Thomas Jefferson and slavery - Essay Example

In addition, being an arch supporter of human rights and individual freedom of thought and action, Jefferson always demonstrated his abhorrence for the black community serving their white counterparts as slaves. Thus, he not only launched a crusade against slavery, but also banned the shipment of the Africans as slaves to the American soil. However, at the same time he opposed the manumission law presented in the Virginia Assembly in 1969, and did not let it pass at any cost (Merkel 2008). Similarly, he is reported to release only few of his male slaves throughout his life, and kept an army of slaves in his attendance.

Thus, he is aptly criticized for his dual and contradictory strategic scheme, which slowed the pace of the slaves towards their winning freedom from the curse of slavery on the one hand and from obtaining equal rights and prestige in the society on the other. Nevertheless, his commitment, devotion and passion for the abolishment of slavery is viewed to be a landmark in respect of paving the way towards the very curse from the face of society. His contributions could be viewed by analyzing his statements about slavery in the following lines.

Aptly criticized for keeping hundreds of male and female slaves at his own, Jefferson appeared to be one of the pioneers among the American leaders striving for the unconditional eradication of slavery from the country (Howe 1997). Somehow, the blacks were, in his eyes intellectually inferior to the whites and indigenous population His opinions about slavery could be investigated by going through his Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-84) and Declaration of Independence (1776). In one of his letters to Edward Coles, Jefferson (1814) declares his making the struggle for the cause of slave people as the reflection of his love for justice and country as well on the one hand and a moral obligation of every citizen of the USA on the other.

Since the prevailing social and moral values looked for equal treatment of all the masses without discrimination, leaving the salves at the discretion of their masters would be against the statutes of the state law, he insisted (Cohen 2001). Thus, Jefferson presented himself as the unswerving devotee of the cause of slaves, where he would leave no stone unturned for winning a respectable place for the black slaves of America. Somehow, in one of his notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson (Query XIV) supported and justified slavery by declaring it to be an outcome of the Nature’s division, where the western and European citizens deserved to be the masters, while the African descents deserved to serve them as slaves (University of Virginia Library 2012).

Since Jefferson regards master-slave relationship between the American and African races as natural one, he appears to be supporting the spread of slavery, where the black would carry on serving the white racial group as slaves. In the same way, his comments, in Query XVIII, expressively consider the blacks as an inferior racial group, which should not have the rights and privileges equivalent to the white individuals at all (Jefferson 2006). Jefferson, in his notes, claims that the lot of slaves was very pathetic and deplorable under Roman and Augustan Empires, though they are not maltreated by the Americans in such a way as their Roman counterparts underwent under their cruel masters (Cohen 5).

Consequently, this form of slavery, had been in vogue in the USA, is based on the