The Jefferson Memorial is about the most beautiful and inspiring thing I saw in D.C. Serene but uplifting at the same time, and full of his beautiful words. Jefferson had a brilliant mind and a knack for expressing it.
Yes, he owned slaves and he believed blacks were an inferior race. He was born into a Southern planter family and inherited 5,000 acres and 52 slaves from his father as a young man; his father-in-law's estate provided him two more plantations and over 100 more slaves. It was a fact of life to him.
I don't think we should throw out the baby with the bathwater here. I am not defending slavery; I just don't think we need to impose today's societal standards on someone from so long ago.
I could be wrong.
No, actually you can't.
This red herring idea that taking down UDC statues has something to do with slaveowning is a deflection told by idiots, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. It's the same tactic they recently tried to get Smirk-Boi off the hook with "b-but but looka the Black Israelites".