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And yet these very same words — affirming … Household slaves prepared food for Thomas Jefferson and his family. What isn’t widely known, however, is that Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, in an early version of the Declaration, drafted a 168-word passage that condemned slavery … Rather than ask how he could possibly tolerate the persistence of slavery, it is more historically correct to wonder how this member of Virginia’s planter class had managed to develop such liberal convictions. LIVE with Niya Bates, Gayle Jessup White, and Brandon Dillard - Interpreting Slavery at Monticello. Enslaved people worked in various roles around Monticello. At some points he was one of the largest slaveowners in Virginia. To protect himself from facing the reality of his problematic status as plantation master, he constructed a paternalistic self-image as a benevolent father caring for what he called “my family.” Believing that he and his slaves were the victims of history’s failure to proceed along the enlightened path, he saw himself as the steward for those entrusted to his care until a better future arrived for them all. In his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, he included a passage, subsequently deleted by the Continental Congress, blaming both the slave trade and slavery itself on George III. His mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, was descended from one of the most prominent families in Virginia. Moreover, the very logic of his argument in Notes exposed the inherent intractability of his position. They would have to be transported elsewhere, back to Africa or perhaps the Caribbean, after emancipation. His mounting indebtedness rendered all such thoughts superfluous toward the end, because his slaves, like all his possessions, were mortgaged to his creditors and therefore not really his to free. Jefferson owned, on average, about 200 slaves at any point in time, and slightly over 600 over his lifetime. Farm workers planted, hoed, plowed and picked crops. His two most practical proposals came in the early 1780s: a gradual emancipation scheme by which all slaves born after 1800 would be freed and their owners compensated, and a prohibition of slavery in all the territories of the West as a condition for admission … MAPPING ADDRESS: Unlike most of his fellow Virginians, Jefferson was prepared to acknowledge that slavery was an anomaly in the American republic established in 1776. While many associate Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, and the person that had written the Declaration of Independence with the idea of freedom, his attitudes towards the concepts of slavery were dual. Jefferson grew quiet about the immorality of slavery in the 1790s, and in total, forced an estimated 600 people to work for him. Jefferson’s life and words reflect the moral contradictions and practical concerns facing the architects of the new democracy that extolled freedom and equality. Called his “mistress,” but how can you be a mistress when you were a slave, a child, and could not consent? Follow. On the other hand, Jefferson was a man who owned many slaves. 931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway The public assertion of this relationship was originally made in 1802 by a disreputable journalist interested in injuring Jefferson’s political career. At the time of the American Revolution, Jefferson was actively involved in legislation that he hoped would result in slavery’s abolition.5 In 1778, he drafted a Virginia law that prohibited the importation of enslaved Africans.6 In 1784, he proposed an ordinance that would ban slavery in the Northwest territories.7 But Jefferson always maintained that the decision to emancipate slaves would have to be part of a … - Napolean sold land to Thomas Jefferson - 1803 - paid 15 million dollars for the territory - consequence of the Haitiian revolution. Despite writing the words "all men are created equal," Jefferson was a life-long slave owner who held over 600 humans in bondage throughout his lifetime. In any case, coming as it did at the midpoint of Jefferson’s career, the publication of Notes affords the opportunity to review Jefferson’s previous and subsequent positions on the most volatile and therefore most forbidden topic in the revolutionary era. Jefferson had written it in the fall of 1781 and had agreed to a French edition only after learning that an unauthorized version was already in press. Although he made some legislative attempts against slavery and at times bemoaned its existence, Jefferson also profited directly from the institution of slavery. Jefferson profited not just by the crops and products produced by his enslaved laborers but also from the value of the slaves themselves. Jefferson, the eloquent advocate of freedom, was a slaveowner holding a crystal ball in which he saw a golden future for America while standing precariously at the edge of a moral abyss. Even before his departure from France, Jefferson had overseen the publication of Notes on the State of Virginia. "Some visitors think we're trying to knock Jefferson off his pedestal" - A Guide's Perspective, "Picturing Mulberry Row" - A short video about Monticello's main plantation street, LIVE with Bill Barker: Intrerpting Slavery at Monticello. Notes contained an extensive discussion of slavery, including a graphic description of its horrific effects on both blacks and whites, a strong assertion that it violated the principles on which the American Revolution was based, and an apocalyptic prediction that failure to end slavery would lead to “convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of one or the other race.” It also contained the most explicit assessment that Jefferson ever wrote of what he believed were the biological differences between blacks and whites, an assessment that exposed the deep-rooted racism that he, like most Americans and almost all Virginians of his day, harboured throughout his life. I purchased the video for the sole purpose of the education of my students. In the meantime, his own lavish lifestyle and all the incessant and expensive renovations of his Monticello mansion were wholly dependent on slave labour. 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