A reminder

onecut39 · Jul 5, 2012

A nice 4th of July piece by Moyers that reminds us the founders were not saints on pedestals but flawed humans much like we are today.

Thomas Jefferson's Betrayal

Liability · Jul 5, 2012

Fuck Bill Moyers.

What a fuckin' pussy.

We need that sanctimonious asshole to "remind us" that human beings have and had flaws?

Moyers = Scumbag asshole derp.

He's such a cheesedick he could be a lib poster at USMB; rderp, perhaps.

Nah. Moyers is a fuckwit, but he's still smarter than rderp.

occupied · Jul 5, 2012

It is useful to remind ourselves frequently of the fallibility of even the most revered politicians, even the founders, too bad many see it as undue criticism, "men of their times" they might say totally missing the point that the republic never had a point where we should have just said "perfect" and never changed a thing ever, that these men had no special foresight into our present predicaments.

Jackson · Jul 5, 2012

Perhaps this is a more accurate account of Jeffersons views, commitment to his slaves, slavery in general and his original intent in the Declaration of Independence.

1. Of all his writings, Thomas Jefferson's most famous and far-reaching was undoubtedly his draft of the Declaration of Independence.

Although the issue of slavery was widely debated -- both the chattel slavery of Africans in America and the civil slavery that fired patriot rhetoric -- it is conspicuously absent from the final version of the Declaration. Yet in his rough draft, Jefferson railed against King George III for creating and sustaining the slave trade, describing it as "a cruel war against human nature."
Africans in America/Part 2/Rough draft of the Declaration

2. Through 1785 Jefferson introduced legislation to end slavery by gradual emancipation and eventual deportation of freed slaves. All of the bills were rejected.
Thomas Jefferson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3. The United States Declaration of Independence underwent a series of revisions before it was finally signed and submitted on July 4, 1776. One of the most important passages that were omitted in the final draft was one that attacked the cornerstone of the colonists economy: the enslavement and treatment of African-Americans. Many esteemed politicians in early North America were divided on the topic, they realized that the plantation system could not survive without a cheap source of labor, but they also saw how their newly written proclamation called for liberty and freedom for all mankind.

4. The chief architect of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, was among these political elite. Owning over one hundred slaves himself, Jefferson frequently spoke out against the enslavement of African-Americans, and included a passage in his Declaration that would make slavery impossible in the new United States of America. The hypocritical nature of Thomas Jefferson mirrors the attitude of the colonists during the Revolutionary War period, while many saw that slavery violated the human rights that they were fighting for, they could not continue to be economically successful without slavery and chose to omit a passage in the Declaration that challenged it.

5. Analysis of the hypocrisy of Jefferson owning slaves points to several facets of Jeffersons life. Jefferson was heavily indebted his entire life and received many of his slaves from mortgages and notes. Jefferson paid for his slaves in increments, and he was unable to free these slaves until these loans were paid off, which Jefferson was never able to accomplish. The slaves he did posses he treated fairly and even prepared them for life after slavery, instructing them on various professions that would be pertinent to obtaining a job once they were free. This treatment demonstrates Jeffersons understanding that African-Americans were people, not just tools to secure economic prosperity.

6. Throughout his political career he continuously pushed for the abolition of slavery, whether through influential letters to his fellow politicians or as an active cabinet member of both state and later federal legislative bodies. Many of his efforts fell on deaf ears especially because his early work was in Virginia, where the abolition of slavery was the building block of the economy. Southerners who depended on slave labor, viewed the institution as economic decision, in contrast with Northerners.
History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research | Episodes
Click to expand...

The dramatic issue at hand was breaking ties with England and Jefferson, although saw the plight of African Americans as an absolute could probably see that this issue would have to be dealth later down the road for social and mostly economic reasons.

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