“This thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine.”
This week Clay Jenkinson speaks about Thomas Jefferson and slavery.
Further Reading
- Clay S. Jenkinson: Erasing the Past
- NY Daily News: Thomas Jefferson was a horrible man who owned 600 human beings, raped them, and literally worked them to death by Shaun King
- Washington Post: Sally Hemings wasn’t Thomas Jefferson’s mistress. She was his property. by Britni Danielle
Spelunking for Truth in a Disillusioned Era
The Jefferson Watch
"I’d rather try to figure out whether Jefferson actually thought humans were born good—that is, without original sin—than to intrude upon his privacy in the night. I want to know how he squared his amazing ideals with the much shabbier world he actually lived in, if he really thought we were up to the challenge of creating a semi-Utopian social order, or if he was in some sense just imagining or even posturing when he said all those inspiring things about the possibilities of reason, good sense, science, tolerance, due process, freedom, and peace. And when I think about slavery—which I do many times per week—the question I want to wrestle with is the question of emotional fallout."
Read this week's Jefferson Watch essay, "Spelunking for Truth in a Disillusioned Era."
What Would Jefferson Do?
“People are often unnecessarily loyal to close relatives in a way that clouds their judgment.”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
We are joined this week by the author and historian Professor Joseph Ellis. He and Clay have an in-depth discussion about the Founding Fathers and their willing participation in the enslavement of people.
On the one hand, Jefferson wrote perhaps the most important American directive: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," but he also believed that America could never become a truly bi-racial republic, and during his lifetime he owned over 200 enslaved people. This week, Clay Jenkinson and Joseph Ellis discuss this uncomfortable twin legacy of Thomas Jefferson that we still wrestle with today.
In an earlier program, the Thomas Jefferson Hour presented a discussion between Clay Jenkinson and Professor Joseph Ellis about monuments and the potential removal of some, and how we as citizens can come to better understand this issue. This week we present thoughts on this subject received from our listeners.
Joseph Ellis and Clay Jenkinson revisit their debate about who the “Indispensable Man” of the American Revolution truly was. We share listener comments about the debate and answer additional questions sent in, including a request for discussion about the history of the women’s rights movement, Jefferson’s subpoena during the Burr trial and how slavery affected the economy of the southern states.