Will Absolute
New Member
Jefferson was in many ways a quintessential liberal. An eloquent advocate of noble ideas who never allowed them to interfere with his personal pleasures.The man kept over 500 slaves during his lifetime. Paid large amounts of money to slave owners as compensation & continued to own slaves while serving in the White House, even though he claimed all men were created equal and this is a 'personal shortcoming' ??
Black people were known as 3/5ths of a man as part of the constitution how is any of that true?
He advocated to free slaves, but continued to have them. He was a hypocrite who's been romanticised.
you know what, never mind.
In fairness he was such a spendthrift that granting freedom to his slaves would have meant bankruptcy. At his death his substantial legacy to his daughter Martha was some 100 black slaves. The only manumissions granted in his will were to his mistress, Sally Hemings, and his children by her.