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Debating Thomas Jefferson and Slavery

Introduction

Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States and a spokesperson for the Democracy party. Jefferson had a negative attitude towards slavery for he described it as an economic burden to country’s development and that all people were equal. Although Thomas Jefferson advocated for abolishing of slavery, in reality the practice was becoming more established. This study will compare authors of two secondary sources on Thomas Jefferson and slavery and evaluate their arguments using primary documents.

Part 1

Both authors recognize effects of presentism on slavery prohibition. Douglas L Wilson addresses presentism differently from Paul Finkelman who views presentism as a problem where Jefferson could not avoid slavery because slavery was treated as a normal way of life. Paul Finkelman agreed on presentism but describes Jefferson as a hypocrite. Finkleman says that Jefferson practiced slavery but discouraged people from practicing slavery. Jefferson acquired more slaves during his old age to work for him.

Both authors recognize gender inequality as unethical but have a different approach when judging Jefferson’s unethical behaviour. According to Wilson, Jefferson recognized ethics and took action by addressing against slavery. Finkleman on the other hand, addresses Jefferson as unethical for practicing slavery yet he knew slavery was unethical. Jefferson relied on his slaves for everything. He was only concerned about the white people who were not victims of slavery, he did not want the blacks interacting white people which, in his views, would weaken the white society.

I think Jefferson, as a leader, should have practiced ethics better by not only advocating against the human oppression, but by emulating what he believed and spearheaded for. It is unethical to deny people freedom and exposing them to discrimination and mistreatment as the authors described the life of slaves. It is unethical to have unfair treatment of people as depicted in the secondary sources where the white people were not subjected to slavery unlike the black people. Slaves, who comprised of the black community were not allowed to mingle with white people yet...