COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN GOVERNMENTSLAVES
Note in the story a reference to: "the Jefferson School
Heritage Center"
The greatest unrepentant slaveholder in American history was
Thomas Jefferson. His record was appalling. He held over two hundred slaves until
his dying day.
We know he beat slaves at times because a reputable witness
wrote the fact down. He did not even manumit his slaves with his death either
as some slaveholders did. He died a bankrupt from his spending excesses.
He used slave Sally Hemmings, starting at the grand old age
of thirteen, as his sexual partner and had children by her. We know this from
the written testimonial of one of her grown sons.
He was known to have sometimes sold uncooperative slaves
"downriver," a practice for disposing of stubborn slaves to the
feared Deep South where they were treated far more brutally.
He openly wrote of black inferiority in his "Notes on
Virginia." He also once wrote, being quite aware of what he was doing,
that he feared for his county's future over what had been done with slavery.
When President, he supported France's Napoleon in trying to
brutally suppress the revolt of the plantation slaves of Haiti. He made no
pretense about what he thought the right course, dictator over slaves seeking
freedom.
All this, of course, while writing his little catchy
sentences and phrases on freedom so often still quoted today. He was
essentially his own public relations flack for the judgment of history. The man
stands as the greatest hypocrite in American history.
And please note, that to this day, Washington still does not
have a monument to slavery. There clearly should be one, a very large and
compelling one, but there is not. Only some polite teasing around the edges by
the Smithsonian.
