Posted on 12/15/2021 3:09:53 AM PST by Kaslin
The anti-American Left constantly lies. This is not surprising. What is troubling, however, is their bid to twist all American history into the narrative of the 1619 Project -- something that many historians have critiqued as containing misleading and factual inaccuracies. Case in point is the man whom Democrats once revered: Thomas Jefferson.
To say that Jefferson was a complex and complicated man is an understatement… and virtually everyone knows that Jefferson was a complex and complicated man. New York City’s recent removal of his statue from their city hall indicted his legacy of slavery as the main reason.
While it is true that Jefferson owned slaves, that is not his legacy regarding slavery. In fact, Jefferson was the most ardent abolitionist and anti-slavery politician in the early republic. His early draft of the Declaration condemned slavery and blamed the English Crown for its imposition in North America and the filth that it brought.
In 1778, in the midst of the American Revolution, Jefferson lobbied and successfully convinced the Virginia Legislature to ban the import of slaves into the state. It was the first state after the Declaration of Independence to outlaw the slave trade. As governor, as the war ravaged the southern states, Jefferson supported African Americans serving in the Virginia militia to be compensated with land and money for their service to advance the cause of liberty.
After the Constitutional Convention and the formation of the American republic, the expansion of slavery was a contentious issue as involved the westward expansion. Jefferson took his stand against the expansion of slavery when he authored the Northwest Ordinances, thus preventing the Midwest from having the peculiar institution expanding into its lands.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Where were our people?
good question!
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His earlier version would have banned slavery in all the territories west of the Appalachian Mountains, but only after 1800 I think. That probably would have failed to prevent the spread of slavery in the Southwest as it was settled by people moving there from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, bringing slaves with them. But his earlier draft may have been the reason why the Northwest Ordinance banned slavery north of the Ohio.
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