This is actually a very complicated subject.  Slavery only becomes the
major labor force in the Chesapeake in the 1680s, while
emancipation comes in a rush in the US in the 1860s.  Thus, it
seems that Thomas Jefferson was neither in on the start of
bondage in his part of the world, nor really involved in its demise,
which is more the task of the generations of Abraham Lincoln and
US Grant.
  The poster is absolutely right, that slavery, serfdom, and peonage
were widespread:  the probable status of half the population of the
world in 1800.  But that, of course, is one reason why the period
1800-1930 was so violent, even if you bracket the Napoleonic Wars
and WW I.  The struggle to break the bonds of chiefly rural
servitude erupted not just in the US, but in Mexico twice (1857 &
1910), in India, in San Domingue (a bit earlier), in Indonesia (1925),
within Russia and Russian Poland, etc.

Harold S. Forsythe
History & Black Studies
Fairfield University

Date sent:              Mon, 16 Apr 2001 08:45:29 -0400 (EDT)
From:                   [log in to unmask]
Subject:                Re: Monticello Slave Graves Found and Reuters Remarks
To:                     [log in to unmask]
Send reply to:          Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
        <[log in to unmask]>

> In a message dated 4/16/01 1:30:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
>
> > >On the eve of the civil war there were about 260,000 free blacks in the
> > South and >about 240,000 in the North.  They were obviously making a
> > living and surviving; >some were property owners; some substantial
> > property owners.  Most were poor.  >And, I will bet that almost all of
> > them were happy to be free and not ready to >trade it for bondage.
> >
>
> Yes, and some even owned slaves as did a few blacks in Fredericksburg did,
> but we seem to over look that fact. Slavery was a way of life in Africa.
> Some of the African slaves sold to trader before the 1800s were sold by
> black Africans to European traders. After the British stopped their slave
> trade they enforced a "no slave trade " policy off the coast of
> Africa...making it harder for Africans to sell slaves to Europeans. Owning
> slaves seem to be an accepted act world wide. While by our standards of
> today we would be horrified. The period of Jefferson was the start of a
> transition period in the concept of owning another human. Within a few
> years the British outlawed slave trade, yet the Spanish kept slaves until
> the mid 1800, Brazil had slaves until the late 1800s. We can always
> "Monday morning quarterback." Judging by today standards will often create
> interpretation of history that will only be discarded when someone else
> applies they standards.
>
> Wm Buser
> Fredericksburg Va.
>
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