(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Thomas Jefferson


As much as he desired an agricultural nation he also sought to promote the industrial development of America, although he hesitated to do so in that he believed such progress would perpetuate slavery. And Jefferson believed that God's judgment on the issue of slavery would possibly be "an exchange of situation" (pg. 215), made possible by God's supernatural interference. .
             In Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence he blames the king(s) of Great Britain for slavery. Jefferson states that the king has "prostituted his negative" (pg. 238), meaning that the king had sold his political and cultural ideas to the people of Great Britain causing them to fight in America for him whether his ideas were right or wrong. The king also was using tactics such as Jefferson states "piratical warfare," where the king would threaten and attempt to take property from the American people for not doing as he pleased or abiding by his laws. Jefferson labeled this tactic of warfare as "execrable commerce" or a hateful trade.
             In Jefferson's letter to Edward Coles he explains why he did not free his own slaves. Jefferson states "For men of any color, but of this color we know, brought from their infancy with out necessity for thought or forecast, are by their habits rendered as incapable as children of taking care of themselves" (pg. 546). Therefore Jefferson felt that his slaves in their current state were not capable of surviving freedom, which is why Jefferson never till his death freed any of his slaves. Jefferson did however free some of his slaves in his Last Will and Testament but he did not free all of them.
             Jefferson was awakened like a "fire-bell in the night" by the news of the idea of the "Missouri question." Jefferson felt and feared that if the idea of making certain states "slave" states and others "non-slave" states came to be, that it would bring the end of the Union.


Essays Related to Thomas Jefferson


Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question