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The moral duality of Thomas Jefferson has been explored in countless papers. How could a man with such enlightened thoughts and an important role in the founding of the government support such a corrupt system like slavery? Monticello tour guides are quick to remind visitors that this Founding Father owned around 600 slaves while arguing that all men are created equal. However, Jefferson might just be a victim of an evolving moral compass of his time and a flawed perspective from our current time. It could be argued that during Jeffersons time, slavery was slowly declining and that he himself was opposed to slavery and attempted to limit its spread with all the limited resources he possessed but could not take radical actions against the peculiar institution for fear of shattering the union.
Jeffersons first initial hypocrisy might stem from the projected decline of slavery in his time. During the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, slavery was projected to soon fizzle out because of its limited profitability. Even then, in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that King George III was guilty of captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither (Deleted Passage of Declaration). According to BlackPast.org, Jefferson later admitted that he was forced to remove these passages in exchange for more vague ones to compromise with the Southern delegates. This forecast and compromise could justify Jeffersons all men are created equal phrasing of the Declaration of Independence: he knew slavery was declining and would soon be a thing of the past. However, no one could have predicted a revolutionary invention in 1794: the cotton gin. This mechanism greatly simplified the separation of raw cotton into textiles, which made large-scale farms a lucrative and profitable economic venture. According to the National Archives, the yield of raw cotton doubled each decade after 1800 . This demand meant that more slaves were required to work longer on larger plantations, continuing the systems life cycle for another 60 years. The southern slave population rose from about 800,000 in the 1790s to about 3 million in 1850 (Smith). Jeffersons declaration was written at a time when slavery was at the end of its decline, so his views are seen as much more moral as compared to the general consensus of the time period. Many will argue that Jefferson still owned slaves nonetheless, which immediately puts him on par with all other slaveholders. These people fail to realize that most at the time could not conceive of normal life affairs without slave labor. Slaves were a commodity that farmed plants and generated a steady profit and paying them would greatly decrease profit margins. In addition, slaves were an obvious status symbol reserved for only the wealthiest and most powerful in society. Refusing to use slave labor was seen as a rejection of traditional Southern values and lifestyle.
In his personal and public life, Thomas Jefferson was relatively benevolent to his slaves compared to other slaveholders of the time. While Jefferson owned more than 600 slaves in his lifetime, he was considered a moderate master by other farmers and his views were quite progressive for his time. There are multiple accounts of Jefferson purchasing extra workers to reunite families or to keep mothers with their children (Monticello FAQ Section). He also provided many amenities to them such as fireplaces to stay warm and clothing. According to Monticello.org, excavations uncovered several log cabins around 12’x14′ to 12’x20 1/2′ & with wooden chimneys Each one of these houses was around 170 square feet to 240 square feet. He also rarely employed the whip or any sort of severe punishment, instead using positive reinforcements like gratuities or tips. He once wrote that the whip must not be resorted to except in extremities (Monticello.org). All of these benefits were at a time when slave owners were not required to provide any sort of basic needs or amenities to their property and many slaves bled out after hundreds of punishing lashings. Thus, if you view Jeffersons actions and decisions from an individual twenty-first-century perspective — a time period where human rights are at the highest theyve ever been — you might consider him a cruel and unfeeling monster that abused hundreds of people for profit, along with the rest of the plantation owners. However, if you start to examine Monticello in comparison to other surrounding plantations, Jeffersons farm stands out. Jefferson also viewed individual slaves as more equal to himself than other slaveholders. In 1787 he sent for Sally Hemmings, a mixed-race girl enslaved from birth. According to the New York Times, there is a growing historical consensus that Jefferson and Sally went on to father several mulatto children. This affair shows that Jefferson considered his slaves, or at least some of them, humans, and not simply property. In fact, according to Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of Legal History at Harvard, Jefferson freed most of Sallys children and herself after his death. All of these decisions and beliefs come together to show that Jefferson was rather moderate and progressive in his treatment of slaves for his time period. On many occasions, Thomas Jefferson used his official position to slowly decrease the abundance of slavery. In 1769, Jefferson was admitted to the Virginia House of Burgesses. During his 7 years in that position, he introduced laws that allowed slaveholders to emancipate their slaves. During his subsequent career as a Virginia lawyer, he also argued several cases defending escaped slaves. According to Gordon-Reed, Jefferson even waived his fee for one client . After the American Revolution, Jefferson served as the chairman of Committees in Congress. From 1783-84, Jefferson wrote the Jefferson Proviso that called to ban slavery in the United States. William Merkel, from the Charleston School of Law, writes that while this ordinance failed by a close margin, it set an important future [precedent] . This precedent helped establish an anti-slavery environment in Congress. Jeffersons provision was later incorporated into the Northwestern Ordinance and had a direct effect on Northwestern colony law and slavehood. Thus, his actions in court and Congress, directly and indirectly, influenced the lives of many slaves and slowly addressed the issue nationwide.
Thomas Jefferson was a powerful politician and competent president but his actions were nonetheless limited because of his political priorities and the fragile union between the two polarized groups of states. Therefore, he knew that slavery was an important issue that needed to be addressed, but later. If he tried to address it immediately, at the time of his presidency or earlier, it could have torn the young nation in half. There would no doubt be more pushback from his fellow rebellious plantation owners, possibly leading to even more disastrous consequences. Abraham Lincoln tried to address the same issue smoothly and his actions led to an all-out civil war. After his two terms as President, Jefferson also strongly criticized the Missouri Compromise passed in 1820 for fear of the breakup of the Union. He wrote that Missouris statehood as a slave state was the knell of the Union . When he was asked if the Union would stay together for any considerable time, he replied I now doubt it much . These views parallel Jeffersons actions 20 years earlier. He perhaps believed that slavery was an issue that should be solved by later generations when the country had more public support, not by the third or fifth president. This temporal ignorance of important issues allowed different states with very differing opinions and views of morality to coexist in one union. In short, Jefferson was careful around the issue of slavery so as to not disturb the fragile balance between the different states as well as his own political career.
Thomas Jefferson has been criticized by many historians for his dualistic nature. On one hand, he condemned slavery in his later life, claiming it might be the issue that tears the nation apart. On the other, this same man owned hundreds of slaves to the day he died and only released a dozen after his death. However, it is unfair to look at Jefferson in a vacuum: to judge his actions as only his. Instead, people should consider him a product of his time; a successful man who exploited the most common resources to gain his fortune. Its hard to label Jefferson as a hypocrite because his actions were not yet established to be moral or immoral by society. Jefferson was a man of his time, a time when profitable slavery was commonplace throughout the South. Even then, Thomas Jefferson did many acts to alleviate the prevalence of slavery including acting benevolently on his personal plantations as well as changing statewide and nationwide legislatures. For these actions, he should be praised, and not labeled a hypocrite.
Works Cited
- Bear, James A, et al. Jefferson at Monticello. University Press of Virginia, 1995.
- Eli Whitney’s Patent for the Cotton Gin. The National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, 14 June 1997, https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/cotton-gin-patent.
- Ferling, J. (2013). Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation. 1st ed. Chicago.
- Gordon-Reed, Annette, and Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: an American Controversy. Univ. Press of Virginia, 2000.
- Kennedy, David M. author. The American Pageant: a History of the American People. Boston, Slavery at Monticello FAQs – Property. Monticello, https://www.monticello.org/slavery/slavery-faqs/property/.
- Stockman, Farah, and Gabriella Demczuk. Monticello Is Done Avoiding Jefferson’s Relationship With Sally Hemings. The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 June 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/16/us/sally-hemings-exhibit-monticello.html.
- Merkel, William G., Jefferson’s Failed Anti-Slavery Proviso of 1784 and the Nascence of Free Soil Constitutionalism (2008). Seton Hall Law Review, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2008. https://ssrn.com/abstract=1123973
- Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Slave Dwellings | Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, 19 Nov. 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054218/https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/slave-dwellings.
- BlackPast, B. (2009, August 10) (1776) The Deleted Passage of the Declaration of Independence. Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/declaration-independence-and-debate-over-slavery/
- Smith, Jeremy N. ‘Making Cotton King.’ EBSCOHost Connection. connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/43157258/making-cotton-king. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019. Accession #43157258
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