The guy's been dead for almost 200 years. Who gives a shit. I don't.

I think concentrating on Jefferson as the epitome of who was bad for owning slaves is looking past the elephant in the room to find a whipping boy to blame. Slavery began in Africa. It had been going on there for dozens of centuries before the first slave was ever sold off continent. It was not a white/black issue in the beginning and today it's still not. Slavery is STILL alive and well in Africa. In fact the top 5 countries in the WORLD for slavery are all located in Africa still today. Was slavery in America bad....yes. But do we blame those who bought a slave.....oir those who catch, bind and sell the slaves as the root of the problem? If no product exists.....no market for it exists. If a white owner and a slave is the answer to wrong.......what about the question of why the slave was here in the beginning? And the hard answer to that was profiteering by those who SOLD slaves to be in America in the first place. The issue of why slavery happened 250 years ago in America should be an issue of "buyer based" and not "seller based". But that is not ever how slavery is framed because of the degree of racism of the person bringing it up.

Look at the responses here. Some are flat out racists at blaming a white for ever owning a slave with no quarter given for anything else other than a "white did this to a black.". Those would be the most racist individuals. Some say the idea of pinpointing Jefferson as a bad slave owner is wrong by our views now...but not necessarily outside of what was considered normal for the time. Those are the ones that can see wrong but frame it in historical perspectives. Some say who cares...move on, Those thoughts most likely come from the least racist in society...the live and let live folks and let's move on.

The best way to deal with slavery is to not look back 250 years to find blame. The best.,.most productive way to end a wrong is to ask why is this is still going on in the world....anywhere? Instead of trying to find fault 250 years ago based on today's views of what WAS racist and what wasn't is to spend that time and effort to end slavery currently. Of course that takes the wind out of "you owe us" reparations claims........doesn't it?

So what is the issue? Slavery? Or just using examples of slavery 250 years ago...."a white guy did this to us" to justify a payday today?

Factually Thomas Jefferson did own some 600+ slaves in his lifetime but no evidence exists that he ever impregnated a 13 y.o. That's zealous story "embellishing". That said.....what was commonplace at another time in history does not have much to do with now. Was slave owning wrong......yes by today's thinking it is. But what was acceptable another time in history does not necessarily make a person bad or incorrect...even though now we look at things differently.........according to customs and ideas now. Comparing actions or words from years ago to now is called "presentism". For instance we now know if ANYONE encourages others to smoke ....inducing cancer......that person would be an a-hole. But as recently as the 1970's--1980's it was common place for many Hollywood stars to advertise smoking as "cool". Not to defend Jefferson but at the time in history that he lived no one looked at him as being an a-hole for owning slaves. It was actually commonplace in both the north and the south, Only now as times have changed and thinking has evolved do we think as a society that what Jefferson did was "bad". Just sayin'........

is this you?

LOL...everyone was a slave owner. Long past and forgotten, so no issues with me.

There's no evidence that he raped a kid.
He did own slaves, but slavery was the norm at the time. People need to be judged in context.

Nobody cares bruh that was 400 yrs ago get over it slavery still exists in Africa and the middle east havent heard any of you cry babies talking about that.

Agreed.

And Andrew Jackson was a POS too, but my black bf for some reason admires him?! I hate to throw my bf under the bus like this, but wtf is that about?
He says Jackson "tried to make the argument that slaves should be freed and not treated like property"... yet Jackson definitely owned enslaved people, so I don't even think that's true. Idk where my bf got that information. Idk how he can like that guy even a little bit. 😳

He was a great man. I respect him.

George washington was a slave owner, whats thine point?

Lol almost all nobles in the middle ages were slave owners. It was just so common place noone talks about it. Before machinery, thats who grew the food and built the buildings. If you lost a war, you were captured. If you lived on the edge of a village, you could be captured. If you were walking to another town and were met by bandits, you were captured. The pyramids weren't built by pharos. America wasnt built by americans. Infact if you think your family line is 100% american it means your british.

Einstein fucked his cousin but we still care about his contribution to science. If Thomas Jefferson did something naughty, it doesn't mean that as a revolutionary his contribution to government and philosophy wasn't a net good for his time.

Some racists from Montgomery and Selma and Mobile downvoted me. I got 3 downvotes.

What's the original source for him raping a 13 year old tho?

John Adams gets all the respect from me. One of the founding fathers of the US, yet he refused to own slaves. I can’t imagine the shit he got for it back then from his cohorts, but he stood by his morals and said “No, this is wrong.” Long before slavery was even considered immoral in the US. Good for him.

Owning slaves must have been the culture at that time. Just like having cattle in the farm. In fact even women were considered as cattle and reason for terms husband and wife, were women were slaves too. Maybe wifery gets abolished soon when marriage system goes for a reform. So that does not mean we can blame all those who had wives in the past as "wife owners".

Who downvoted me? Triggered AL and MS racists?

Give me John Adams....and John Quincy Adams.

Jefferson had several children by at least one of his slaves. His white descendants were in denial about this until dna testing was able to prove conclusively that they were [b]related[/b] to some of his slave’s descendants.

Then some of them tried to spin it like some "love" story. Seriously ? He was in his 40s, she was a 14 year old girl. We know what we’d call that now, and he [b]owned[/b] her.
It’s unlikely that she had any choice. 🤨

Nobody’s defending him, but he was a brilliant man and the author of many important documents and the founder of a great university.

Like many significant figures, he was a complex individual with human faults and frailties.

There’s no need to judge him as the poster seems to be doing.

What bugs me is that they take down statues of Lee. Why not other slave holders if that is so,bad? One size never did fit all!

So true, I'd rather defend Abraham Lincoln than that rapist. At least Abraham Lincoln wasn't a racist or a slave owner.

☠️☠️☠️

"Once you go black, you don't go back"-Thomas Jefferson

Oops a triggered racist Trumpy from Montgomery downvoted me.

Send me your nickels and 2 dollar bills

They were all slave owners. America was literally founded by slave owners. That doesn't give you the right to verbally abuse that person on their own post, and when they don't respond, make another post about it and name names.

"bUt EvErYoNe ElSe WaS dOiNg It ToO, hE wAs JuSt NoRmAl FoR tHe TiMeZ, [i]yOu CaN't JuDgE hIm By ToDaY's StAnDaRdz[/i] ..."

https://similarworlds.com/internet/spend-much-time-online/union-strong/4789774-Youre-not-so-innocent-my-friend-The-electronic-device-on