I hope this doesn't sound "snarky", but I'm not aware that the Chinese Empire or any of the Muslim kingdoms of the late 18th century had a founding document which contained the phrase "All Men are Created Equal."
Jefferson needs to be judged by the context in which he lived, thought, worked, and wrote. And that context was as the author of the Declaration of Independence, a product of the Enlightenment, and one of the Founders of the American Republic. And it's not as if there wasn't a vigorous discussion of whether or not the ideals of the Revolution applied to African Americans or not, and it's not as if people at the time weren't troubled by the contradictions between the ideals of the Revolution and the reality of chattel slavery.
By giving Jefferson a pass because slavery survived for several more decades ignores the reality that in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution there was genuine debate over the morality of the institution--debate triggered in no small part by Jefferson's own rhetoric.
Kirk Johnson
Serials Manager
Prince William Public Library System
13083 Chinn Park Drive
Prince William, VA 22192-5073
(703) 792-4883
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-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barry McMullan
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 10:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-HIST] (VA-HIST] "The Monster of Monticello"
Opinion,
Slavery was wrong, but didn't the Chinese and Muslims practice slavery long after Jefferson's time. Being from another time, we shouldn't judge Jefferson unless all these others are considered also. Is he being singled out because he was one of the architects of our country, he was not a perfect person as we all are imperfect?
Respectfully,
Barry McMullan
________________________________
From: "Finkelman, Paul <[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] (VA-HIST] "The Monster of Monticello"
Alternatively, how could be "at the expense of Jefferson" to discuss the very economic basis of Monticello -- the reason Jefferson could afford to build it and maintain it? Most of what Jefferson accomplished was due to the slaves who provided him with wealth, food, income for his toys and luxuries, built his house, served his guest, and gave him comfort when he wished for it. Jefferson could read his books, write his one book, participate in politics, run for office, write his thousands of letters because of his slaves.
And of course much of his political life was connected to slavery -- indeed his election to the presidency was possible only because of the 3/5th clause that counted slaves for representation and for the electoral college.
*************************
Paul Finkelman
John Hope Franklin Visiting Professor of American Legal History Duke University School of Law
210 Science Drive
Box 90360
Durham, NC 27708-0360
919-613-7038 (o)
518-605-0296 (c)
[log in to unmask]
http://www.paulfinkelman.com/
********************
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steve Corneliussen
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 9:18 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] (VA-HIST] "The Monster of Monticello"
Mr. Barger complained that Monticello's "emphasis...on slavery issues" comes "at the expense of Mr. Jefferson." To me that seems upside down. The emphasis in fact honors Mr. Jefferson.
Mr. Jefferson matters because self-evident but challenging truths matter.
It's too bad that Monticello, like the rest of us, failed for many decades to begin elucidating and respecting the lives, dignity and contributions of individual Americans obscenely oppressed by fellow Americans -- including by Mr. Jefferson, the paradoxically slaveholding human-rights idealist.
If Monticello had continued its former Gone-with-the-Windism on slavery late into the last century, if the curators had persisted in obscuring Americans'
lives on that mountain, it would have been the foundation's civic, historical and moral negligence that would have come at the expense of Mr.
Jefferson.
But they got it right. Good for them. Good for self-evident truths.
Good for Mr. Jefferson.
Steven T. Corneliussen
http://www.fortmonroenationalpark.org/
http://tjscience.org/
http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition/science_and_the_media
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