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 ...
Yes because Liberalism really is a mental disease. It minimalizes the victim’s ability to understand, analyze and synthesize which are the three stages of learning. The third stage of learning, synthesizing is what allows us to take facts out of time and space and understand their relativity.
I think of Liberalism which I refer to as “the Hive” as a stream of consciousness which receives electrical impulses or stimuli directing it to react to changes in its environment. The only real goal is to protect the hive.
I recommend the book The Jefferson-Hemings Myth : An American Travesty to those truly interested in this subject.
ML/NJ
Actually in many states/localities, there were criminal penalties for beating or killing slaves.
So, along with the silly Simon LeGree caricature (as well as that stupid ass in “Django Unchained”) as 100% reality, these portrayals are really misleading, both about the people and the laws.
You mentioned pets, but in fact they were more like working animals, so indeed it would be plain stupid to abuse and kill them. Only really sick and stupid people would be beating their slaves to death at all chances. Ever hear of a plantation with 100% kill rate?
As I said, if it’s in today’s world, it’s all excuseable by moral relativity.
Absolutism is for the past!
“No American should have owned slaves in the first place.”
That is easy to say today. For perspective, 6% of the slaves brought to the New World were brought to the US. Far more were brought to the Caribbean, likewise to Brazil. Europeans seem to have gotten the idea of owning black slaves from the Muslim Arabs, who likely acquitted more black slaves over the centuries. Slavery is still practiced in Northern Sudan and a bill was recently introduced to legalize slavery in Saudi Arabia.
“When they were released, they should have been sent back to their homelands with payment for their work, IMO.”
African Americans were re-settled in Liberia. Their flag looks familiar, red, white, and blue with one star and stripes.
“Leaving them in the US only caused more misery for them. Up to this day, many are miserable living in the US.”
Well, I think they have a say in the matter. I know there was at least one book written by an African American after he went to Africa. His message was an emphatic preference for America.
I do think African Americans have had a troubled history (as has everyone). Aside from slavery, minimum wage laws were first enacted to keep southern black construction workers from competing with unionized whites in the north. To this day, minimum wage laws hit black teenagers the hardest. If you never get your first job, well ...
Our government school system regularly fails to serve black students. There are many excuses given for this. One is lack of discipline. But a school system that cannot provide tough love when required is a failed school system.
It’s not. It sounds like one of the early hit pieces on Jefferson to accord him the Andrew Jackson treatment. Once Tubman makes her appearance on the 20, we can begin clearing the way for other American founders to fall in order to eventually get michelle obama and the little mister on theirs.
This dopey author should read the biography of George Washington by Ron Chernow, who describes the constant tensions felt by the founders over the question of slavery. But he won’t read it, because he would have to read ALL of it. It has no glib 400-word anachronistic ideological sound-bites.
“a black man is President”
Actually, he is mixed race.
Herman Cain might have become our first black President, however our one-party press CHOSE to hammer him, as they chose not to hammer Governor Clinton.
How soon we forget. Bill Clinton was our first black President because he came from a broken family headed by a woman, yada, yada, yada.
So depending on how you count, we have had one, two, or no black Presidents to date.
Bravo.
Liberal wusses “courageously” fight the battles of the past, while sitting out the battles of today.
Crazy how often liberals will throw the baby out with the bathwater whenever anything they oppose is found to not be utterly flawless. So annoyed with them picking at splinters in someone else’s eyes w/o ever glimpsing themselves in the mirror!
Reminds me of a famous quotation:
“Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.”
—Carl Schurz, Address, Faneuil Hall, Boston, April 18, 1859. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.
:)
Washington an Jefferson would have bitter arguments over the Barbary Wars. Washington paid the jizya tax to the Ottomans. Jefferson refused to pay. They could never come to agreement on that issue.
Yes, in the end Jefferson would complain how can it cost to much too stop the Islamic pirates when we're already paying about 10th the cost of the Louisiana purchase Per year?
Jefferson honestly thought Washington was losing his mind for paying the Ottomans.
Also, those pirates would work under a different Islamic flag(country) then the Ottomans when we paid the Jizya so it was a complete waste of money.
Well, that could take some study. I was interested in Brazil:
“1885: Brazil passes Sexagenarians Law (Saraiva-Cotegipe Act), freeing all slaves over the age of 60, and creating other measures for the gradual abolition of slavery, such as a Manumissions Fund administered by the State.”
Brazil took in about 5 times as many slaves as the US. By 1860 their slave population was about the same as the US. It seems that a lot of African-Brazilian slaves died (work, disease, etc.) before having children. As a rule, the children of original slaves did better than their parents. They had not been battered crossing the Atlantic, and they were better adapted to their new environment (from bacteria to slave master).
And I forgot welfare which led to the break-up of poor families. There are as many poor whites as poor blacks, but a greater percentage of blacks are poor (each relative to its respective population).
bump
I have read of slaves who were offered freedom on the condition they would emigrate to Liberia but turned it down--going to Liberia was a scary prospect. Better the devil you know...
He was in debt so he couldn’t have freed all of his slaves. The ones he freed were Sally Hemings’ children—but Sally herself was not freed. One of her sons, Madison Hemings, was living in Ohio in 1870. The census taker wrote in the margin next to his name “This man is the son of Thomas Jefferson”—obviously that is what Madison had told him.
He was in debt so he couldn’t have freed all of his slaves. The ones he freed were Sally Hemings’ children—but Sally herself was not freed. One of her sons, Madison Hemings, was living in Ohio in 1870. The census taker wrote in the margin next to his name “This man is the son of Thomas Jefferson”—obviously that is what Madison had told him.
It seems more and more silly folks are examining the personal performances of our founders realizing that they too, were are and always will be less than perfect in both behavior and performance- that however, does not nor ever will reduce the value and timelessness of their ideology- that men can govern themselves and that all power (to govern) must come from the people, who form a government to secure their rights within the social compact.
The only man I look to for perfect example is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, all others, including all time greats like Gen. Washington, Msrs. Paine, Franklin, Jefferson, Adam, Locke and my Father and Grand Father are men with faults and failures.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.