Re: On Jefferson's Flaws



"NoName" <NoName@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:g81u53t1i0885p72fkjlkii8dph3c5mb6j@xxxxxxxxxx
On 31 May 2007 09:48:24 -0700, Nantz <thenantz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On May 31, 11:07 am, "Evelyn Ruut" <evelyn.r...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"NoName" <NoN...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:qopt53l5rujtc0gabup4u2750vcq52o957@xxxxxxxxxx





> Should anyone think I am deifying Thomas Jefferson, he does remain a
> puzzle. He combined much enlightened thinking with turning a deaf ear
> to one of the most horrendous injustices of his day, slavery. He was
> hardly alone in this, but it does point up the fact that many
> brilliant people have "feet of clay."

> Our Founding Fathers as a whole failed to recognize how cruel and
> unjust the practice of slavery was to their great ideals. Blacks
> and Indians excluded. Sadly, Jefferson was no exception.

> As the following illustrates:

> Thomas Jefferson's genius is everywhere apparent in his thirst for and
> his comprehension of the best enlightened philosophy, history,
> science, political theory, agriculture and religion of his age.
> Tragically, he failed utterly to engage, in any substantively
> practical way whatsoever, the massive realities of American racial
> oppression and injustice. Jefferson's writings display deep
> reservations as well as moral anguish concerning Negro slavery; yet he
> never freed his own slaves. Much attention, in Jefferson's time and in
> ours, has focused on his alleged sexual relations with his mixed-race
> slave, Sally Hemings, the light skinned half-sister of his wife. There
> is now compelling DNA evidence that Jefferson was the father of at
> least one of Hemings' children. He did free two of Hemings' children
> in his will and Hemings was given her freedom shortly thereafter. But
> millions of African Americans have had to suffer many more decades of
> cruel economic slavery, even after legal slavery was ended in the
> 1860s, because of the common, absurd notion, which Thomas Jefferson
> shared and only mildly questioned, that the "dark" races were inferior
> to the "white." Moreover, Jefferson's presidential removal policies
> proved horribly destructive to Native Americans. They set the pattern
> for the Bill for Indian Removal, signed by President Jackson in 1830,
> whose cruel enforcement resulted in the Trail of Tears of 1838-39 and
> other atrocities. Jefferson's prophetic advancement of human liberty
> is deeply tainted by his shameful legacy in matters of race.

When judging any historical figure, it would seem to me that the common
attitudes of the time, need to be in place for proper context. For his
time, I would think he was quite a renaissance man.

What astonishes me is that racial hatred either black or white, should exist
at our present time. But it does.
--
Best Regards,

Evelyn- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
++++++++++++++++++++++
I think every person on earth is a member of some self imposed caste
system. Myself, I think I am better than a 3rd generation welfare
recipient, or a criminal, or a war monger or many other unsavory (to
me) people.

I don't think I am "better" than a third generation welfare recipient,
just a lot luckier. I didn't have that legacy and behavioral pattern
to overcome.

It takes many generations to break the mental bonds of slavery and all
of the negativity that goes with it, both on the side of the slave and
of the slave owner.
Even animals seem to have this inate prejudice. A brown chicken with a
white feather on it's head might be pecked to death by the other brown
chickens. An albino squirrel will not be accepted by the grays.

There were through the ages at least some enlightened souls who saw
slavery as wrong. I think those who supported slavery did not see
blacks as fully human. Now with DNA we know all of us ultimately
descended from common ancestors in Africa. But even that has not
disabused some from their notions of racial superiority.


It is my honest opinion that most of what passes for a belief in racial superiority (at least white over black) is really distaste for certain cultural issues, and having little to do with actual color or race. That is changing as more and more black individuals advance culturally with education, and develop skills and attitudes that whites may tend to value. I am speaking of things like educational credentials, financial security and responsibility, law abiding, etc.

--
Best Regards,

Evelyn

.

Relevant Pages

  • On Jeffersons Flaws
    ... He combined much enlightened thinking with turning a deaf ear ... to one of the most horrendous injustices of his day, slavery. ... slave, Sally Hemings, the light skinned half-sister of his wife. ... 1860s, because of the common, absurd notion, which Thomas Jefferson ...
    (soc.senior.issues)
  • Re: On Jeffersons Flaws
    ... > to one of the most horrendous injustices of his day, slavery. ... Sadly, Jefferson was no exception. ... > slave, Sally Hemings, the light skinned half-sister of his wife. ... > 1860s, because of the common, absurd notion, which Thomas Jefferson ...
    (soc.senior.issues)
  • Re: On Jeffersons Flaws
    ... to one of the most horrendous injustices of his day, slavery. ... slave, Sally Hemings, the light skinned half-sister of his wife. ...
    (soc.senior.issues)
  • Re: On Jeffersons Flaws
    ... to one of the most horrendous injustices of his day, slavery. ... slave, Sally Hemings, the light skinned half-sister of his wife. ...
    (soc.senior.issues)
  • The Persistence of Islamic Slavery
    ... The Persistence of Islamic Slavery ... Muslim slavers in the Sudan primarily enslave non-Muslims, ... The BBC reported in March 2007 that slave raids "were a common feature ... and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the ...
    (alt.politics.bush)