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Thomas Jefferson, Slavery, and Slaves

2011; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

1556-5068

Aaron Schwabach,

Legal and Constitutional Studies

Thomas Jefferson was a controversial and divisive figure during his own lifetime, and has not grown less so with time. Perhaps no other person had a greater impact on shaping of American legal system than Jefferson. And perhaps no other person so completely embodied contradictions and hypocrisies of early American approach to questions of slavery and race: as Frederick Douglass put it, the contradiction in Constitution. Arguments may and do rage about Jefferson's religious faith or lack thereof, and on his views on federalism and states' rights or on balance between government and individual liberty. Yet nothing about Jefferson elicits as immediate and emotional a response as his peculiarly complex relationship to institution of slavery, and consequently to race.The three sections of this article provide a preliminary exploration of Jefferson's views on slavery and race, and his relationships with slavery and slaves. The first attempts to describe Jefferson's relationship to institution of slavery, both as a slave owner and as a political figure; as much as possible, it presents Jefferson's views on slavery and on race in his own words. This section also sets forth some of notable features of law of slavery in Jefferson's time, and attempts to measure Jefferson's impact on slavery.The second section discusses case of Howell v. Netherland, one of two cases argued by Thomas Jefferson preserved in law reports of colonial Virginia (compiled by Jefferson himself). Samuel Howell, an indentured servant, brought an action against his master for freedom; Jefferson represented him, unsuccessfully, before a judge (George Wythe, Jefferson's former law professor) who was far less ambivalent than Jefferson in his personal opposition to slavery.The third section discusses relationship, or what is known and what is believed and disbelieved about it, between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Hemings, a slave, was half-sister of Jefferson's wife, and he was and is widely believed to have been father of her children. The lives of Jefferson, Hemings, and their children and other family members are historically interesting. Our latter-day reactions to ongoing discoveries about them are at least as interesting for what they say about us and degree to which, as a nation, we have succeeded or failed in coming to terms with divide that defined Jefferson and his times.