I do not want to continuously engage Mr. Heite in a public debate, but I do
strenuously object to him putting words into my mouth, or at least into my e-mail
responses.

One need not have 20/20 hindsight to see that even Jefferson knew slavery was
morally wrong -- witness his many outbursts such as in the NOTES, "I tremble for my
country, when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever:
that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel
of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become
probable by supernatural interference!"

This is not a 21st century liberal talking, this is the master of Monticello.
Moreover, as we have seen, many men of his generation did in fact oppose slavery;
many freed their own slaves, and argued for the end of slavery. Some, like John
Randolph were hardly "liberal" in any sense of the word. They just knew it was
wrong.

Perhaps Mr. Heite wants to make TJ into an average guy, just a good old boy from
rural Va. who should not be held to the standard of other leaders of his
generation. That is fine, but then stop memorializing him and bragging about how
wonderful he was; you can't call him the most enlightened man of his age, as his
biographers all do, and then turn around and say, well, stop demanding he be
enlightened.

Jefferson's main teacher at William and Mary, George Wythe, opposed slavery; almost
all his friends in France opposed it.  So to with his scientific colleagues around
the world, as well as his revolutionary allies like Lafayette, Franklin, and even
George Washington.  None of these people had the 20/20 hindsight of our generation.

Finally, I did not say that his "his financial profligacy" was planned so he could
keep his slaves in bondage, but rather that he was unwilling to make any sacrifices
to end his own relationship with slavery, as say his neightbor Edward Coles did.

Again, I would ask Mr. Heite, when examing men like Coles, Washington, Wythe,
Tucker, Randolph, Carter,  and I could list scores more -- did these men get their
ideas about slavery from our times?  No, they discovered the immorality  of
slavery, and the way it violated their own republican values all on their own.
They could see this, and could act on.  Jefferson seems to know they are right, but
he fought them and their goals throughout his life.

--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East Fourth Place
Tulsa, OK  74104

918-631-3706
Fax 918-631-2194

E-mail:  [log in to unmask]



Ned Heite wrote:

> At 1:51 PM -0500 4/14/01, Paul Finkelman wrote:
> >  Along the same lines, Jefferson may have seen support for slavery as a
> >necessary component of his political self-preservation.  As John
> >Chester Miller
> >observed, Jefferson always believed he had to "choose between the preservation
> >of his political 'usefulness' and active opposition to slavery."  This
> conclusion of course assumes that Jefferson wanted to oppose slavery.
>
> Again, Professor Finkelman, you are engaging in 20/20 hindsight,
> which I find indefensible. You are presuming, from the vantage point
> of the twenty-first century, that enlightened eighteenth-century
> liberal politicians should have opposed slavery.  This presumption is
> colored by your own opposition to slavery, which in turn is colored
> by events of the past two centuries. Jefferson did not have the
> benefit of those two centuries of the American experience.
>
> You must remember that much of the argument in favor of slavery was
> based on the Bible and the common law. Honest and humanitarian people
> defended slavery; they must not be demonized, just because their
> beliefs are not politically correct centuries after their deaths.
>
> His financial profligacy may have debarred him from manumitting his
> slaves, as you suggest, but I fear it is a stretch to stand that
> logic on its head and assert that the profligacy was somehow
> connected in a causal way to his desire to keep his slaves in bondage.
>
> --
> Ned Heite  ([log in to unmask])
> *************************************************
> *    Today's compost wisdom:                    *
> *    Think about your fertilizer bill before    *
> *    you throw out that biodegradable garbage!  *
> *************************************************
>
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