I find that the tearing down of statues has gone way too far. Tearing down Columbus because he discovered America, and that harmed the indigenous people, is really nuts. If that is how they really feel, then return their land to the Indians and go back to where their ancestors were from. Taking down Columbus’ statue but then enjoying the privilege of living here is insane. Then they removed a block where slaves stood and were sold. Why? That is like tearing down the Berlin Wall and pretending it never happened. I would think it supports history to show what slavery was about back then.
Then there is Thomas Jefferson who these people simply say was a slave owner and had children with a slave. The slaves were his wife’s from her former marriage after her first husband died. Some were skilled, but most were farmhands. If Jefferson released them all, they would have starved. Over 70% of the economy was agrarian. They would not have been able to find a job at Starbucks or something. It was a completely different world. There would be no employment.
It was Jefferson who actually began the entire immorality of slavery, which shows that these people do not know their history. There was a heated debate over Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence and his phrase “all men are created equal” when there existed American slavery among many of the delegates. The Congress deleted nearly a fourth of Jefferson’s draft, which included a passage criticizing the slave trade. It was Jefferson who first brought to the surface the controversial “anti-slavery” passage. Jefferson had long been against slavery and argued in court for the abolition of a slave before he ever wrote the Declaration of Independence. It was Jefferson who first articulated the anti-slavery concept which would eventually lead to the Civil War.
Insofar as having children with a slave, this was after his wife died; the slave was mixed race and the offspring of his wife’s former husband. Jefferson freed them and they were skilled and did not work as farmhands.
There were ruthless slave owners and there were also moderate to benevolent masters. Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment, but he also had to be practical in the world he lived in at the time.
