Just a reminder to remember that as David B. Davis in _The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution_ taught us, the concept of anti-slavery was an emerging and evolving concept that flowered during the first half of Jefferson's life. At his birth, few anywhere in the Atlantic World, certainly not in Virginia, opposed slavery--except for a few saintly Quakers (who got a mixed reception even within their own community). Riding on Enlightenment ideas and on the religious zeal of the Great Awakening, anti-slavery burst with force into the world of the 1770s. Though Vermont outlawed it in its 1777 Constitution, all the 13 colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence permitted slavery. That Jefferson was so attuned to those Enlightenment concepts perhaps makes his actions even more damning or, at least, helps to understand why he turned to the scientific racialist ideas expressed in _Notes on Virginia_. All Best, Jim Hershman To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html