thin so they assimilate and distribution makes emancipation easier.
• XREF: Directly matches the reader’s assimilationist category — Jefferson’s diffusion theory is a canonical assimilationist argument to have in the toolkit.