Thomas Jefferson, slave breeder

[MsGuy]

Turns out the Soviets weren't the only guys editing their history back in the bad old days.

Passages from Thomas Jefferson's private papers thrilling over his realization that the real profit in slavery was from keeping his female slaves breed regularly were deliberately edited out of the printed version published in the 50's and lay unnoticed in the archives until 2005.

Scholars are just now piecing together how his attitude toward slavery changed once he figured out how much money he could make from breeding more slaves and how brutal life was for them on his plantations. Jefferson even refused a large inheritance from his friend Kosciusko because he specified it was to be used to purchase the freedom of slaves and provide them with farms in the Mid-West.

Jefferson went so far as to caution his overseers not to allow the need for female labor to interfer with the more lucrative job of having a child every 2 years.

Here's an article from the Smithsonian setting out the truth. Kinda popped my balloon about Jefferson.

[Guest hitoallusa]

Well I think things we have been doing wrong today will shock our descendants in the future too. We came a long way. We abolished some inhumane ways because we can afford not to do those things. It is not because we are any better than our ancestors, IMHO.

The affordability that makes us noble and horonorable also is possible vecause of hard work and sacrifices made by our ancestors. As for Jefferson I think he contributed a lot to what the world is today and it's our responsibility to make the world a better place. I hate a fairy tale like stories about historical figures. Yes they should be respected but also the story has to be realistic.

On a side note, I plan to find the descendants of Snow Whites and Cinderella authors and sue them for unrealistic stories! They must have changed the original story of plain ordinary princesses and left out gay princes. They wil be forgiven of course if they find me a prince on a white horse for me to live happily ever after. They must hurry because I am running out of patience! lol

[AdamSmith]

the real profit in slavery

You will have read enough Jefferson biography to know he was addicted to spending, and ended his days in debt to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Which was really something to do, back in the day.

[MsGuy]

You will have read enough Jefferson biography to know he was addicted to spending.

Somehow Jefferson's obsessive squandering of money on his never-ending redesigning of Monticello seems less the endearing eccentricity when you realize it was financed by whipping 10 year children into 'industriousness' at his nail factory.

[Guest hitoallusa]

My tour guide at Monticello only said good things about Jefferson and said something like he was very generous to his slaves.. I don't remember the specific incident that the tour guide told me but I admired him more after the tour... But never knew Jefferson whipped 10 year olds???

[MsGuy]

But never knew Jefferson whipped 10 year olds???

Neither did I, Hito, which is why I began this thread. (and included the Smithsonian link. Read the article.)

As much as he loved to see the boys working industriously, Jefferson was far too tender-hearted to beat them himself. His thuggish hired overseer handled the lashing for him. Jefferson did admonish the overseer not to break the spirit of the more intelligent of the slave children as that would interfere with his plans to train those up as skilled craftsmen. Finding overseers who could strike a judicious balance between the carrot and the stick was a real trial for poor Jefferson.