I am grateful to Mr. Dixon for his response. "Mismanaged" was the wrong
word, as it implies some malfeasance or negligence; my point was that
Jefferson and the other heirs made a mistake in assuming the Wayles debt
personally, as Jefferson discovered when it came back to bite him badly.
It is fairer to say that Jefferson "misjudged" the situation. But I don't
understand Mr. Dixon's statement that land and slaves were paper assets.

In "Thomas Jefferson: A personal financial biography," by Stephen Harold
Hochman, University of Virginia, 1987, p. 83, Hochman says the Wayles
estate was worth about L30,000 and owed L10,000. TJ's net personal gain
was about L6500.

Now that we're all tightly focussed on this very obscure issue of
Jefferson and the Wayles debt, perhaps Mr. Dixon or someone else can
explain something. In a July 29, 1787 letter to Nicholas Lewis, TJ writes
that 2/3 of the Wayles debt (which TJ is stuck with) arose from Wayles's
purchase of the slaves which TJ eventually inherited from the Wayles
estate. As I understand it, Wayles's debt arose from a slave-trading
transaction. Wayles was buying the slaves for resale, not for himself, and
he in fact sold those slaves to people who then didn't pay him, so Wayles
couldn't pay the British supplier, which was the origin of the debt that
later burdened Jefferson. Wayles never had personal possession of those
slaves, nor did TJ inherit those slaves. It seems that Jefferson was
saying to Lewis: "the slaves I got from Wayles have burdened me with
debt," when actually they had not. Am I correct on this?

Henry Wiencek

For those who are interested, here is the letter:

To Nicholas Lewis from TJ

Paris July 29, 1787.

The torment of mind I endure till the moment shall arrive when I shall not
owe a shilling on earth is such really as to render life of little value.
I cannot decide to sell my lands. I have sold too much of them already,
and they are the only sure provision for my children, nor would I
willingly sell the slaves as long as there remains any prospect of paying
my debts with their labor. In this I am governed solely by views to their
happiness which will render it worth their while to use extraordinary
exertions for some time to enable me to put them ultimately on an easier
footing, which I will do the moment they have paid the debts due from the
estate, two thirds of which have been contracted by purchasing them.