Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson grew up in colonial Virginia, where slaves supported the economy of the regionÆs tobacco plantations. JeffersonÆs father carved out a vast estate by acquiring both land and slaves: ôSlaves were ubiquitous in the society in which Jefferson was reared and in which he came to his majorityö (Miller 2). Young Jefferson inherited a share of the familyÆs lands, livestock, and slaves when the elder Jefferson died. Being only a youth when his father passed away, Jefferson had to wait until he reached the age of inheritance to become the owner of several thousand acres of land and more than 20 slaves. Later, when Jefferson married, he became executor of his father-in-lawÆs sizeable estate, and the slaves passed on to Martha Jefferson allegedly included

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s were based on inherent, biological differences. In Notes he offers a list of abilities or talents in which he judged blacks to be superior, equal, or inferior to whites. Admitting that more research was needed, he proposed tentatively that African-Americans were superior to whites in music and equal to them in courage, memory, adventurousness, and moral sense, abut was guarded even in these assessments of equality: ôThey are at least as brave, and more adventuresome. But this may perhaps proceed from a want of forethought, which prevents their seeing a danger till it be present. When present, they do not go through it with more coolness or steadiness than the whitesö (Jefferson 265). Jefferson argued that nature had created a hierarchy among the various races. Although he admitted that slavery, and lack of opportunity and education had robbed African-Americans of many of their abilities, Jefferson was of the opinion that certain elements of black inferiority had nothing to do with their environment. He believed that blacks were, in all probability, incapable of great achievement in intellectual pursuits like mathematics, science, and literature: ôin imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous . . . never yet coul
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Approximate Word count = 2301
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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