You sound like a typical victim of government education. IMHO, Jefferson was more opposed to slavery than Lincoln was, and Jefferson owned slaves.
ML/NJ
I would be interested in the evidence you use to substantiate that claim.
Jefferson was clearly ambivalent about the morality of slavery but, as you said, he owned hundreds of them. What the heck - it was legal, right?! He was also undecided as to how to rid himself of them, but favored mandatory deportation.
Lincoln’s attitude was more clear - he didn’t own them, and favored the end of the practice. He was also unclear on what would become of the freed slaves and contemplated (among other things) voluntary repatriation to Africa.
That is a very humble opinion indeed. I thought you were going to go on learning.
Jefferson bought and sold many slaves in his lifetime. He lived off their labor and only freed a few while he was alive or in his will. He had a knack for striking impressive moral poses but had real trouble following through. To the degree that Jefferson was anti-slavery his opposition was accompanied by a belief in colonization of freed slaves outside the US, the same belief that Lincoln is reproached for.
As he grew older, Jefferson came to view slavery as a North-South issue. For Jefferson, supporting "equal rights" for the South meant giving support to slaveowners. He could support the spread of slavery while believing that the extension of slavery would make it easier to eradicate that institution, which is not a view most thinking people would have accepted.
All this is sufficient evidence that Jefferson was not more opposed to slavery than Lincoln, who opposed the spread of slavery for years and eventually help to end slavery in the United States. This "our good Jefferson" versus "their bad Lincoln" thing is quite tiresome. Maybe a good starting point would be to recognize what they had in common, rather than simplistically setting them against each other as good and bad examples.