Thomas Jefferson's Views on Slavery

Although Jefferson had favored the discontinuance of the slave trade before the Revolution and definitely proposed it as early as 1776, the measure of 1778, regarding this issue, was introduced by another at a time when he was not present in the House (Malone 264). This bill was to prevent the future importation of slaves in Virginia. However, it was likely that Jefferson favored this bill. In Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, written to explain correct ideas about America to the French government, and written before the 1778 bill, he advocated gradual emancipation (Malone 264).

Jefferson had perceived an encouraging change in attitude toward slavery since the beginning of the Revolution. The harshness of masters was abating, the spirit of the slaves was rising, and the conditions of the latter were being mollified. However, no one could find in his words any ground whatsoever for the opinion that s

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portant to defer the issue of slavery it reached the House in Virginia as a bill and then propose it as an amendment. Of course, nothing became of this scheme because as Jefferson explained later in his life, the people were not ready for it. Aside from the ethical reasons for being against slavery, Jefferson was against it because the rapid increase in the slave population made him apprehensive. He was afraid the blacks would soon outnumber the whites. He hoped, however, that the prohibition of any further importation would, in some measure, stop the increase of this "moral evil" until the citizens became accustomed to the idea of emancipation (Schachner 231). He never at any time considered the blacks as the possible political and social equals of the whites. Once they were free, Jefferson believed that the two races could not live side by side because of the deep rooted prejudices of the whites and the recollections of the blacks of the injuries they had sustained. Jefferson also believed that there were essential physical and mental differences between the two races, and he resolved all comparisons in favor of the whites; so that, although he was careful to state that the matter required further objective study,
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Approximate Word count = 1750
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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