Thomas Jefferson on Race and Slavery

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Institution of Affiliation

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Thomas Jefferson on Race and Slavery

Author’s Background

Thomas Jefferson was an American statesperson, a lawyer, diplomat, an architect and a founding father of the US. Jefferson served as the third president of the US for a period of 8 years from 1801 to 1809. He had also served as the vice president of the US from 1797 to 1801. Jefferson was born on April 13th of 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson died on July 4th, 1826 in Monticello, Virginia. Jefferson was the man behind the drafting of the Declaration of Independence of the US. He was also the first secretary of state from 1789 to 1794. Thomas was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase.

Key passages

The document has various key passages that are significant. For example, “The bill reported by the revisers does not itself contain this proposition; but an amendment containing it was prepared, to be offered to the legislature whenever the bill should be taken up, and further directing, that they should continue with their parents to a certain age, then be brought up, at the public expense, to tillage, arts or sciences, according to their geniuses, till the females should be eighteen, and the males twenty-one years of age, when they should be colonized to such place as the circumstances of the time should render most proper, sending them out with arms, implements of household and of the handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the useful domestic animals, to declare them a free and independent people, and extend to them our alliance and protection, till they shall have acquired strength.” The passage is significant as it explains how the laws in the United States was formulated in the sense of providing freedom to the blacks, the law postulated that women should attain the age of 18 years while men the age of 21 to be freed from their parents’ responsibilities. After emancipation, they would later be sent to colonization without weapons for them to acquire strength.

The other important passage is “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.” The passage is important in the perception that the prejudices carried on by the whites to the blacks are enough to provoke divisions and hatred between the two races as they are already different. The black people were perceived to be inferior, and this is what nature made to separate the two races.

Another key passage is “The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do.” The passage is important in that it explains the perception of the black people by the white men that the black man is like a child who is blank in mind. The passage brings into light that the black just like a child follows what the whites do, imitating them all over their lives and this implies that they do not engage in anything constructive and innovative as they grew learning to do what others do since birth until they die. According to the passage, this is a germ that was infected to people through education so they could grow to learn what the white people wanted them to learn thus being infected with the germ all over their lives.

Significance of the document

The content of the document is still relevant as it was by the time it was written. During then, the law postulated that the emancipation age for the women as 18 years and to which until now has been 18 years for both male and female. Another significance of the document is that racial discrimination and slavery was among the key issues that Jefferson tried to fight against as he perceived every human being to be equal. But according to the document, it is evident that he treated the whites differently terming the inferiority of the blacks as innate and thus could never be equal to the whites. To date, the United States still claims that all humans are equal, but in the real sense, they treat the two races differently considering the whites as superior. Regarding education, it is the same as people especially the blacks tend to learn the ways of the whites from the time of birth to death, ranging from fashion, lifestyle, language, food, and even architecture. The document is therefore significant both at the time of drafting to date.

Passage questions

1. Jefferson believed that blacks’ inferiority was innate and thus they could not be equal with the whites. He was aware that slavery infringed the principles of the declaration of independence to which he wrote but still perceived the blacks as inferior and looked forward to their emancipation. He terms the blacks as brave, resistant to sleep and strong but despite this, they have to obey their master due to stupidity and inferiority. For the black to be closer to the whites, they had to be colonized. Besides, they could not coexist in the same country and thus could be deported without arms to their nations of origin where they could be colonized.

2. According to Jefferson, slavery has corrupted the morals and behavior of white Virginians. He lamented that slavery degraded the white people’s morals as he indulged in selling slaves to cover his debts while at the same time celebrating the moral clarity.

Works Cited

Foner, Eric. “Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History (Vol. 1).” New York and London: WW Norton & Company (2011).