Mr. Watro--
I really am not in fundamental disagreement with you here--nor, I would
guess, are my colleagues (although I cannot presume to speak for them).
To my mind, the importance of studying Jefferson's entanglement with
slavery--and similarly Washington's, and Henry's, and Mason's, and so
on--is that it offers us insight not only into the founding but also into
ourselves. We are all of us, ultimately, flawed. As Madison famously
wrote in Federalist 51, "if men were angels, no government would be
necessary." But of course we are not angels--not us, not Jefferson, not
Madison, not the very best of humanity. Both Madison and Jefferson
inferred important lessons from this truth about the consequences of human
fallibility and imperfection for republican government. The fact that
Jefferson owned slaves, in direct contradiction to his own beliefs and in
full knowledge that it had corrosive civic consequences for the society in
which he lived, strikes me as an especially salutary reminder that we
cannot expect perfection in any of our leaders, and that human fallibility
mitigates against placing too much power into any one person's hands. At a
time in which public life is every bit as caustic as the politics in which
allegations about Jefferson's affair with Hemings first made their
appearance, this strikes me as directly relevant. We require an engaged
citizenry now every bit as much as we did then, because we still live in a
republic.
Warm regards,
Kevin
--On Saturday, March 30, 2002 3:45 PM -0500 "Lonny J. Watro"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> All I can say is this: I'm sure glad Thomas Jefferson is not my ancestor.
> Some of my ancestors are from this same Virginia planter class. But, thank
> goodness they weren't as well known and neither are their sins, flaws, and
> immoralities. <grin> As they say, those in glass houses don't throw
> stones.
>
> I saw an interesting program on the History channel during Black History
> month where an African American genealogist had found where one of his
> African ancestors had sold another of his African ancestors into slavery!
> Now should he blame himself for slavery? How twisted is that?
>
> I'm sure TJ was no worse than some other men of his time. I'm sure there
> were those who were worse then he, just as well as those who were more
> noble than he. We just don't know as much about them. But, we shouldn't
> take offense when someone points our his short comings. It's not as much a
> reflection on the man himself. He is representing many others of his time.
> By studying Jefferson and his decisions, we can possibly understand his
> times a bit better. His way of life is just that, his way of life. We all
> agree, his way of life was wrong. None of us would want to live the way he
> did and hold people in bondage -- at least I hope none of us would. But,
> the fact remains, he lived that way, and he was not the only one who did.
> An entire economy survived on his way of life. The south, including white,
> black, and mullato, paid a dear price for this immoral way of life,
> whether they deserved to pay for it or not. Was it fair? No, it wasn't
> fair. But, who said life was fair? Life is life, and history is history.
> It is our job to learn from it and try not to repeat the injustices of
> the past. It is our job to make a better world and a brighter future for
> our children. Bickering about whether or not Jefferson fathered mullato
> children will solve nothing. Trying to understand the situations that
> exist today because of his way of life, just might help us to heal a
> nation and make a better future for our children.
>
> Lonny J. Watro
>
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--
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of History, MSC 2001
James Madison University
Harrisonburg VA 22807
Phone: 540/568-6306
Email: [log in to unmask]
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