By David K. Shipler
In his draft of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson included this denunciation of the King of England’s trade in human beings. It was deleted by the Continental Congress, much to his chagrin. He nonetheless retained it in copies that he sent to those with whom he corresponded, demonstrating that as a slave-owner who detested slavery, he was as complex as the society he guided. On this and every July 4, it is worth considering whether our history would have taken a different course had the men of the Congress been enlightened enough to include it. As the reporters of National Public Radio take turns reading the Declaration to mark every Fourth, they would do well to add this condemnation, noting its unfortunate demise.
By Thomas Jefferson
He [King George III] has waged a cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.
Uh, maybe not so much, Thomas.
ReplyDeleteIf looking for an honorable, conscionable Founder/Framer; Jefferson was in France drinking wine & dodging musket balls summer 1787 - & getting cryptic mail from Madison on Shays Rebellion, per convention secrecy, “Tree of liberty, blood patriots, tyrants” his reply.
Ben’s your guy.
Jefferson was freaked, as many, about a potential negro uprising; as in the Horrors of San Domingo (Haiti). Brutal stuff. Both ways.
Thom was having nightmares, thought the evil of slavery a dilemma vs emancipation. (Although, ‘Causes Necessities for taking up Arms’ penultimate, before Dec Indie pretty firey on slavery. And all around.)
He wanted to emancipate. Sure.
And EXPATRIATE!
“A wolf by the ear...”
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/159.html
He was elected the Minister of France before Shays Rebellion, why wouldn't he had been in France? Also, that quote you referenced completely omitted the majority. Properly, it goes: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants," at the end of a letter to the son-in-law of John Adams. More or less, Jefferson respected the Rebellion and thought of the idea of rebelling against the government an expected outcome in the pursuits of freedom.
DeleteAs for slaves, his opinion seemed conflicted with the times. He thought the slaves were no different than animals and as soon as they were freed, they would slaughter everyone. He did believe slavery was wrong, but his ignorance through the teachings of the times kept him from filing the emancipation bills he wrote.
I won't argue if he's honorable or not, but he certainly wasn't the exaggeration you misconstrued.
The quote is from Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence, not from a letter. He was in the Colonies at the time, 1776. He was in France when the Constitution was drafted in 1787. His bigoted images of Blacks are vividly recorded in his Notes on the State of Virginia, which does note his view that Blacks and whites could never coexist peacefully. In sum, a man as complicated as his society.
ReplyDeleteYour last sentence, "he certainly wasn't the exaggeration you misconstrued," I don't understand. What exaggeration?