![]() 8Īlthough Jefferson continued to advocate for abolition, the reality was that slavery was becoming more entrenched. To Jefferson, it was anti-democratic and contrary to the principles of the American Revolution for the federal government to enact abolition or for only a few planters to free their slaves. 7 But Jefferson always maintained that the decision to emancipate slaves would have to be part of a democratic process abolition would be stymied until slaveowners consented to free their human property together in a large-scale act of emancipation. 6 In 1784, he proposed an ordinance that would ban slavery in the Northwest territories. 5 In 1778, he drafted a Virginia law that prohibited the importation of enslaved Africans. More on this topic in Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: Paradox of Liberty »Īt the time of the American Revolution, Jefferson was actively involved in legislation that he hoped would result in slavery’s abolition.Browse a selection of Jefferson quotes about Race and Slavery ».4 These views were radical in a world where unfree labor was the norm. 3 Jefferson also thought that slavery was contrary to the laws of nature, which decreed that everyone had a right to personal liberty. Calling it a “moral depravity” 1 and a “hideous blot,” 2 he believed that slavery presented the greatest threat to the survival of the new American nation. Throughout his entire life, Thomas Jefferson was publicly a consistent opponent of slavery. Although he made some legislative attempts against slavery and at times bemoaned its existence, he also profited directly from the institution of slavery and wrote that he suspected black people to be inferior to white people in his Notes on the State of Virginia. ![]() Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal,” and yet enslaved more than six-hundred people over the course of his life.
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