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A Look at Thomas Jefferson's Egregious Hypocrisy
Scientific American ^ | 7/1 | John Horgan

Posted on 07/01/2016 8:18:53 AM PDT by TangledUpInBlue

I once admired Jefferson, seeing him as an essentially good, no, great man with one tragic flaw: The writer of the inspiring words “all men are created equal” owned slaves. Now, I see Jefferson as an egregious hypocrite, who willfully betrayed the ideals he espoused.

I reached this conclusion only after visiting Monticello, Jefferson’s famous Virginia estate, last month. Previously, I didn't realize the extent of Jefferson’s slave ownership, and I lazily—and ignorantly--excused it as a common ethical blind spot of his time.

*Jefferson often denounced slavery. He wrote in 1774, "The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state.” Yet over the course of his life he owned a total of 600 slaves, who worked on his Monticello farm and other holdings.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.scientificamerican.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: abolition; abolitionist; abolitionists; billofrights; constitution; declaration; garbage; johnhorgan; kissmyass; liberalagenda; monticello; scientificamerican; thomasjefferson
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To: wac3rd

[ Why confuse today with 240 years ago when a self-hating Liberal white guy can write bullshit about how he despises his own country. Where are all the uplifting stories from Tehran or Mogidiahu? ]

They will give a “Cultural Pass” to brutal regimes because they don’t live in the USA, but Cultural excuses only work geographically, not temporally....


41 posted on 07/01/2016 8:57:31 AM PDT by GraceG (Only a fool works hard in an environment where hard work is not appreciated...)
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To: TangledUpInBlue

“For Independence Day, A Look at Thomas Jefferson’s Egregious Hypocrisy”

Yeah.

For Independence Day.

Right.

Communist anti-American ethos has taken over just about everything.


42 posted on 07/01/2016 8:57:39 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: rightwingcrazy

Google “anthony johnson and Casor suit” for a very interesting read on slavery in early colonial America. You will be shocked...


43 posted on 07/01/2016 8:57:39 AM PDT by MichaelRDanger
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To: TangledUpInBlue
“A Look at Thomas Jefferson's Egregious Hypocrisy”

Egregious hypocrisy? Mr. Horgan is oblivious to how he is repudiated by his own words. This article is a baby-step toward taking down the monuments to Jefferson, Washington, and yes, Lincoln.

44 posted on 07/01/2016 8:57:39 AM PDT by jeffersondem
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To: JT Hatter

My family subscribed to SA for GENERATIONS.
That ended when they got political.
Scientific American is gone.


45 posted on 07/01/2016 8:58:58 AM PDT by golux
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To: equaviator

It’s about deconstructing (destroying) this country.


46 posted on 07/01/2016 8:59:39 AM PDT by aquila48
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To: TangledUpInBlue

Slavery in America: Source of immense problems, including to the present day.

We have been paying for that “cheap labor” and will continue to pay for it, into the foreseeable future.


47 posted on 07/01/2016 8:59:44 AM PDT by truth_seeker (#NeverHillary#NeeverBernie)
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To: TangledUpInBlue

Jefferson was pretty much an economic failure, as a plantation owner. Washington manumitted his slaves in his will. Jefferson died in debt, and his debtors would not have allowed it.


48 posted on 07/01/2016 9:00:20 AM PDT by jdege
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To: SaraJohnson

“When they were released, they should have been sent back to their homelands with payment for their work, IMO. Leaving them in the US only caused more misery for them. Up to this day, many are miserable living in the US.”

Up to this day? As if slavery ended a couple decades ago? Nobody today is responsible for what happened before they were born. Slavery is in the past. The civil rights charlatans make a good living off of it. Blacks are free to dream, work, succeed, and enjoy the fruits of thier labor like everyone else. And there are many successful blacks in every profession and vocation.

There will always be miserable, unhappy malcontents who just want free crap - no matter their color. Welfare helped create an entire class of them.


49 posted on 07/01/2016 9:01:28 AM PDT by bluejean (The lunatics are running the asylum)
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To: equaviator
While many of his contemporaries, including George Washington, freed their slaves during and after the revolution-.......

Once again we must correct this piece of mis-information. Washington did not free his slaves. His will stated that his slaves would go to Martha and that they be freed upon her death. Martha, fearful that the slaves would murder her to gain their freedom released them early.

Slavery and giving freedom to slaves was a much more complex and difficult decision than many imagine today. Washington said slavery was like holding a tiger by the tail. You dare not let it go but you won't be able to hold on forever.

For anyone interested this is an excellent book about the subject

A Disease in the Public Mind - by Thomas Fleming
50 posted on 07/01/2016 9:01:47 AM PDT by slumber1 (Islam delenda est)
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To: GraceG

I believe your are mistaken. Jefferson freed 5 slaves while alive and 5 others were freed in his will after his death.
G.W.P. Custis, father-in-law of Robert E. Lee, freed his 75 or 80 slaves in his will. Colonel Lee, as executor to the Custis estate, freed those slaves over a 5 year period as specified by the will. Slaves could be freed in Virginia.
There was a law, seldom enforced evidently, that forbade freed slaves from living in Virginia.


51 posted on 07/01/2016 9:04:44 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
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To: Jamestown1630

There were pro”s and con’s to the nation for having slaves. Nothing more, nothing less, imo. Way to big of a deal is made of it. If slavery were legalized today, people would be standing in long lines to get theirs.


52 posted on 07/01/2016 9:05:34 AM PDT by Carry me back (Cut the feds by 90%9)
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To: TangledUpInBlue

No, it’s just revisionist, leftist propaganda.


53 posted on 07/01/2016 9:07:24 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: TangledUpInBlue

So did he allow his own progeny to stay slaves as well? What an unpleasant man.


54 posted on 07/01/2016 9:07:57 AM PDT by Yaelle (Donald Trump vs. Bipartisan Oligarchy)
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To: Right Brother

Oh yeah, the last bit was tripe.

But I’m taking it on face value that the Lafayette conversation was real.


55 posted on 07/01/2016 9:09:13 AM PDT by Yaelle (Donald Trump vs. Bipartisan Oligarchy)
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To: trisham

[ No, it’s just revisionist, leftist propaganda. ]

for a leftist is is easier AND SAFER to become a “self-deconstructionalist” than it is to criticize a current exotic culture that is currently committing human atrocities.


56 posted on 07/01/2016 9:09:51 AM PDT by GraceG (Only a fool works hard in an environment where hard work is not appreciated...)
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To: GraceG

Well said.


57 posted on 07/01/2016 9:10:40 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Carry me back

**If slavery were legalized today, people would be standing in long lines to get theirs.**

This is exactly how I feel when I am waiting in a long, slow-moving line, to renew my CCW every six years.


58 posted on 07/01/2016 9:11:02 AM PDT by Daffynition ("We have the fight of our lives coming up to save our nation!" ~ Jim Robinson)
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To: rightwingcrazy

Scientific American lost its way many many years ago.... it is an outpouring of PC tripe, well not that I bother to look at it anymore....


59 posted on 07/01/2016 9:11:56 AM PDT by Enchante (No lipstick on the PIAPS!! #NeverShrillary)
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To: truth_seeker

[ Slavery in America: Source of immense problems, including to the present day.

We have been paying for that “cheap labor” and will continue to pay for it, into the foreseeable future. ]

Cheap labor never really works out well does it....

Liberals call Slaver “America’s Original Sin”, it is NOT.

The British Started it, it should be called: “America’s Inherited Sin from the British empire”


60 posted on 07/01/2016 9:12:05 AM PDT by GraceG (Only a fool works hard in an environment where hard work is not appreciated...)
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