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 ...
I’ve always doubted that Thomas was the father. My money has always been on Randolph.
-JT
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.
If slavery were legalized today, people would be standing in long lines to get theirs.
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.
Omni magazine had more credibility than the new Sci American.
I always enjoyed Omni; it was a fun read. A lot of the issues are being archived:
Jefferson was great with words, not with deeds. In any sense.
The slavery thing is beaten to death, but it really is not the only thing.
He is indeed highly overrated. Although, one deed he did was great - facing down the Barbary Moslem Pirates.
“... by today’s standards...”
Today there is no slavery in America.
Today slavery is mostly a problem with Islamic doctrine.
Before the lib and BLM writers denounce America they should watch this, about the white prophet who owned black slaves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FBsmxOfnLE
[ IMO Thomas Jefferson was a product of his time and environment and cannot be judged by today’s standards. ]
Isn’t it funny how liberal will use “geographical cultural relativity” as an excuse for current cultures, but when it comes to our own, “They were a product of their environment” is not seen as a valid excuse at all...
Up to this day, many are miserable living in the US.....Do they make their own misery, perhaps?
Most modern Americans do not understand this. And this ignorance wont change because most people dont read anymore, schools dont teach history anymore, and especially because this “hipocracy” narrative advances the commie left agenda.
But glad to see somebody here knows the truth and is teaching that to others.
It is like the movie depictions of slave owners savagely beating all their slaves. Yes, many did, but others did not. Many treated their slaves like a pet owner might today. Most people dont beat their pets and reward their pets for desired behavior and get attached to them.
My apologies to all and especially black Freepers if that sounds like I am degrading or dehumaniizing the slaves or excusing the slave owners. Enslavement is the second greatest evil that can be done, behind only genocide. Slavery is evil and it was a Faustian bargain to coddle the slave owners, but without that there would have been no America.
I simply mean that not all slaves were so abused as portrayed by modern movies and the NSM. Many older movies show a bonding between some owners and slaves, and that generation had grandfathers who were slave owners. They would know.
Exactly.
You have to remember, liberals are HUGE on moral relativity.
They beat on ancient history and people (in the US colonies, anyway) that cannot be changed. They are absolutists when it comes to old news.
But they are relativists when it comes to the here and now. People today are excused left and right, even killers, because the pseudo-commies say we have to “understand” and “see things their way”!
Why not apply that to dead people whom you can’t change now?
[ 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. ]
Depends on where you start, the United states was one of the first of the Western Countries in the New world to Start the process, arguably the multifaceted makeup of the colonies and the expansion into new territories complicated the abolition of slavery and we paid dearly for it’s demise with the deaths of over 500,000 American (both south and north) lives to finally end it.
Several of the states abolished slavery before the Great Britain Abolished Slavery.
We are one of the few countries to pay with so much blood to abolish slavery. That should count for something...
I guess you didnt see the big topic for SUSTAINABILITY on top of their page. The commie left has infiltrated or out right taken over almost every source of information dissemination in America. Meanwile all rich conservatives like Zlimbaugh and Hannity care about is just getting richer. They would never spend a cent of their own money to buy or start a conservative newspaper or magazine.
They’d be p*ssing away money to start a newspaper or magazine. Those media are on a glide path to oblivion.
That would have been a logistical nightmare, finding safe and humane passage for what, 5-6 million men, women, and children.
I think the better solution would have been to “simply” cede the states of Alabama and Mississippi to the freedmen and allow them to set up (with our help) there own sovereign nation.
Most of the former slaves were already there and I don’t think there would have been a whole lot of sympathy for the white land owners that would have been dispossessed.....losing a brutal war has consequences.
Jefferson did some manumission - “dropping the ball”, if you will, intentionally with some slaves and “letting them fall through the cracks”. That is manumission. Freeing on the sly with no one knowing. But, supposedly he did free a few slaves in his will. Probably his favored people.
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.
[ Exactly.
You have to remember, liberals are HUGE on moral relativity.
They beat on ancient history and people (in the US colonies, anyway) that cannot be changed. They are absolutists when it comes to old news.
But they are relativists when it comes to the here and now. People today are excused left and right, even killers, because the pseudo-commies say we have to “understand” and “see things their way”!
Why not apply that to dead people whom you can’t change now? ]
Isn’t it also funny how they will excuse illegal aliens and there are very few stories from the liberal media about the “new slave traders” aka. the Coyote Human Smugglers...
Illegal Alien Labor is essentially “Neo-Slavery” and instead of railing against it like UNION LEADER CEASAR CHAVEZ did when he was alive, instead they claim he was FOR IT...
If you call “Illegal Alien Labor” slavery in front of a Liberal they will say “They have a right to work if they are willing to”.... yet these same morons want to force a 15 dollar an hour wage onto employers when it comes to LEGAL employees, even if a LEGAL EMPLOYEE wants to work for LESS....
Hypocrisy thy name is Progressive Liberalism....
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