At 10:03 PM 7/22/96, Simon Spero wrote:
On Mon, 22 Jul 1996, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
(BTW, Jefferson's slaves were inherited and an an entailment clause in the will prevented him from freeing them during his lifetime. Not, of
It would be hard to prove the case that this was the only thing preventing earlier manumission, but then the whole issue is one of the hardest things to understand about Jefferson; many of his closest friends were leaders in the abolitionist movement of the time, and it's almost impossible to believe that he didn't know slavery to be morally indefensible relatively early on in his political development. Guess it was just part of his programming he couldn't throw off.
Still leaves him just ahead of FDR as best american president, but does drop him a way behind Paine for best political theorist of the revolution
I agree that Jefferson was the best President. Thinker, writer, inventor, cryptographer, teacher, farmer, founder of universities, and principal author of the Declaration of Independence of course. Yes, he owned slaves. Makes me rethink my position on slave-owning.... --Tim "Massa" May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."