Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson : biography

April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826

Knowing that the threat of family separation was a strong deterrent, Jefferson’s policy with regard to captured runaway slaves was to sell them. He strongly discouraged the use of excessive physical force by his overseers. In his ‘Notes on the State of Virginia’ he expressed a "strong suspicion" that the Negro was inferior to whites in both the endowments of body and mind.Peterson, 1960 p.167 Jefferson accepted common racial stereotypes of African Americans and did nothing to advance citizenship to free blacks or relieve the plight of slaves during the American Revolution.Ferling (2000), Setting the World Ablaze, pp. 162-163 Regardless of his views towards race Jefferson went on to oppose the institution and provided for and treated his slaves very well.Bear, 1967, p.99Halliday, 2009, p.236

In 1814, Edward Coles inherited a plantation and twenty three slaves from his father but because he was opposed to owning slaves he wrote a letter to Jefferson asking him to embark on a campaign of gradual emancipation. Jefferson responded in a letter telling Coles that he also desired that slaves be gradually emancipated, believing they were not yet in condition to take care of themselves in American society because they were born into a life of slavery. However, at age 71, Jefferson praised Coles but said he was too old to take on such a large "enterprise", maintaining it was better left for the younger generation who could see the task through to fruition.Washburne, 1882 pp.22-24Norton, 1920 pp.10-11Crawford, 2008 pp.102-103 Jefferson, who opposed race mixing, admonished Coles not to emancipate his slaves, believing blacks with no shelter and means of income would be incapable of taking care of themselves, and because the 1806 Virginia emancipation law restricted free blacks from living in the commonwealth.Ferling (2000), pp. 289-290Thomas Jefferson letter to Edward Coles, August 25, 1814

Jefferson freed two slaves of the Hemings family by manumission and allowed two of Sally Hemings’s children, widely believed by historians to be his, to leave the Monticello estate without formal manumission when they came of age; five other slaves, including two more Hemings children, were freed by his will upon his death.Paul Finkelman, 1981), pp. 37–38, 41–45. In 1817, Jefferson’s friend, General Tadeusz Kościuszko died and left a bequest of nearly $20,000 to free slaves, including Jefferson’s slaves, and purchase land and farming equipment that would enable the freed slaves to start new lives. Even though it could have reduced his debts Jefferson refused the bequestWiencek, 2012, p.8 preferring that they be gradually emancipated and because the laws of Virginia prevented him from honoring that bequest.Nash, 2012 p.232 In 1824, Jefferson proposed a federally financed emancipation plan.Freehling, p. 85

Later years

By 1815, Jefferson’s library included 6,487 books, which he sold to the Library of Congress for $23,950 to replace the smaller collection destroyed in the War of 1812. He intended to pay off some of his large debt, but immediately started buying more books. In honor of Jefferson’s contribution, the library’s website for federal legislative information was named THOMAS. In 2007, Jefferson’s two-volume 1764 edition of the Quran was used by Rep. Keith Ellison for his swearing in to the House of Representatives. In February 2011 the New York Times reported that a part of Jefferson’s retirement library, containing 74 volumes with 28 book titles, was discovered at Washington University in St. Louis.

University of Virginia

After leaving the Presidency, Jefferson continued to be active in public affairs. He wanted to found a new institution of higher learning, specifically one free of church influences, where students could specialize in many new areas not offered at other universities. Jefferson believed educating people was a good way to establish an organized society. He believed such schools should be paid for by the general public, so less wealthy people could be educated as students. A letter to Joseph Priestley, in January 1800, indicated that he had been planning the University for decades before its founding.