Thomas Jefferson's Hypocrisy In The US

603 Words2 Pages

As Don King once said, “Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is her favorite child.” Thomas Jefferson was a cruel man who failed to follow his five most distinguished words: “All men are created equal.” As the third President of the United States, Jefferson worked to represent all people, yet he barely regarded African Americans as humans. The third President owned hundreds of slaves, and forced them to build his massive home, Monticello. Thomas Jefferson was a deceitful hypocrite, a man who favored black labor, and was overall racist in many ways. Thomas Jefferson truly was one of America’s most evil Presidents.

Thomas Jefferson was a cruel man who forced slaves to build Monticello. Monticello roughly housed 130 slaves. These slaves were treated with very poor condition. To “encourage the work of” his slaves, Jefferson threatened to sell them away from their families. His overseers at Monticello were brute as they often whipped his slaves. According to Montecillo Property, James Hemings, a slave, was whipped three time a day. Hemings was also not able to even lift his own head. Also, William McGehee, who was an overseer, was reported to …show more content…

Jefferson was a president who took in many slaves as he was elected president and as he wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote and signed to the words that “all men are created equal”, yet he treated blacks and african slaves with no humanity. Jefferson stated later that slavery is a “...great political and moral evil...” yet he did not try to take action to eliminate slavery. According to Philadelphia News, Jackson was a slaveholder since he was 11 years old after he inherited over 50 slaves and 5,000 acres of land. Jefferson held many slaves during his life even though he believed it was morally wrong. Jefferson was a hypocrite and treated slaves with no

Show More
Related

  • Racial Injustice in the Book A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    For Jefferson, racial injustice is present in court. Because of the color of his skin, Jefferson was automatically found guilty by those 12 men. “12 white men say a black man must die, and another white man sets the date and time without consulting one black person, Justice?” (157) The jury that decided his sentence was made up of 12 white men. Jefferson’s trial was unfair because the verdict was made by all white men. Jefferson was really just at the wrong place at the wrong time, but the biased jury saw him as guilty before finding any real evidence. This scene from court is an example of how Jefferson is treated unfairly because of the way he is viewed by others.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Hope And Heritage: Myth, By Thomas Jefferson

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the article “Hope and Heritage: Myth and Thomas Jefferson” (Hope & Heritage pages 133-137) by Gordon S. Wood do not show the good man Jefferson is made out to be in present days. In his time Thomas Jefferson was sought as a bad man whose views towards slavery were for it to never abolish it “Jefferson could never truly imagine a negro being free in a white man’s world” but throughout the article you quickly notice Jefferson’s views on slaves seems to change whether from misinterpretation of the people or his unfortunate but very predictable tragedy of becoming in debt “he knew slavery was evil but believed his generation couldn’t do much about it” he in terms came to hate slavery and all it was, but knew people were too dependent on negro slaves to completely abolish them.

    Read More

  • Jefferson's Actions During His Presidency

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the year of 1800, Jefferson ran for the second time averse to former president, John Adams but unlike the previous election, John Adams wins the presidency, Jefferson was able to defeat John Adams. The Adams lost the election due to passing the Alien and Sedition Acts, Considered unconstitutional laws because the Acts took away the first amendment, freedom of speech. Jefferson was a more promising choice as he promised to have a “Republican Revolution”, Jefferson promised to help the yeoman farmer and decrease the Federal debt the United States had at the time period. Jefferson’s presidency was to a certain extent a “Republican Revolution” and to a certain extent it was a Federalist Continuation.

    Read More

  • Benjamin Banneker Analysis

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Despite Jefferson’s vocal opposition of slavery, he still owned hundreds of slaves and profited immensely off of the institution of slavery and Banneker articulated that inherent hypocrisy in his letter. Jefferson supported gradual emancipation, and while that was a step in the right direction, it did not make any kind of significant improvement in the lives of those who were continuing to suffer under slavery. He wanted to “improve” some of the more violent aspects of slavery by reducing physical punishments and improving quality of life, but even then human beings are still being treated as property. Although he was anti-slavery, he still believed that black people were inferior and Banneker used religion as part of his persuasion: “It is the indispensable duty of those who maintain for themselves the rights of human nature, and who profess the obligations of Christianity, to extend their powers and influence to the relief of every part of the human race, from whatever burden or oppression they may unjustly labor under” (Page

    Read More

  • The Vast Influence of Thomas Jefferson

    689 Words  | 2 Pages

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” These were the mighty words that Thomas Jefferson wrote down he developed his portion of the Declaration of Independence. Some people do not recognize Thomas Jefferson as one of the founding fathers, with other names like Ben Franklin and John Hancock being thrown around the room, but yet we should see him as the most important one. Thomas Jefferson was assigned to make a draft for the document. He chose to talk about how all men are equal and everybody deserves life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The declaration of independence is one of the most important documents in history and made all men equal, meaning one race is not superior to another. This influenced the public by making the black race have hope because now, they could see that one day they would be just as equal as...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Thomas Jefferson's From Notes on the State of Virginia

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “From Notes on the State of Virginia,” Thomas Jefferson includes some proposed alterations to the Virginia Laws and discusses some differences between blacks and whites. First, he describes one of the proposed revisions regarding slavery: All slaves born after the enactment of the alteration will be freed; they will live with their parents till a certain age, then be nurtured at public disbursement and sent out of state to form their own colonies such that intermarrying and conflicts can be avoided between blacks and whites. Next, Jefferson indicates some physical differences between blacks and whites, including skin color, hair, amount of exudates secreted by kidneys and glands, level of transpiration, structure in the pulmonary organ, amount of sleep, and calmness when facing dangers. As he notes, these differences point out that blacks are inferior to whites in terms of their bodies. In addition, Jefferson also asserts that the blacks’ reasoning and imagination are much inferior to the whites’ after he observes some of the art work and writings from the blacks. As a result, based on his observation, he draws a conclusion that whites are superior to blacks in terms of both body and mind. However, Jefferson’s use of hasty generalization, begging the question, and insulting language in his analysis is a huge flaw which ruins the credibility of his argument and offenses his readers.

    Read More

  • The Concept Of Presentism In Douglas L. Jefferson And Paul Finkelman

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    His writings show how he truly views slavery. In the first document, found in the Declaration of Independence, he claims that King George III is violating the rights of Africans by taking them and selling them into slavery elsewhere in the world. In the last document, written to Holmes regarding the Missouri Compromise, he states how people would be happier having a greater surface for the slave trade. This is a perfect example of how Jefferson was hypocritical; he simply contradicted himself. Although these documents were written forty years or so apart, I believe that it is still important to note his hypocrisy. This is mainly because Jefferson owned slaves throughout this entire time

    Read More

  • Thomas Jefferson: Pragmatics over Doctrine

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the period 1800-1817, the Jeffersonians to a great extent compromised their political principles and essentially “out Federalized the Federalists”. While traditional Jeffersonian Republicanism advocated a strict interpretation of the Constitution and an emphasis on an agrarian economic system, the actual policies of Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were markedly different from their theoretical principles. This obvious compromise of Jeffersonian principles is evident in the Federal government’s assumption of broad-based political powers and institution of capitalistic Hamiltonian economic reforms, both of which stemmed from Jefferson and Madison’s adoption of broad constructionist policies.

    Read More

  • Thomas Jefferson's Views On Slavery

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is a common argument people have to question Jefferson's true beliefs upon the basis of slavery. "Slavery is an abomination and must be loudly proclaimed as such, but I own that I nor any other man have any immediate solution to the problem," was another quote by Jefferson which set out his views towards slavery quite clearly. The interesting thing about this quote is that he acknowledged that there were no immediate ways to fix the problem of slavery. This possibly hinted that because he had no way to fix the issue of slavery, he would simply continue its practice much like men around him in society chose to

    Read More

  • Polly Cleveland, Cleveland

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    He would lie and tell other slave owners that the slaves he had not completely paid off (slaves in custom) supposedly had run off, when in reality he was selling those slaves making profits and never paying his proper dues. Slaves in custom would be taken down to Texas to eventually be sold for the best offer. Old Cleveland, Aunt Mary’s family owner never took into consideration of her family being split up during these business trips to Texas. He would intentionally split up her parents, her father Sam Adams and Siby. So not only was he hard on his slaves chaining them to trees, beating them with whips and then even putting salt and pepper to “spice em up” is what Aunt Mary said William use to say but he was not trustworthy towards other slave owners amongst him. Old William Cleveland was a very selfish cold hearted man selling slaves that he knew were in very unhealthy conditions to other whites in Texas, he would use grease to moisturize the slave’s lips and face to make it appears they were in good health, strong and being well taken care

    Read More

  • White Man's Burden Summary

    1766 Words  | 4 Pages

    Slavery is the idea and practice that one person is inferior to another. What made the institution of slavery in America significantly different from previous institutions was that “slavery developed as an institution based upon race.” Slavery based upon race is what made slavery an issue within the United States, in fact, it was a race issue. In addition, “to know whether certain men possessed natural rights one had only to inquire whether they were human beings.” Slaves were not even viewed as human beings; instead, they were dehumanized and were viewed as property or animals. During this era of slavery in the New World, many African slaves would prefer to die than live a life of forced servitude to the white man. Moreover, the problem of slavery was that an African born in the United States never knew what freedom was. According to Winthrop D. Jordan, “the concept of Negro slavery there was neither borrowed from foreigners, nor extracted from books, nor invented out of whole cloth, nor extrapolated from servitude, nor generated by English reaction to Negroes as such, nor necessitated by the exigencies of the New World. Not any one of these made the Negro a slave, but all.” American colonists fought a long and bloody war for independence that both white men and black men fought together, but it only seemed to serve the white man’s independence to continue their complete dominance over the African slave. The white man must carry a heavy

    Read More

  • Slavery In The United States

    1484 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Nobody wishes more ardently to see an abolition, not only of the trade, but of the condition of slavery; and certainly, nobody will be more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object." (Thomas Jefferson to Brissot de Warville, 1788. ME 6:428) Thomas Jefferson said this to Brissot de Warville in 1788 explaining his view on slavery in the United States. This was both positive and negative for Thomas Jefferson, in many ways. He was very positive in the abolition of slavery in the United States because Jefferson says he would do anything to stop slavery, and the slave trade in the States. Thomas Jefferson had a theory that the United States could use part of the coast of Africa, and it would be used as an establishment where African American who were in the states would be moved. Jefferson sees this as the best way to deal with the slavery issue. Jefferson thinks this is a good idea because when the African Americans got back to Africa they would take the things they learned wile they were enslaved here and us them back in Africa. Thomas Jefferson saw this as retribution to the African Americans for all that t...

    Read More

  • Response To Jefferson's Declaration Of Independence

    1755 Words  | 4 Pages

    The American Declaration of Independence has affected the foundation of the United States more than any other event or document in American history. The Declaration of Independence was the basis for what the country was established on. The document was a way for the colonists to emancipate themselves from the cruelty of King George. This document had such an impacting effect because it was such a new way of bringing up concerns. It was the first of its kind in the history of America in the aspect of liberation of a group of people.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Slavery

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many slave masters tried to defend owning slaves by claiming it’s not breaking any laws or hurting anything and in contrary it is actually bettering society. On November 27, 1789, John Brown wrote a letter to his brother Moses defending his right to take part in the slave trade. John Brown claims he needed to own slaves to pay back a debt in Europe. Which his debt would be left to his family if he were to pass away without fulfilling it. John Brown claims that if slaves weren’t with him they could be with someone else that could treat them worse. Brown views the slave trade as doing a favor to the slaves. In 1837, William Harper wrote, “Slavery in the Light of Ethics,” which can be summarized as we don’t know the effects of abolishing slavery and we should be worried of the aftermath if slavery was to be abolished. Putting an end to slavery would be bad for Southern

    Read More

  • Comparing the Philosophy and Presidency of Jackson and Jefferson

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    The presidencies of Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson were based on similar political philosophies. Both men believed in the common man having a voice in government, and opposed too much power being given to the federal government. Both were educated men, with an extensive knowledge of the law, who believed that an agricultural based economy was the key to America’s economical growth. However, since they were both planters who owned slaves, and Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, it was obvious that their philosophy of defending the common man did not pertain to minorities. Jefferson was raised on a wealthy tobacco plantation, and Jackson, although born poor, was raised by a wealthy uncle after being orphaned at the age of fourteen. Even though they grew up in a wealthy lifestyle, they both opposed the corruption of a government that did not have the individual states’ needs at heart. Although there was controversy on their somewhat racist beliefs, their accomplishments during their presidencies set a precedent for a fair and democratic government that restrained the power of the wealthy and elite. (Boyer, et. al., 2008)

    Read More

More about Thomas Jefferson's Hypocrisy In The US

Open Document