Introduction
Thomas Jefferson holds a prominent position among the outstanding American personalities. His political views were expressed in the Declaration of Independence of 1776. Jefferson sought to build a new republic in America representing a classical democracy in which human rights would be fully respected (Strauch, 2017). Even though he believed that slavery should be abolished, Jefferson could not live without it, making him an intriguing figure in American history. He grew up on his father’s estate in Virginia, where slaves were a part of life on the property. As a slave owner, Jefferson designed and erected a mansion that is considered an architectural masterpiece. Despite the fact that he relied on slavery for most of his life, he was vocally opposed to it. That slaves were mentally inferior to white people was his bias. Additionally, he needed human freedom such as the right to life, liberty, property, and participation in the political life of society to be fully upheld. This paper will discuss how slavery and the slave trade paused a strong barrier to Thomas Jefferson and how he tried to eliminate it.
Main body
Thomas considered slavery in the United States as being unethical and strived to highlight the importance of racial equality. In 1779, Jefferson supported the gradual emancipation, training, and colonization of enslaved African-Americans (Faust, 2019). He believed that the emancipation of unprepared people who had nowhere to go and no means of subsistence would bring them only misfortune (Lewis, 2018). In 1784, he proposed a federal law banning slavery in the New Territories of the North and South. Moreover, being the author of the Declaration, he proclaimed the independence of the United States, advocating for the need for the protection of human rights.
Jefferson’s ethical challenge was built on the theory of moral sentiments. According to his approach, “moral instinct” is an inherent right of all people (Gordon-Reed, 2018). This challenge was resolved personally for Jefferson because the slavery problem was addressed. Even though Jefferson managed to implement the base equality norms in the society’s order, racial discrimination exists even today. However, slavery itself has eliminated thanks to Jefferson’s ideology.
Consequently, Thomas Jefferson considered slavery one of the major sins of society. According to Jefferson’s ideology, ethical attitudes in the activities and behavior of people should become an essential factor in political relations between them. As a result, Jefferson personally succeeded in resolving the challenge of slavery. However, this problem still echoes in modern society in racial discrimination. Nevertheless, thanks to the ideology proposed by Jefferson and other outstanding personalities, the American community realized the importance of the protection of human rights and racial equality. As a result, today, America is one of the advanced countries in acceptance and tolerance despite the minimum cases of racism and biases present.
Slaveholders in Massachusetts who had been emancipated from slavery were incorporated into the state constitution in 1780 thanks to the Declaration of Independence. In addition, the meaning of everyone seems to be plain, making the architects of six southern state constitutions who updated them without hesitation and Jefferson formulation (Thomas, 2020). Slavery markets in South Carolina and Georgia refused to be closed, and thus the Continental Congress went on strike as a result of this refusal. Davis, on the other hand, maintained throughout the 1890s the severe quiet that characterized Jefferson’s attitude on continuing enslavement. Davis discovered that Jefferson’s freedom efforts had come to a complete end (Gordon-Reed, 2018). For other people, the American Revolutionary War provided them with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate their moral beliefs by solving a riddle: the existence of slavery itself through the Jefferson Riddle’s story. People learnt a great deal about Jefferson’s transition from abhorrence to utter depravity and to making slavery relevant to American state institutions by studying Monticello.
The amendments made by Jefferson were not incorporated into the final law. In the same year of 1780, Thomas Jefferson would be a co-author of the Declaration of Independence, in which the phrase “all men are created equal” appears. However, according to Conor O’Brien, author of Thomas Jefferson: Radical and Racist, this does not indicate that everyone is made equal (Faust, 2019). At least according to O’Brien, the Founding Fathers did not intend for the Declaration of Independence to apply to women or slaves, and they certainly did not plan for African Americans to be free in the United States either. As a result of Thomas Jefferson’s belief that black people should not be free in the United States, he advocated for their expulsion from the country (Grim et al., 2017). He rejected the idea that everyone had a right to equality under the law. However, he had a reputation for pursuing slaves who had escaped from his property in search of a better life.
The French Revolution opened Jefferson’s eyes, as well as those of Americans during that time. Because of the growing popularity of democracy and self-determination in the United States, the revolution was first welcomed with open arms (Lewis, 2018). Slavery revolted in Haiti during the French Revolution, and the French National Convention subsequently proclaimed liberation for all slaves in French-ruled territories (Faust, 2019). A free black country located close to the American coast threatened the “master class” as a result of its proximity. By providing Napoleon with financial and military help, Jefferson hoped that he would retake the island of Haiti and reinstitute slavery there.
As a whole, Jefferson was certain that slavery had ruined America’s history and never wanted it to persist in the United States. Slavery had to be abolished, and the only way to do it was to “colonize” Africa by removing Africans from their homes and sending them back. In the end, he decided against colonization and the transportation costs to Liberia, a year later, the worth of food and clothes, and agricultural tools of over $300 million (Faust, 2019). It was difficult for him to achieve his goal of colonization alone, thus he came to feel that emancipation through rewriting the constitution in addition to colonization was necessary for the good of his country.
However, his opinions on emancipation and his actions towards his own slaves, which he freed before his death, reveal that he was divided and contradictory both his thoughts on slavery and his own acts. The idea of manumission in Virginia was first proposed by Jefferson, but he never made the notion public or even implemented it. In 1782, the state of Virginia established a statute allowing manumission, which would have allowed Jefferson to liberate his slaves once he stepped down as governor (Caivano, 2019). After his death in 1827, his executors auctioned everything he had, including 130 slaves (Caivano, 2019). Sally Hemmings was one of the slaves who would be freed under Jefferson’s testament.
The younger generation was now in Jefferson’s thoughts as a means of carrying out his call to action, which was to “democratize” the state constitution and free those who were slaves. ” For these significant reforms, I turn to the coming generation rather than the one now in power (Crow, 2017). In 1825, he helped establish the University of Virginia, which he created alongside other personnel. The school was built and maintained by around 4,000 slaves during the Civil War. For the sons of wealthy Virginians, it was a university that was out of their reach. As Jefferson had predicted, the pupils there were not inspired to improve the system because they were raised in a household of affluence with their own slaves. People in Virginia were clearly unwilling to give up their slavery system.
Even after accumulating large sums of money,Jefferson became wise in his quest for ending slavery. The Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a former friend of Jefferson’s, died in Switzerland in 1817 (Grim et al, 2017). In 1776, aristocrats from Poland arrived to the United States to aid the Americans, and Thomas Jefferson left a large sum of money in their wake (Faust, 2019). Slavery was freed and land and agriculture equipment were purchased with the money Kosciuszko acquired from Thomas Jefferson (Grim et al, 2017). Later on, Jefferson came up with a strategy for handling the estate. As the executor of Kosciusko’s estate, Jefferson was bound by law to carry out the wishes of his late friend’s will, which he wanted to execute in accordance with the provisions of the instrument (Caivano, 2019). Jefferson was unsurprised by the sentiments expressed in these comments, “I enable my buddy Thomas Jefferson to employ all inheritance to purchase blacks from him or someone else and give it to him,” wrote Kosciuszko in a will (Faust, 2019). Despite the fact that accepting the offer would have reduced Monticello’s debt and lessened his belief on moral responsibility of slavery, Jefferson still declined.
If Jefferson had accepted the inheritance, the other half of the estate would go to his slaves, who will pay for the land, cattle, equipment, and shipping to Illinois or Ohio that were purchased with the money from the estate. Furthermore, the most valuable slaves to Jefferson were those who could be freed quickly, such as the most competent black craftsmen, carpenters, and peasants. Because of the leak, he also did not win the public’s approval (Crow, 2017). During the 1890s, George Washington endeavored to gather money to free Mount Vernon from Jefferson’s slavery mortgage (Lewis, 2018). To all of Jefferson’s justification, he turned his attention to the fact that emancipation was not only attainable but also feasible.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Jefferson claimed that free blacks could not be part of a multiracial society and made key efforts to eliminate slavery and the slave trade in America. The American society had never advocated for a ban on black people. Jefferson’s ethical standards as a founder were accepted by many Americans who were against slavery. The challenge for Jefferson was mainly on how he could end slavery. Because he relied on the benefits of slavery to support his lifestyle, he was unable to make any real moves to abolish slavery. Only three of his slaves would be released throughout his lifetime, but his colleagues would liberate all of their slaves. He also disapproved of the whites’ over-reliance on slave labor as he was outspoken in his opposition to slavery.
References
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Faust, D. G. (2019). How slavery warped Thomas Jefferson’s vision for his dream. Sage. Web.
Gordon-Reed, A. (2018). America’s original sin: Slavery and the legacy of white supremacy. Foreign Affairs, 45(7), 103-108.
Grim, L., Wickens, K. A., Jecha, J., Powell, L., Hawkins, C., & Flanagan, C. (2017). Taking the next step: Confronting the legacies of slavery at historic sites. Journal of Museum Education, 42(1), 54-68.
Lewis, C. B. (2018). Jefferson’s daughters: Three sisters, white and black, in a young America. Cambridge University Press
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Strauch, T. (2017). “Most blessed of the patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the empire of the imagination by Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf.” Journal of Southern History, 83(4), 955-956.
Thomas, W. G. (2020). A question of freedom: The families who challenged slavery from the nation’s founding to the civil wars. Sage.