Thomas Jefferson was the ultimate hypocrite between words and deeds, whose actions destroyed any hope of Haitian prosperity and set the stage for the Civil War, and the continuation of oppressive racism that continues to this day, under the guise of a "states rights" interpretation of the Constitution that the framers had explicitly rejected.
He preached frugality for others, meanwhile living in extravagance and debt himself--debts which required working and breeding his slaves to the max. He took his "slave capital" very seriously with each new slave providing collateral which permitted him to borrow more.
He had his own slave concubine, Sally Hemmings, never freed, with some encounters best described as rape. And apparently other(s) also. Visitors to Monticello noted a lot of slave servants looked a lot like Jefferson himself.
He favored revolutionary separation from Britain and realignment with France partly because his debts were mainly to London bankers. But when it came to fighting the British on two occasions, he simply fled as fast as possible, leaving his neighbors and slaves at risk. But later, he disparaged the patriotism of Federalists including Hamilton who had actually fought in the Revolutionary War.
He interpreted the Constitution and Bible as meaning whatever he wanted them to mean. While he had disparaged the actions of previous Presidents as violating his own Strict Constructionism interpretation of the Constitution, he left that all behind with the Louisiana Purchase, which he saw as expanding the boundaries for slavery.
He preached frugality for others, meanwhile living in extravagance and debt himself--debts which required working and breeding his slaves to the max. He took his "slave capital" very seriously with each new slave providing collateral which permitted him to borrow more.
He had his own slave concubine, Sally Hemmings, never freed, with some encounters best described as rape. And apparently other(s) also. Visitors to Monticello noted a lot of slave servants looked a lot like Jefferson himself.
He favored revolutionary separation from Britain and realignment with France partly because his debts were mainly to London bankers. But when it came to fighting the British on two occasions, he simply fled as fast as possible, leaving his neighbors and slaves at risk. But later, he disparaged the patriotism of Federalists including Hamilton who had actually fought in the Revolutionary War.
He interpreted the Constitution and Bible as meaning whatever he wanted them to mean. While he had disparaged the actions of previous Presidents as violating his own Strict Constructionism interpretation of the Constitution, he left that all behind with the Louisiana Purchase, which he saw as expanding the boundaries for slavery.
No comments:
Post a Comment