The Champion of Liberty, as some Americans refer to Thomas Jefferson, and the holder of black slaves as others relentlessly attach to the Jeffersonian legacy. On a radio show in July of 1994, host the talk show "Think Tank" Ben Wattenberg opened the show by saying, "Jefferson's greatest legacy, of course, is the Declaration of Independence. It is probably the single most recognized and copied political document in the world." (p. 1). Wattenberg goes on by quoting the famous lines of the declaration 'We hold these truths to be. . . . among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' After he opened with the preceding excerpt, he posed a question than many have debated. How can the man who wrote those stirring words own 150 slaves? Jefferson probably never imagined the paradox he created when he drafted the Declaration of Independence. However, his famous statement 'all men are created equal' haunted Jefferson for the rest of his life.

Thomas Jefferson's career had several highlights including being a delegate for the Second Continental Congress, governor of Virginia, and the President of the United States. He wrote several documents apart from the American declaration, specifically the Virginia constitution, and Notes on the State of Virginia. The latter is what brought Jefferson under criticism. It was not his views alone which troubled many, rather, his unwillingness to fulfill his principles in declaring 'all men are created equal,' but what is more important, the release of his slaves. Peter Onuf's Jeffersonian Legacies, which he edited, has an essay by Joyce Appleby titled "Jefferson and His Complex Legacy." Her title suggests the severe shortcomings in Jefferson's character by which he was a person of high ideals, derived from his Enlightenment background, who often struggled to attain those ideals. Such is the case about human nature abroad. Hence, Jefferson relentlessly tried to maintain his standards that he derived from nature, but his principles seemed to collide with obstacles, particularly, the institution of slavery. Evidently, the issue of slavery troubled Jefferson, but he seemed unable to take a course of action to free himself from his dilemma. Appleby writes, "Nature was also interpreted as similarly marking out blacks for a subordinate position in white society." (p.10). This statement was in response to Jefferson's Query XIV "Laws" in Notes on the State of Virginia. She mentions the exclusion of women and American Indians in her argument, but expounds on the notion that blacks were an inferior race in Jefferson's view. At this point, race and skin color is brought up as the barrier to the validity of the humanistic doctrine 'all men are created equal.'

"It does not matter who you are, where you're from, how much money you make or don't make, what race you are or the color of your skin, if I take a razor and cut my self, and you the same, our blood will both be red." (One of the author's quotes regarding the nature of humans.) In Charles A. Miller's Jefferson and Nature, he writes, "The overriding issue to be explored is exactly the relation between slavery and race."(p. 62) Here Miller points out the problem many still argue. That is to say, whether blacks and other races are inferior to whites. During history, there has always been some degree of racial inferiority. In the age of antiquity, the Greeks and Romans prided themselves because they felt they were the superior race. The Spanish Conquerors in Mexico regarded the Indians as "noble savages" and determined them to be in need of civility and the doctrines of Christianity. In this century, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany claimed the Aryan race was the most supreme of all. The latter occurred within the white race.

Miller goes on to say that Jefferson looked to Aristotle regarding slavery. He stresses that Jefferson reasonably stuck to his principles about his perception toward slavery. Miller adds, "On a crucial point Jefferson never deviated: slavery violated the natural rights of human liberty . . . . Aristotle had seen that slavery was practiced throughout the Mediterranean area, and he therefore assumed that it was a practice natural to mankind. But if slavery is natural to mankind . . . . Persons must exist who are 'natural slaves.'" (p.66). Aristotle recognized that not all slaves in the social arena were slaves by nature. He pointed out that slaves by nature were those who lacked rationale and moral capacity. The color of one's skin, more than likely, had no impact during the age of Antiquity. Contrary to this, the social slaves in which Jefferson was in contact with were conspicuous by the color of their skin. To look at this further, one must examine Jefferson's text in 'Notes.'

Thomas Jefferson was doing the best he could to answer all the queries imposed on his intellect. In "Laws," he details the laws in Virginia, and explicates the institution of slavery. He writes, "I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinctive race, or made distinctive by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind." (p.143). Therefore, this passage addresses the points brought up by Miller, who on a wider spectrum, addresses the issue of color. Many critics have labeled Jefferson as a racist resulting from passages from the preceding. But one must remember that Jefferson was a Southern aristocrat and a plantation owner who was born into this environment. Facts have revealed that he was no different from other slave owners of the South, but Jefferson, unlike most of his contemporaries, was in the limelight because of what he wrote. The intent of the Declaration of Independence, is an entirely different matter. What is pertinent to this particular discussion regarding the declaration, is that Jefferson's purpose behind writing the declaration was to 'place before mankind . . . . So plain and firm as to command their ascent,' and resolve the debate concerning American independence. He did not write a discourse about his personal views on slavery. However, he had to answer for his literary expressions. This became controversial prompting the delegates from South Carolina and Georgia to vehemently oppose the 'slavery' passage. It should be noted that within the circles of his colleagues from the South, he felt that slavery was an 'infamous practice,' but was not as passionate as his brethren. The Southern delegates took a stand and proclaimed their rights which they deemed to be in the best interest of their personal economies. Jefferson's critics could have been silenced if he would have successfully followed through on the elimination of slavery. Instead, he exposed himself to opprobrium because of his opinion that the 'color' of a person, specifically in blacks, meant they were an inferior race, and as a result, not really qualifying for equality. These constituents were the reason for the much argued position they held surrounding their racial inferiority.

In Policy Review, Dinesh D'Souza wrote the article "We the Slaveowners: In Jefferson's America, Were Some Men Not Created Equal?" She writes about the remarks made by historian John Hope Franklin, "Jefferson didn't mean it when he wrote that all men are created equal. . . . We've never meant it. The truth is that we're a bigoted people and always have been." (p.1). D'Souza continued to comment on Franklin's opinions. He evidently believed that by betraying the true ideals of freedom, subsequent generations of Americans were obligated to apologize, compromise, and temporize the principles of freedom. Here is a notion parallel to Jefferson's frustrations in living up to his high ideals. Like the streams on the slopes of a mountain during spring, his shortcomings effected America as a whole. Some feel that this flaw was a bad way to start this country, i.e., on the principle of freedom. Events in history have proved this. D'Souza goes on the say how African-Americans have successfully faced this adversity commenting on the insights of historically pivotal blacks such as Frederick Douglass, Phillis Wheatley, Zora Neale Hurston, Booker T. Washington, and Thurgood Marshall. D'Souza feels that Jefferson, along with the other Founding Fathers, recognized that one could not be a slave without his/her consent. She writes, "Blacks are human beings, and in possession of natural rights. Slavery is therefore against natural right and should be prohibited." (p. 9). Her analysis was one of many quandaries throughout history. Thus, this matter offered no easy solution.

In another critical article from Onuf's "Legacies," Paul Finkelman attacks the principles of Jefferson in his essay "Jefferson and Slavery "Treason Against the Hopes of the World" in which he criticizes Jefferson's failure to live up to his principles. One of the points he argues is that Jefferson could not bring himself to free his slaves, while patriots such as George Washington eventually did. Finkelman declares, " the test of Jefferson's position of slavery . . . . to implement the ideals he articulated. Jefferson fails the test." (p, 181). He points out that when Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he owned over 175 slaves. This was poignant considering most of his contemporaries during and after the Revolutionary War freed their slaves. Jefferson, according to Finkelman, never removed himself as the head of Monticello. Rather, he continued to expand his slave population. Although there were facts stating that Jefferson treated his slaves fairly, he hunted down runaway slaves, and more disturbingly, sold off slaves sometimes breaking up families to maintain his estate at Monticello. Without his slaves, Monticello would have failed. From the observer's point of view, there appears to be a contradiction with Jefferson's compassion for the black slaves. " For Jefferson any cost in ending slavery, however low, was too high." (Onuf, p. 183). Finkelman also remarks on Notes on the State of Virginia.

He wrote that in comparison to American Indians, they, contrary to blacks, were capable of being encultured and willing to learn from the white race. This did not hold true for all American Indians, but they seemed to possess a large capacity of intelligence, absent, in the view of many whites, among blacks. One note of irony here is the reality that American Indians disposed to the laws of nature substantially more than any Enlightened thinker could have achieved. The reason is simply that Indians lived according to nature possessing a spiritual relationship to supreme being(s). Whites believed in the doctrines of Christianity and the restless notion that they must conquer frontiers to exist. When the 18th century thinkers consummated the ideas of human freedom in nature, Indians, as well as other "noble savages," never had to indoctrinate themselves to this because it was already their subsistence. Consequently, in choosing the lesser of indigenous peoples, blacks clearly fit the bill. This may have also troubled Jefferson and even may have been a factor as to his indecisiveness. Some scholars suggest that his earlier experiences discouraged his efforts to promote emancipation. Later in the essay, Finkelman tells of Jefferson's failed attempts for the emancipation of slaves. " The incident shows (his failure) Jefferson was troubled by slavery, but not that he opposed the institution." (Onuf, p. 189). For the reasons already discussed, it was not easy for Jefferson to retract his statements in the Declaration of Independence. Although in his heart he felt the resolve to free his slaves, he simply could not, thus creating a case where the ideal versus the actual. As stated earlier, he knew that it was in his best interest to take an intrepid course of action, but his beliefs of superiority seemed to blind him, and his personal survival could not afford the dissolution of his slave populous. If one were in Jefferson's shoes at the time, one would probably have succumbed under internal discord. As of late, other critics have new charges against Jefferson.

In an article in the El Paso Times, William Sterne Randall wrote a review about Conor Cruise O'Brien's book The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution. According to the article, the book details Jefferson's conjectural relationship to his young mulatto slave Sally Hemings. Randall notes, " O'Brien's book, despite its cleverly ambiguous title, is more about Jefferson's views on race than the French Revolution." Despite refutations to this notion, Randall points out the author played out the affair anyway. In the end of the short article, he concludes, " The question of Jefferson's relationship to Sally Hemings is relevant because that relationship is an important part of Jefferson's relation to the institution of slavery." This article is one example that took Jefferson's character and subjected it to misinterpretations. It is up to the reader to draw their own conclusions. One must never associate Jefferson's disputable legacies to the precedents he laid.

In conclusion, A.D. White wrote an article for The Atlantic Monthly titled "Jefferson and Slavery." White's approach to Jefferson and the matter of slavery was objective and to the point, but lenient in its criticism of Jefferson's actions. He writes, "The remarks in 'Notes on Virginia,' on the colored race are clear and fair . . . . all that comes by observation of daily life of the black race, as it then was, he knew almost everything." (p. 6). Despite Jefferson's predicament, he attempted to make the best of all possible worlds. Perhaps the likes of Voltaire would have ridiculed his liberality and optimism, but Jefferson has laid claim to being the originator and father of American liberty. The problem of race and color was another troublesome subject that has been gagged and flogged, but has been 'as constant as the Northern Star.' This is another discussion. As White concludes, " This great tree of liberty which we are all trying to plant will, of course, not grow as we sill, but as God and Nature will . . . . the world may yet see that the limbs of toughest fibre and fruit of richest flavor have come from grafts set by just such strong men in theory and in practice as Thomas Jefferson." (p. 13). All the components that make up the whole in Thomas Jefferson's legacy are both positive and negative, just and unjust, balanced and versatile in the manner of Jefferson's Renaissance-like character. In summation, the world awaits the verdict whether all women/men are created equal, and with the defiance of racial barriers that sectionalize the inhabitants of God's green earth, all may have the foundation to use the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To this proposition, those who reap the benefits can be grateful that humans such as Thomas Jefferson exist in memory and in spirit.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appleby, Joyce. "Jefferson and His Complex Legacy" in Onuf, Peter's Jeffersonian Legacies. Charlottesville, Virginia. University Press of Virginia, 1993.

D'Souza, Dinesh. "We the Slaveowners: In Jefferson's America. Were Some Men Not Created Equal?" Policy Review 74 (1995).

Finkelman, Paul. "Jefferson and Slavery" in Onuf, Peter's Jeffersonian Legacies. Charlottesville, Virginia. University Press of Virginia, 1993.

Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. ed. New York, N.Y. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1972.

Miller, Charles A. Jefferson and Nature An Interpretation. Baltimore and London. The John Hopkins University Press, 1988.

Randall, William Sterne. "Jefferson's Affair Shows Relation to Slavery." El Paso Times 1 Dec. 1996: 3F.

Wattenberg, Ben. "Thomas Jefferson: Champion of Liberty or Dangerous Radical?" in an interview on the talk show 'Think Tank,' 1 July 1994.

White, A.D. "Jefferson and Slavery" The Atlantic Monthly (1962).

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