Forward: The way we were -- An American dilemma -- Angles of vision -- The contradiction -- Unpainted pctures -- The ghost at the banquet -- The epilogue -- The treaty -- Regrets at Mount Vernon -- Memories at Monticello

"A major new history from the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers and the National Book Award winner American Sphinx, on how America's founders--Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams--regarded the issue of slavery as they drafted the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. In this daring and important work, our most trusted voice on the founding era reckons with the realities and regrets of our founding and the tragedy of its two great failures: the failure to end slavery and the failure to avoid Indian removal"-- Provided by publisher