Rogers ENGL 227
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Our American founding fathers embody some of our most beloved and precious ideals. It is to their standard that our modern nation is constantly compared. We revere them as true genii of their time. However, we tend to forget their utter humanity in the wake of their historical achievements. They made numerous mistakes, and largely believed things that Americans today would find disgusting. But does this negate the gravity and importance of their more well known accomplishments? Do the foggy valleys of their lives steal the glory from the lofty peaks? Take Thomas Jefferson, for an example.
"... all men are created equal, ... they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights... life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness."
- American Declaration of Independence; Thomas Jefferson, 1776
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Father and writer of the Declaration of Independence, Third President of these United States, and proud patriot. He suffered with his fellow men in the American Colonies under the oppressive rule of the British. He invested in his education, and came to serve in a meeting of the greatest minds of his or likely any other time. He argued for the rights of men under government, and served them thusly.
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A Summary View of the Rights of British North America
- Thomas Jefferson, 1774
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Notes on the State of Virginia
- Thomas Jefferson
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However, in his Notes on the State of Virginia, he posited that slaves were descended from apes, thus justifying their servitude to white homo sapiens. This is, modernly, very ignorant. What relevance could he lend to an argument about the rights of men when his definition of a man was so horribly skewed?
On the other hand, the science of his time was almost immeasurably behind our own. An antiquated conception of anthropology, and a nonexistent conception of genetics tend to render a person relatively unequipped in a discussion of the history of humanity. So perhaps this cannot be attributed as a fault against him. |
Notes on the State of Virginia
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Where in the World Is William Wells Brown? Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and the DNA of African-American Literary History
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Another fault attributed to Jefferson is his alleged relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings, and their alleged children. How could a man arguing against the humanity of the African race find a female of their apparently inferior species attractive enough to bed with, and produce children with?
Yet again, however, one must call into question Jefferson's perception of the situation. Jefferson inherited Hemmings from his wife's father, John Wayles, who, reportedly, had a mulatto mistress who was Hemmings' mother. This means that Hemmings was a quadroon, or a quarter African, and three quarters white. This large percentage of an apparently more admirable race might have been enough to justify to Jefferson his relation with Hemmings. Further to this end, Hemmings would have been Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson's half sister. Martha died several years before Jefferson was supposed to have been involved with Hemmings, and perhaps this relation to Martha made her a more appealing mate, as well. |
Memory`s Movements: Minstrelsy, Miscegenation, and American Race Studies
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Jefferson was a man whose life, though largely celebrated, was rife with fallacy. However, his political prose stands strong; any appalling points of view on race can be attributed to the ignorance of the time; and it cannot rightly be denied, by any time line of events, that he was faithful to his wife when she lived. So is modern American reverence for this Founding Father misplaced? I think not.
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