I conveyed Professor Finkelman's note to Robert Turner and his response 
is as follows (Professor Turner is not a member of VA-HIST):

Professor Finkelman is correct that Philip Foner was a Marxist and 
accused member of the Communist Party USA, and while that might have 
discredited him to some in the 1950s surely we can consider his 
arguments on the merits today.

I quoted him 
<http://www.dailyprogress.com/opinion/opinion-commentary-censoring-jefferson-to-safeguard-ignorance-president-s-legacy/article_1756205c-b4a1-11e6-9510-9ffce9935918.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share>, 
along with former President John Quincy Adams (who at various times was 
a Federalist, Democratic-Republican, and Whig--something to offend 
virtually everyone at one time or another) as praising Jefferson's 
anti-slavery efforts, but not as proof he was an abolitionist.  But the 
Founder of the University of Virginia certainly was an abolitionist, and 
drafted a statute that would have provided that all children born to 
slaves starting in 1800 would be born free and raised at public expense 
in an appropriate trade or occupation.  He wanted to have the amendment 
ready for when public opinion shifted sufficiently to make it 
politically viable.

Was Jefferson perfect?  No.  But I would argue that his position on race 
and slavery was better than those of Washington and Lincoln, not to 
mention most other politicians before the 20th century.

Could Jefferson have done more? Perhaps, but each such endeavor 
threatened his political viability to contribute to the new nation in 
other areas.  And, of course, like political figures today he had a 
variety of interests that sometimes conflicted. For example, he lived in 
a slave-based society on a plantation that required manpower for the 
comfort of his family and his economic survival.  He contemplated 
importing more European laborers, and considered various approaches to 
improving the circumstances and eventually granting freedom to his 
slaves.  He did not solve all of the world's problems--or even his own 
problems--but he stood out from most of his contemporaries in 
courageously denouncing slavery as a moral monstrosity.  For that he 
deserves our respect.

Richard E. Dixon Editor Jefferson Notes 571-748-7689 TJHeritage.org The 
Virginia Presidents: A Travel and History Guide

On 11/28/2016 4:58 PM, Paul Finkelman wrote:
> It is charming to see Mr. Dixon using a source quoting a well-known American Marxist (and I think member of the CPUSA) to bolster Jefferson:
> "Philip Foner, editor of “The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine,” noted that the characterization of Paine as “the first American abolitionist” was inaccurate, due to Jefferson’s 1769 effort to legalize the manumission of Virginia slaves." It is important to note that the law mentioned here would have merely allowed masters to free slaves through private manumission, if the masters chose to do so. It was not an emancipation law and would not have ended slavery.  Many masters liked such law because it allowed them to free favored slavers, often the mistresses or the children the fathered with the slaves.  In 1782 Virginia passed such a law, and except for a handful of members of the Hemings family, Jefferson never took advantage of the law to free any of his slaves.
> Support for such a law was hardly support for "abolition."  Many masters in the South (including Jefferson) freed a few slaves here and there but continued to buy and sell human beings throughout their lives.  Jefferson fits very well in this category.
> ******************
> Paul FinkelmanArielF. Sallows Visiting Professor of Human Rights LawCollegeof LawUniversityof Saskatchewan15Campus DriveSaskatoon,SK  S7N 5A6   [log in to unmask]
> c) 518.605.0296 (US number)
>
>
>        From: Richard Dixon <[log in to unmask]>
>   To: [log in to unmask]
>   Sent: Monday, November 28, 2016 11:44 AM
>   Subject: [VA-HIST] Censoring Jefferson
>    
> For those interested in the recent flap at the University of Virginia
> where professors and students objected to President Teresa Sullivan
> quoting Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the University. There is a
> response from Robert Turner, a UVA professor, which appears in the
> November 27 Charlottesville Daily Progress.
>
> http://www.dailyprogress.com/opinion/opinion-commentary-censoring-jefferson-to-safeguard-ignorance-president-s-legacy/article_1756205c-b4a1-11e6-9510-9ffce9935918.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
>
>



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