Smithsonian Magazine
by Henry Wiencek
October 2012

With five simple words in the Declaration of Independence—“all men are created equal”—Thomas Jefferson undid Aristotle’s ancient formula, which had governed human affairs until 1776: “From the hour of their birth, some men are marked out for subjection, others for rule.” In his original draft of the Declaration, in soaring, damning, fiery prose, Jefferson denounced the slave trade as an “execrable commerce ...this assemblage of horrors,” a “cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberties.” As historian John Chester Miller put it, “The inclusion of Jefferson’s strictures on slavery and the slave trade would have committed the United States to the abolition of slavery.”

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http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-ar...-169780996.html

They have to destroy Jefferson as hes one of the essential historical figures defining liberty today. This article appears to be aimed at black folks to turn them away from Jeffersonian principles of liberty. One of the most important and beneficial things he did, which has been sanitized from the history books, is he broke the early version of the federal reserve, the central bank. We had a good economy for a long time after that until the money changers wormed their way back into our economy.

Quote: Mechanicos wrote in post #2

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They have to destroy Jefferson as hes one of the essential historical figures defining liberty today. This article appears to be aimed at black folks to turn them away from Jeffersonian principles of liberty. One of the most important and beneficial things he did, which has been sanitized from the history books, is he broke the early version of the federal reserve, the central bank. We had a good economy for a long time after that until the money changers wormed their way back into our economy.

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Welp, we all knew Jefferson owned slaves. An unfortunate fact, but you wouldn't have to be a genius to realize that this sort of unpleasantness and outright brutality occurred as part in parcel with own slaves.

Nobody was perfect and neither was Jefferson.

Zitat

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It is curious that we accept Jefferson as the moral standard of the founders’ era, not Washington.

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Odd, I don't think we accept Jefferson as a moral standard at all... George Washington was the one who was honest about chopping down the cherry tree.

Jefferson was simply the most eloquent and intelligent. But we all knew he had a dark side.

Quote: Weird Tolkienish Figure wrote in post #4

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Welp, we all knew Jefferson owned slaves. An unfortunate fact, but you wouldn't have to be a genius to realize that this sort of unpleasantness and outright brutality occurred as part in parcel with own slaves.

Nobody was perfect and neither was Jefferson.

Zitat

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It is curious that we accept Jefferson as the moral standard of the founders’ era, not Washington.

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Odd, I don't think we accept Jefferson as a moral standard at all... George Washington was the one who was honest about chopping down the cherry tree.

Jefferson was simply the most eloquent and intelligent. But we all knew he had a dark side.

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I think the writer knows this is false, but they need to keep the issue alive.

Historians will always try to go back and change what we know about the past. In doing so they believe they are only highlighting the historical societal ills that they believe are self-evident. What they don't realize is that in an article like this one they reveal a lot of truthful information about the past and their own intent to shape our perception of it.