Thomas Jefferson - slave owner?

Question

why did Thomas Jeferson reach "all men are equal" yet was a slave owner himself? i know that he did not believe in having slaves and did treat then well, and even let a few runaway, but why did he own hundreds instead of freeing them?
Please give me political reasons not answers such as "he needed people to do the farmwork". thank u

Answer 1

As you say, Jefferson was an opponent of slavery, which is why he wrote the "all men are created equal" language. He also listed importing slaves as one of the offenses for which the Colonial States should revolt from Britain...this was removed in order to avert a split in the states (we were trying to win a war against the largest military in the world and needed to be united).

Jefferson was caught between the practicality of freeing his slaves during his life (he freed them in his will and was also instrumental in outlawing the future importing of slaves) and the practicality keeping his estate. Unlike Adams and other founding fathers who did not own slaves due to their personal beliefs, he did not free his slaves during his lifetime.

Considering that he stopped the importing of slaves into this country and wrote the words that became the slogan of the Civil Rights Movement, I think he kept his promise to "fight all forms of tyranny over the mind of man."

As far as those who say that slaves were only considered "3/5 of a person," that's a misunderstanding of history. States with slaves WANTED to count their slaves as one person for purposes of congressional representation (they'd get more power), but did NOT want them recognized for purposes of taxation (because they'd then have to pay more for taxes). The compromise was called the "3/5 compromise" and had nothing to do with slaves = 3/5 of a person.

Answer 2

I suppose that one could say that Jefferson was dealing with a bit of cognitive dissonance with regard to this issue. One thing seems to be clear and that is that he despised the institution of slavery and the apparent economic necessity of it.

There is a superficial, non political answer to the question why he never freed his slaves. The banks would not allow it. He had mortgaged all of his slaves in order to finance some of his business schemes. Those schemes failed and Jefferson eventually died nearly bankrupt. There were also some problems with the manumission laws of Virginia at the time, which made it very difficult for a slave owner to free his slaves. However, merely saying that hardly addresses the scope of your question.

It is not enough to merely say that a slave was not considered a man, but only property. A slave was property in a legal sense, true enough, but to claim that he was not a human being on this account would have been a radical position indeed. In fact, such a proposition would have been virtually without precedent. It would be much more accurate to say that while the slave was considered a human being, he was considered to be inferior. However, Jefferson didn't write that some people are born superior, he wrote that all men are created equal.

What the man wrote was, " We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This could be interpreted as a mere repudiation of european style estates of hereditary nobility, however the clear, literal implication of those words are that slavery was incompatible with the ideology that underlay the revolution. When one considers this in its historical context, it is a shattering proposition, given that slavery was a practice rooted in many thousands of years of human existence.

I think that the best way to look at it would be that Jefferson was a man with one foot in the old ways and the other in new, untried ideas. He was clearly a product of enlightenment age philosophy, but was also rooted in the economic and political realities of his time. I think that , in general, much of what he wrote was written for future generations to appreciate.

Answer 3

At the time, "all men are created equal" was a lofty ideal that did not include slaves as they were viewed as chattels, property if you will. The U.S. Supreme Court was later to rule that a slave was only 4/5ths a man and not entitled to to constitutional guarantees, thus were the political views of the day. In the Dred Scott decision the court ruled that once born a slave, always a slave, regardless of where the slave happened to be, slave state or non slave state.

Answer 4

Because he probably did believe that all men are equal but what you have to realize is .. in that time to own a slave was a normal occurance. Everyone had slaves as if they were an object like a tv or computer. He was under peer presure as well... everyone was doing it so he thought he had to as well. Also slaves brought in an extremely amount of wealth from which he wasn't ready to give up. But that doesn't mean he did believe all men are equal.

Answer 5

I understood that Jefferson wanted to free his slaves especially the Hemings but was unable due to the laws of manumission at the time. To free a slave, you had to set them up with property and a livelihood so they wouldn't become destitute or competition to white workers. If you couldn't do this, the former slaves could be arrested and sold back into slavery. Jefferson did not have the money to do it. He really couldn't afford to free his slaves. I am not defending him, I am only stating what historians say.

Answer 6

The fact is there were little opportunities for freed slaves in those days. Sometimes freed slaves were recaptured and sold again suffering loss of contact with family members. The fact that he let them run away means they were free to go, but did not choose to because society in general was not a good option for an uneducated slave. Not to met ion the other perils one may fall into being black in early America. We think of slavery in terms of what we as whites would do, Unfortunately this mentality keeps us from understanding many things because we think mostly in terms of us(whites) not them (blacks). Its just not that easy for a person with no education or roots in a land to suddenly "be free" and do as he pleases. Many descendants of slaves still lived on plantations and farms until just one generation ago. Others left of course to find there own life once they could not be resold, but its a battle that takes generations. We somehow think that just because a black slave could have run, he would have. He had to weigh his options and sometimes being on the plantation was safer than being at the mercy of all white people. This is especially true if the master was a particularly good person like Jefferson was.

Answer 7

Slaves were not considered people, they were considered property. That is just the way it was back then.

Answer 8

You forgot to mention that he had children with some of those slaves.

Answer 9

WELL GEGRGE WASHINGTON AND MOST OF THE SO CALLED FOUNDING FATHERS WERE SLAVE OWNERS.

SUPREME COURT RULED BACK THEN THAT BLACK PEOPLE WERE NOT WHOLE PEOPLE BUT 3/5 TH'S..
WHITE PEOPLE HAD AN ODD SENSE OF FAIRNESS...


WOMEN DIDN'T GET RIGHT TO VOTE TILL 1920 AND THAT WAS ALL WOMEN..

SOME CONSTITUTION..

SOME UNDER GOD///

Answer 10

men=white men.

slavery was commonplace, they were more like objects than people.