Dead Presidents

revocate-animos:

bobbysplayhouse:

revocate-animos:

bobbysplayhouse:

DUDE, WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND! HIM AND GEORGE WASHINGTON TRIED TO ABOLISH IT. HE WAS NOT A DICTATOR HE COULD NOT RAM IT THOUGH. THE LEGISLATURE WOULD NOT PASS IT. 

where would his slaves have went? 

you need to put this in the context of history. 

I would have commented on this but…I may be burned at the stake. 

Please do, you know a lot more about Jefferson then i do.

Here are the facts, take them as you will:

• He drafted the Virginia law of 1778 prohibiting the importation of enslaved Africans. 
• In 1784 he proposed an ordinance banning slavery in the new territories of the Northwest. 
• From the mid-1770s he advocated a plan of gradual emancipation, by which all born into slavery after a certain date would be declared free.
• He wrote a clause in the Declaration of Independence in hopes to abolishing slavery at the time of the American Revolution
• In 1807 he worked with Congress to abolish the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade

From Monticello.org

It doesn’t matter who is trying to pass what. If Congress doesn’t want to pass it, they won’t and there is nothing you can do about it. Also, at that time, there was no way anything relating to the freedom of slaves would have been passed. It was basically impossible. 

I can’t believe we’re still arguing this.  Yes, Jefferson talked about freeing the slaves.  Yes, deep down, he knew that slavery was evil and wanted to end it.

Yes, it’s difficult for one branch of the government to do something when the other branches are fighting about it.

Here’s one very simple fact:  Thomas Jefferson didn’t need an act of Congress to free the slaves at Monticello.  Thomas Jefferson could have freed every slave that he owned at any point of his life, but he didn’t.  During the Revolution the British General Cornwallis captured slaves from Monticello with the intent of freeing them.  Jefferson could have allowed those slaves to go free.  He got five of those slaves back.  Do you know how many of them he freed?  Zero.  All five of them — so close to freedom when they escaped with Cornwallis — died in the slave quarters at Monticello because they were Thomas Jefferson’s property, like a cow or a pig or a carriage.

During the Revolution many Virginians freed their slaves because they felt it hypocritical to be fighting against tyranny and demanding freedom while oppressing another people.  Jefferson had a friend and longtime neighbor named Edward Coles and they commiserated over the evils of slavery.  Coles decided that he was going to free all of his slaves, told Jefferson of his plan, and encouraged Jefferson to do the same.  Coles moved to Illinois and freed all of his slaves.  Jefferson didn’t.  When Jefferson died in 1826, he had 200 slaves — MORE slaves than he had during the Revolution.

I see on your page that you want to be a Jeffersonian scholar and study Jefferson.  That’s fantastic.  I encourage you to do that.  It’s a great thing to be a part of.  But you need to know right now that studying Jefferson and appreciating Jefferson doesn’t require agreeing with everything that Jefferson did.  You will never be taken seriously if you try to defend his record on slavery.

(P.S.: What was the name of that Congressional legislation that freed slaves in the Civil War?  The Emancipation Proclamation?  Which Congressman sponsored that?  NO ONE DID.  It was an Executive Order from the desk of the President.  Yes, the President can and has done things without the approval of Congress.)