The Invention of an Epidemic

Malcolm Gladwell's chapter from 'The American Way of Killing' begins with the 1739 Stono Rebellion, where enslaved people led by Jemmy revolted in South Carolina, killing white colonists and sparking terror among the planter class. This rebellion crystallized the central anxiety of slave-owning states: they were vastly outnumbered by enslaved populations and vulnerable to insurrection. Gladwell then pivots to the textual puzzle of the Second Amendment, which reads: 'A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' The amendment's awkward grammar—an initial being clause followed by an operative clause with different subjects—has created centuries of interpretive confusion. During the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller oral arguments, Supreme Court justices debated whether these clauses were connected or separate, with some (like Justice Kennedy) arguing they could be 'delinked,' making the operative clause about individual gun ownership independent of militia service. However, Gladwell introduces Australian linguist Kari Sullivan, who conducted extensive analysis of James Madison's writing using linguistic corpora. Sullivan found that Madison used initial being clauses 976 times in his writings, but never once used them as standalone thoughts separate from the operative clause. In fact, this grammatical construction was already becoming obsolete by the 1660s—no one in the late 18th century wrote sentences that way. Therefore, the Second Amendment must be read as Madison intended: the being clause modifies and contextualizes the operative clause. The amendment is about militias, not individual gun ownership. Gladwell then explores why Madison included this amendment. Madison was from Virginia, the largest slave state, and was deeply anxious about slave rebellions and British efforts (like Lord Dunmore's proclamation) to free enslaved people who joined the British side during the Revolutionary War. When Virginia's ratifying convention debated the Constitution in 1788, Patrick Henry and other Anti-Federalists feared that a strong central government would undermine state militias—the critical tool for controlling enslaved populations. Madison wrote the Second Amendment specifically to reassure Virginia's delegation that the Constitution would not strip away their militia system. The amendment was a political compromise aimed at perpetuating slavery, not a timeless guarantee of individual gun rights. Gladwell concludes that honest discussion of the Second Amendment requires acknowledging this uncomfortable truth: the real image associated with the Second Amendment should not be the Minuteman at Lexington and Concord, but the slave patroller in the South.