Jefferson was forbade by Virginia Law to release his slaves...
Also these nit-wits in SI don’t realize that America was ONE OF THE FIRST countries to star outlawing slavery.
Slavery still exists today in the MOOSELIMB WORLD....
I have read that sometimes a slave would ‘go missing’; and after ascertaining that they were doing alright in freedom, Jefferson let them alone and didn’t try to get them back.
-JT
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.
Actually, the United States was one of the LAST civilized countries to abolish slavery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_slavery_timeline
Essentially the only entities instituting emancipation policies after us were territories and protectorates.
Yes after 1806 VA law said if you freed a slave they had to leave the state after one year so I guess Jefferson felt it would be problematic. And many of his slaves were mortgaged and could not be freed.
From what I have read Jefferson’s attitude toward slaves was little different from Abraham Lincoln’s. They neither one believed slaves were equal intellectually to whites.
IMO Thomas Jefferson was a product of his time and environment and cannot be judged by today’s standards.
Um...
America was one of the last, if not the last Western nation to prohibit slavery, although Napoleon Bonapart legalized it again in 1802 for the Carribean sugar cane plantations. Evil, that.
But you are right about one thing. African nations right down to Saudi Arabia did not make slavery illegal until pthe 1960s, and allow illegal slavery today. So yes, many African nations still allow that evil practice.
The irony.
Um...
America was one of the last, if not the last Western nation to prohibit slavery, although Napoleon Bonapart legalized it again in 1802 for the Carribean sugar cane plantations. Evil, that.
But you are right about one thing. African nations right down to Saudi Arabia did not make slavery illegal until pthe 1960s, and allow illegal slavery today. So yes, many African nations still allow that evil practice.
The irony.