Jefferson on Slavery (1784)

1. Jefferson on Slavery (1784) Thomas Jefferson

2. Who is Thomas Jefferson? • Jefferson was born April 13, 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia • Born of a planter/surveyor father and a mother of high social standing. • Began attending school at the age of 9. • At the age of 14, his father died, and Jefferson inherited 5,000 acres of land and dozens of slaves.

3. Who is Thomas Jefferson? • Entered College of William and Mary at age 17 where he eventually graduated with highest honors. • This led to his career in law. • Jefferson's public career began in 1769, when he served as a representative in the Virginia House of Burgesses

4. In the year of 1784… • Jefferson submits his Report of a Plan of Government which set certain procedures for the entrance of new states. • One of these included abolishing slavery in new states by 1800. • The plan was ultimately rejected, and then revised one month later. • Jefferson blamed southern representatives for the rejection of his original plan. • During this year Jefferson also lived outside of the United States. (France)

5. Jefferson on Slavery • Taken from Notes on the State of Virginia, it is considered one of Jefferson’s most relentless attempts for the justification of slavery. • The work became Jefferson’s rebuttal to European criticisms of America.

6. Main Points • Besides the obvious physical characteristics, other underlying physical characteristics exist that separate the two races into distinct categories. • “They secrete less by the kidneys, and more by the glands of the skin which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor.” • “The circumstance of superior beauty, is though worthy attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and other domestic animals; why not in that of man?”

7. Main Points • Jefferson, upon comparing the two races by memory, reason, and imagination, found the black man to be inferior to the white man. • “But never yet could I find that a black had uttered a thought above plain narration; never see even an elementary trait of painting or sculpture.” • “Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry.”

8. Main Points • Jefferson believed that the white man had a stronger moral sense than the black man. • “And whether the slave may not as justifiably take a little from one, who has taken all from him , as he may slay one who would slay him?”

9. Class Main Point • Perpetual degrading relations will continue to exist between master and slave due to imitation of our children. • “Our children see this and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal.”

10. Questions • How can the same man have written “All men are created equal”? • “I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and of mind” • How valid is Jefferson’s reasoning that nature, not condition, accounts for the absence of black poets under slavery?

11. Questions • What damage does slavery do to the slave owner?

12. Historical Significance • This excerpt from the Notes on the State of Virginia demonstrates how Americans were indecisive on the issue of slavery.