Some Facts About Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was certainly not perfect. But then, no one is. But a lot of lies have been told about him.

First, there’s the tiresome nonsense about Dead White Male Slave Owners. Yes, Jefferson owned slaves. So did some blacks and Indians, and there were black slave ship captains. And if you want to talk about the horrors of whites being slaves, look up ‘indentured servants’ sometime. Slavery has unfortunately been the default norm for the human race.

Most people don’t know it, but Jefferson did more than anyone else to make slavery illegal in the United States. In 1784 he proposed to the Continental Congress that ‘there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude’ in any of the new states. He lost by a single vote.

He often bought and sold slaves to unite families, and died so deeply in debt that he lacked the legal ability to free more than a small number of his slaves, who as “property” under Virginia law were subject to the claims of his creditors.

Most people don’t know any of these things about him.

Posted by Bob Wallace, who says, no wonder newspapers are going out of business, since they're run by morons who couldn't find their butt with both hands.

Comments

[Tom Novak]

I recommend the little book "What Would Thomas Jefferson Think About This" by Richard J. Maybury so often that I should get kickbacks.