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| Racial Policy |
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In spite of the fact that he
owned slaves himself, as was common with plantation owners of his time, Jefferson spoke
out tirelessly throughout his life against the institution of slavery and for the right of
black people to be free. Apparently there were many factors, financial, social and
political, that prevented him from freeing his own slaves. In a letter to Edward Coles
(Aug 25, 1814), he wrote, "The laws do not permit us to turn them loose, if that were
for their good." To Edward Bancroft he wrote (in 1788), "As far as I can judge
from the experiments which have been made, to give liberty to, or rather to abandon
persons whose habits have been formed in slavery is like abandoning children." (ME
19:41) Thus, he seems to have sincerely believed that merely freeing the slaves was not
the best solution, and that the most important step to take was the elimination of the
real source of this injustice, which was the institution of slavery itself. Thus he wrote
to Edward Rutledge (in 1787), "I congratulate you, my dear friend, on the law of your
State, for suspending the importation of slaves, and for the glory you have justly
acquired by endeavoring to prevent it forever. This abomination must have an end. And
there is a superior bench reserved in heaven for those who hasten it." (ME 6:173) His
overall solution to the slavery problem was to return the blacks to their own African
homeland or to some land where they could live as "a free and independent
people," and to provide them with implements and skills to establish their own
nation.
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"Nothing is more certainly
written in the book of fate than that these people [blacks] are to be free. Nor is it less
certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature,
habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them." --Thomas
Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:72
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"Do not mistake me. I am not
advocating slavery. I am not justifying the wrongs we have committed on a foreign
people... On the contrary, there is nothing I would not sacrifice to a practicable plan of
abolishing every vestige of this moral and political depravity." --Thomas Jefferson
to Thomas Cooper, 1814. ME 14:184
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"Nobody wishes more ardently
to see an abolition, not only of the trade, but of the condition of slavery; and
certainly, nobody will be more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object."
--Thomas Jefferson to Brissot de Warville, 1788. ME 6:428
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"I can say with conscious
truth that there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us
from this heavy reproach in any practicable way." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Holmes, 1820. ME 15:249
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"I congratulate you, fellow
citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority
constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further
participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the
unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best
interests of our country, have long been eager to proscribe." --Thomas Jefferson: 6th
Annual Message, 1806. ME 3:421
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The Consequences of Slavery |
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"With what execration should
the statesman be loaded who, permitting one half the citizens... to trample on the rights
of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals
of the one part, and the amore patriae of the other... With the morals of the
people, their industry also is destroyed." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia
Q.XVII, 1782. ME 2:226
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"The rights of human nature
[are] deeply wounded by this infamous practice [of slavery]." --Thomas Jefferson:
Rights of British America, 1774. ME 1:201, Papers 1:130
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"I tremble for my country
when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever: that considering
numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange
of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural
interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a
contest." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVIII, 1782. ME 2:227
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"As it is, we have the wolf
by the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale,
and self-preservation in the other." --Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes, 1820. ME
15:249
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Comparing Black and White |
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"I have supposed the black
man in his present state might not be [equal to the white man]; but it would be hazardous
to affirm that equally cultivated for a few generations, he would not become so."
--Thomas Jefferson to Chastellux, 1785. ME 5:6, Papers 8:186
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"The improvement of the
blacks in body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites, has been
observed by every one, and proves that their inferiority is not the effect merely of their
condition of life." Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:197
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"Nobody wishes more than I
do to see... proofs [exhibited] that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal
to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing
merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa and America. I can add
with truth that nobody wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the
condition both of their body and mind to what it ought to be as fast as the imbecility of
their present existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected, will
admit." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Banneker, 1791. ME 8:241
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"This unfortunate difference
of color, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these
people." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:201
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"An opinion is hazarded by
some, but proved by none, that moral urgencies are not sufficient to induce [the man of
color] to labor; that nothing can do this but physical coercion... It would be a solecism
to suppose a race of animals created, without sufficient foresight and energy to preserve
their own existence. It is disproved, too, by the fact that they exist, and have existed
through all the ages of history." --Thomas Jefferson to Frances Wright, 1825. ME
16:120
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Talent is No Measure of Right |
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"Be assured that no person
living wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have
myself entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to [the Negro] by
nature, and to find that in this respect they are on a par with ourselves. My doubts were
the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the
opportunities for the development of their genius were not favorable, and those of
exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore with great hesitation; but
whatever be their degree of talent, it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac
Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or
property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and
hopeful advances are making towards their re-establishment on an equal footing with the
other colors of the human family." --Thomas Jefferson to Henri Gregoire, 1809. ME
12:255
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"What a stupendous, what an
incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and
death itself in vindication of his own liberty and the next moment be deaf to all those
motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a
bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in
rebellion to oppose." --Thomas Jefferson: Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME
17:103
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"The cession of that kind of
property, for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought,
if in that way a general emancipation and expatriation could be effected; and
gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think it might be." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Holmes, 1820. ME 15:249
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"Among the Romans
emancipation required but one effort. The slave, when made free, might mix with, without
staining the blood of his master. But with us a second is necessary, unknown to history.
When freed, he is to be removed beyond the reach of mixture." --Thomas Jefferson:
Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:201
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"My opinion on the
proposition... to take measures for procuring on the coast of Africa, an establishment to
which the people of color of these States might, from time to time, be colonized, under
the auspices of different governments [is]: Having long ago made up my mind on this
subject, I have no hesitation in saying that I have ever thought it the most desirable
measure which could be adopted for gradually drawing off this part of our population, most
advantageous for themselves as well as for us. Going from a country possessing all the
useful arts, they might be the means of transplanting them among the inhabitants of
Africa, and would thus carry back to the country of their origin the seeds of civilization
which might render their sojournment and sufferings here a blessing in the end to that
country." --Thomas Jefferson to John Lynch, 1811. ME 13:10
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"In the disposition of these
unfortunate people, there are two rational objects to be distinctly kept in view. First.
The establishment of a colony on the coast of Africa, which may introduce among the
aborigines the arts of cultivated life, and the blessings of civilization and science. By
doing this, we may make to them some retribution for the long course of injuries we have
been committing on their population. And considering that these blessings will descend to
the "nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis," we shall in the long run
have rendered them perhaps more good than evil... The second object, and the most
interesting to us, as coming home to our physical and moral characters, to our happiness
and safety, is to provide an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the whole of that
population from among us, and establish them under our patronage and protection, as a
separate, free and independent people, in some country and climate friendly to human life
and happiness. That any place on the coast of Africa should answer the latter purpose, I
have ever deemed entirely impossible." --Thomas Jefferson to Jared Sparks, 1824. ME
16:8
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"I concur entirely in [the]
leading principles of gradual emancipation, of establishment on the coast of Africa, and
the patronage of our nation until the emigrants shall be able to protect themselves...
Personally, I am ready and desirous to make any sacrifice which shall ensure their gradual
but complete retirement from the State, and effectually, at the same time, establish them
elsewhere in freedom and safety." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Humphreys, 1817. ME
15:102
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"Indeed, nothing is more to
be wished than that the United States would themselves undertake to make such an
establishment on the coast of Africa. Exclusive of motives of humanity, the commercial
advantages to be derived from it might repay all its expenses." --Thomas Jefferson to
John Lynch, 1811. ME 13:12
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"It may perhaps be doubted
whether many of these people would voluntarily consent to such an exchange of situation,
and very certain that few of those advanced to a certain age in habits of slavery would be
capable of self-government. This should not, however, discourage the experiment, nor the
early trial of it; and the proposition should be made with all the prudent cautions and
attentions requisite to reconcile it to the interests, the safety and the prejudices of
all parties." --Thomas Jefferson to John Lynch, 1811. ME 13:12
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"It will probably be asked,
Why not retain and incorporate the blacks into the State [instead of colonizing them]?
Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites, ten thousand recollections by the blacks
of the injuries they have sustained, new provocations, the real distinctions which nature
has made, and many other circumstances will divide us into parties and produce convulsions
which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race."
--Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:192
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"It is material to observe
that [slaves guilty of insurgency] are not felons, or common malefactors, but persons
guilty of what the safety of society, under actual circumstances, obliges us to treat as a
crime, but which their feelings may represent in a far different shape." --Thomas
Jefferson to Rufus King, 1802. ME 10:327
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"Both parties require long
and difficult preparation. The mind of the master is to be apprised by reflection, and
strengthened by the energies of conscience against the obstacles of self-interest to an
acquiescence in the rights of others; that of the slave is to be prepared by instruction
and habit for self-government, and for the honest pursuits of industry and social duty.
Both of these courses of preparation require time, and the former must precede the
latter." --Thomas Jefferson to David Barrow, 1815. ME 14:296
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"All know that permitting
the slaves of the South to spread into the West will not add one being to that unfortunate
condition, that it will increase the happiness of those existing, and by spreading them
over a larger surface, will dilute the evil everywhere and facilitate the means of getting
finally rid of it, an event more anxiously wished by those on whom it presses than by the
noisy pretenders to exclusive humanity." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1820. ME
15:301
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"Of one thing I am certain,
that as the passage of slaves from one State to another would not make a slave of a single
human being who would not be so without it, so their diffusion over a greater surface
would make them individually happier, and proportionally facilitate the accomplishment of
their emancipation by dividing the burden on a greater number of coadjutors."
--Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes, 1820. ME 15:250
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The Prospects for Resolution |
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"Are our slaves to be
presented with freedom and a dagger? For if Congress has the power to regulate the
condition of the inhabitants of the States within the States, it will be but another
exercise of that power to declare that all shall be free. Are we then to see again
Athenian and Lacedemonian confederacies? To wage another Peloponnesian war to settle the
ascendency between them? Or is this the tocsin of merely a servile war?" --Thomas
Jefferson to John Adams, 1821. ME 15:308
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"Actual property has been
lawfully vested in that form [i.e., slave ownership], and who can lawfully take it from
the possessors?" --Thomas Jefferson to Jared Sparks, 1824. ME 16:10
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"The revolution in public
opinion which this case requires is not to be expected in a day, or perhaps in an age; but
time, which outlives all things, will outlive this evil also." --Thomas Jefferson to
James Heaton, 1826.
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"But we must await with
patience the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the
deliverance of these, our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be
full, when their groans shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of
justice will awaken to their distress and by diffusing light and liberality among their
oppressors, or at length by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to the
things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality."
--Thomas Jefferson: Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:103
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"An unsuccessful effort, as
too often happens, would only rivet still closer the chains of bondage, and retard the
moment of delivery to this oppressed description of men." --Thomas Jefferson: Answers
to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:102
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"I had always hoped that the
younger generation receiving their early impressions after the flame of liberty had been
kindled in every breast and had become as it were the vital spirit of every American, that
the generous temperament of youth analogous to the motion of their blood and above the
suggestions of avarice would have sympathized with oppression wherever found and proved
their love of liberty beyond their own share of it. But my intercourse with them... has
not been sufficient to ascertain that they had made towards this point the progress I had
hoped. I have considered the general silence which prevails on this subject as indicating
an apathy unfavorable to every hope." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Coles, 1814. FE
9:478
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"My opinion has ever been
that until more can be done for them, we should endeavor with those whom fortune has
thrown on our hands to feed and clothe them well, protect them from all ill usage, require
such reasonable labor only as is performed voluntarily by freemen, and be led by no
repugnancies to abdicate them and our duties to them." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward
Coles, 1814. FE 9:479
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"The moral duties which [the
master] owes to the slave, in return for the benefits of his service, that is to say, of
food, clothing, care in sickness, and maintenance under age and disability... [will] make
him in fact as comfortable and more secure than the laboring man in most parts of the
world; and the idea suggested of substituting free whites in all household occupations and
manual arts, thus lessening the call for the other kind of labor... would increase the
public security." --Thomas Jefferson to Clement Caine, 1811. ME 13:89
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"Our only blot is becoming
less offensive by the great improvement in the condition and civilization of that race,
who can now more advantageously compare their situation with that of the laborers of
Europe. Still it is a hideous blot, as well from the heteromorph peculiarities of the
race, as that, with them, physical compulsion to action must be substituted for the moral
necessity which constrains the free laborers to work equally hard. We feel and deplore it
morally and politically, and we look without entire despair to some redeeming means not
yet specifically foreseen. I am happy in believing that the conviction of the necessity of
removing this evil gains ground with time. Their emigration to the westward lightens the
difficulty by dividing it, and renders it more practicable on the whole. And the
neighborhood of a government of their color promises a more accessible asylum than that
from whence they came." --Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 1823. ME 15:469
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"The sugar maple... yields a
sugar equal to the best from the cane, yields it in great quantity, with no other labor
than what the women and girls can bestow, who attend to the drawing off and boiling the
liquor... What a blessing to substitute a sugar which requires only the labor of children,
for that which is said to render the slavery of the blacks necessary." --Thomas
Jefferson to Benjamin Vaughan, 1790. ME 8:50
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"Where the disease is most
deeply seated, there it will be slowest in eradication. In the Northern States it was
merely superficial and easily corrected. In the Southern, it is incorporated with the
whole system and requires time, patience, and perseverance in the curative process. That
it may finally be effected and its progress hastened, will be [my] last and fondest
prayer." --Thomas Jefferson to David Barrow, 1815. ME 14:297
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"The abolition of the evil
is not impossible; it ought never therefore to be despaired of. Every plan should be
adopted, every experiment tried, which may do something towards the ultimate object."
--Thomas Jefferson to Frances Wright, 1825. ME 16:120
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ME, FE = Memorial Edition, Ford Edition. |
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