Mr. Dixon writes: "None of the founding fathers in the slaves states
freed their slaves."
I guess that Washington was no a founding father? Or Henry Laurens in
South Carolina? Or Ben Franklin (Pa. was a slave state when he freed his
slaves).
Also, even Jefferson freed a few (8 in all);
Yes, TJ was in debt, but that is how he chose to live is life. Just as
Henry Wiencek refers you to his book on Washington, I urge you to read
the last two chapters of my book Slavery and the Founders: Race and
Liberty in the Age of Jefferson where I deal with some of the issues set
out below.
Richard Dixon wrote:
>Your query on the antipathy to Jefferson among many slave study academics
>should elicit some interesting responses. In the posts, much is made of
>Washington freeing his slaves. All credit to what he did, but what he did
>was provide for their manumission after the death of his wife. He benefited
>from the system during his entire life and intended that Martha also retain
>the slaves until her death. As it turned out, she emancipated them early,
>possibly as one post notes, because of the fear that she would be
>assassinated. It should also be noted that this did not include the dower
>slaves Martha brought to the marriage, who were passed to the heirs of her
>first husband and continued in slavery. Not that Washington could have done
>anything to prevent that, but during his life, he was largely silent on
>slavery, while Jefferson was vocal on the evils of the system, contrary to
>one post that essentially claimed Jefferson did nothing during his life to
>reject this institution. None of the founding fathers in the slaves states
>freed their slaves. There is anecdotal evidence that some planters did, but
>because Jefferson did not, he alone is branded as immoral. Under Virginia
>law, slaves were personal property, and no slaves could be freed unless
>released by the creditors of the owner. Jefferson, continuously in debt
>from the time he left the presidency, could never have secured release of
>the slaves as collateral for his debts. Again, under Virginia law, the
>owner was responsible for the upkeep of the freed slave for one year when
>the slave could remain in Virginia, a financial obligation Jefferson could
>not meet. One post asserted that Washington waived this requirement that
>the slave leave Virginia after one year, which Washington had no authority
>to do. Jefferson was condemned in one post for sitting on the mountain at
>Monticello, spending his money on wine rather than arranging his finances
>to free his slaves. Possibly, he could have been a better money manager.
>Maybe this poster has done research not yet made public, but the depression
>in Virginia in 1819 made all planters land poor and locked into the chattel
>slavery system. And to further batter the Jefferson image, he is depicted
>as the father of children by his slave Sally Hemings, all of whom he kept
>in slavery without acknowledgment or favor. This on evidence so thin that
>no contemporary observer has ever surfaced to testify, even though two of
>the children were born after the claim by Callender in the press, while
>Jefferson was president, and in the public eye. Jefferson was worse than
>that however. One poster claims that "no one disputes" that Hemings was the
>half-sister to Martha Jefferson. Well, there is absolutely no proof of
>this, but this provides another basis for condemnation, because if
>Jefferson is not the father, but another Jefferson is, the children are his
>nieces and nephews and he holds them as slaves. An so on.
>
>Richard E. Dixon
>Attorney at Law
>4122 Leonard Drive
>Fairfax, VA 22030
>703-691-0770
>fax 703-691-0978
>
>
>
>
>>[Original Message]
>>From: Bland Whitley <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>Date: 12/6/2005 12:32:29 PM
>>Subject: Re: "common-sense Jeffersonian conservative principles"
>>
>>
>>Apropos to this current debate over the relative sins/merits of
>>Jefferson and Washington: what accounts for the central importance
>>members of this list have placed on the personal character of these
>>founders? The argument that seems to be developing places Jefferson at
>>one end of the political and cultural spectrum of Revolutionary-era
>>Virginia and Washington at the other. Whereas Jefferson becomes the
>>original sinner, the source of scientific racism, parochial
>>states-rights ideology, and opportunistic governance, Washington shines
>>forth as the far-sighted, anti-racist model for a fair-minded republic.
>>Are there not more complicated, incisive ways of analyzing this
>>material? Or does the health of our republic and our view of history
>>depend on knocking down one straw man and elevating another?
>>
>>I ask these questions not in defense of Jefferson. As most of his recent
>>biographers have shown, he grows more personally repellant the closer
>>one gets to him. But the recent campaigns against him seem to adopt an
>>attitude that America will suddenly be sanitized by expunging his
>>influence over our political culture. If only we follow in the footsteps
>>of those with sterling character (like Adams and Washington), the
>>argument goes, we can finally overcome the knotty contradictions that
>>bedevil us. Well, sorry, I don't buy it. I may find inspiration in the
>>leadership and character of Washington and in the words and ideals of
>>Jefferson (some of them anyway), but it seems folly to reduce our study
>>of the past to a search for appropriate models.
>>
>>Washington, as Henry Wiencek has shown, did in some respects transcend
>>the political culture that produced him, while Jefferson seems to have
>>been consumed by it, but both ultimately shared more similarities than
>>differences. Somewhere in there may lie a more fruitful discussion. Or
>>maybe not.
>>
>>Bland Whitley
>>
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>>
>
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>
--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East 4th Place
Tulsa, OK 74104-3189
918-631-3706 (office)
918-631-2194 (fax)
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