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 ...
**Now, I see Jefferson as an egregious hypocrite, who willfully betrayed the ideals he espoused.**
A suggestion to the author ... Read:
http://www.essaysinhistory.com/articles/2012/94
In another 250 years, let’s see how TJ and this author is remembered. Jefferson’s lasting significance in American history or a clueless and failed nobody, who dared to call them-self an author.
Thanks for the link.
For everyone that believes Jefferson did not father slaves, 100 believe he did. Such is the power of the liberal media, even here on FreeRepublic.
That may well be, but Washington well understood that at that time, with the country still heavily in debt (Hamilton had not yet laid the path to solvency) we could not risk getting entangled in another war.
It was simply the reality. That was a problem with no good solution at the time.
However, what I object to is Jefferson’s WEASELLY approach to this issue. Washington was tired, but he wasn’t losing his mind. What Jefferson did was scummy and spineless.
But...having said that, there is no denying Jefferson was a great man. I simply don’t like seeing that kind of behavior in someone I admire.
It may not actually be in the magazine, just on the website.
From one of their blogs. Independence Day tie-in.
Nowadays, everybody wants new daily content to generate clicks and they aren't very particular about what they get.
That was Jefferson's own argument, but it really doesn't work. Slavery came in about the same time representative government came in. Nobody forced it on the colonists.
I never realized it was illegal to beat your slaves in places. Not that the law wasnt abused but modern Americans think the slaves were treated like Russian gulag prisoners or Japanese POWs in WWII.
It just isnt so, but the marxist race baiters need that believed.
Your comparison to workipnk farm animals sound on the mark. Farmers mostly don’t abuse them and are often fond of particular ones. Then again, no farm animal is as unruly as a human can be, and I can understand an African tribal warrior refusing to be put to work or often trying to escape, and that would have merited punishment. It could escalate from there. But the idea of owners just beating people for sport, people who they want to be happy enough to work hard, that just makes no sense at all.
BINGO.
Sad thing is, the welfare queens would be the first in line and the cost would be paid for by the government via our taxes. Conservatives would NEVER take away another persons freedom. We appreciate our own too much to do that. Now, criminals who forfeit their freedom are a different story.
This article may demonstrate why many consider Jefferson to be the spiritual father of the Democrat Party.
Some came here in the 1600s. Release came many generations later, in the latter part of the 1800s. What homeland? They wouldn't even know which homeland, much less the language, the food or the customs.
Thanks for the link. Perusing the information provided, it seems that abolishing slavery was a long, drawn-out process in several countries.
“The United States was one of the LAST civilized countries to abolish slavery:”
I don’t really see that. Some were before us and some were after us, in abolishing slavery in the New World. Brazil and Cuba were large slave holding nations who abolished slavery after the US:
“1886: Slavery abolished in Cuba.[29]
1888, 13 May: Brazil enacts the Golden Law, decreeing the total abolition of slavery with immediate effect”
Asia, Africa, and the Middle-East continued much longer.
I disagree. Most slave owners would have treated their slaves a prudent farmer would take care of his horses or mules. He would make sure they were fed, clothed, sheltered and if injured their injuries were treated. If they are ill fed, weak or sick, they cannot work for you as they should.
People treat pets as if their children. This is not how slave owners, even the most benevolent would treat slaves.
Being a slave for Thomas Jefferson was probably as good as it could get for a slave. He fired overseers for being “too free with the whip”. Some slaves that ran away were not punished if Jefferson thought they had a good reason to flee. If they tried a second time, thought, they were sold South.
Of the ten slaves Jefferson freed, eight were blood relatives of Sally Hemmings. In the case of two of Sally Hemmings daughters, they were told the could leave Monticello and would not be pursued. They left, never to be heard of again. Since they were very light skinned, some historians believed that they were able to pass for “white” and disappeared into white society somewhere outside of Virginia.
People want to think that it's "settled science" that Jefferson impregnated Sally Hemings, but the fact is, that has never been proven, since his nephew was also living at the estate during the time period when she had those children, and biologically, they could have been the nephew's. But that possibility just doesn't make as good an indictment, for the Left, of the Founders as does blaming Jefferson.
As others have noted, Jefferson was a terrible businessman and died in debt. Until he died, one imagines he kept trying to make the place profitable, which required workers, so he was in a reciprocating bind. He "suffered" from creative genius that outstripped his managerial skills. He designed many architectural innovations not only at Monticello, but also at Poplar Forest, the "summer" estate he inherited from his father-in-law. Both required extensive labor to build and maintain, and Poplar Forest, whose house looks like a smaller version of Monticello, was never finished. Monticello also had a large experimental vegetable garden and orchards requiring a lot of work. Jefferson was also the designer of the main campus of the University of Virginia. His vision exceeded his ability to execute "on time and under budget."
After Jefferson’s death, Martha Randolph (TJs daughter) placed Sally Hemmings on her “own time” (retired from work)
A little later, Sally was allowed to leave Monticello. She moved in with two of her sons that lived near Charlottesville. In the 1830 census, she and both of her sons were listed as white.
I reached this conclusion only after visiting Monticello,
...
When I visited they said that Jefferson taught his slaves skills and paid them wages. I wonder what kind of nonsense they are telling people these days.
Jefferson wrote that "three crosses clears the blood"--talking about children of mixed race. Since Sally's mother was half-white, Sally's children by a white father would be white by Jefferson's rule. In practice, anyone who had perceptible African ancestry was considered black (the so-called one drop rule).
Maybe I oversimplified—in the 19th century people were careful to distinguish between “black” (those thought to be entirely of African ancestry) and “mulatto” (half white and half African). The census records mark people as W, B, or Mu. Of course all those not “white” were lumped together as far as how they were treated.
Jefferson had a male slave who went with him to Paris and learned French cooking. When Jefferson was ready to return to the US, the slave could have stayed in France and been free, but Jefferson promised him freedom if he would go back to Virginia and train another slave to cook French style. Eventually Jefferson carried out his promise.
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