Was Jefferson a Hypocrite?

Many people believe that it was hypocritical of Thomas Jefferson to be such a famous advocate of freedom and liberty for men of all kind and at the same time to be an owner of over one hundred slaves during his life. Thomas Jefferson was not a hypocrite, instead he was a hard working generous person who loved people and desired to offer them the best he could.

            Jefferson once said “there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would, to relieve us from this heavy reproach [slavery]... we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.” By saying this, Jefferson suggests that slavery is vital to the growing, unstable nation and even though it might not be the right thing to do, it is necessary. He believed that not only his plantation at Monticello but the entire nation would fail without slavery. Jefferson thought that the nations economy was too dependant on slavery to abolish it during his lifetime. He also believed that he was giving his enslaved workers a better life than they would have had outside of Monticello.

            Slave life at Monticello was not as bad as you might think. Many of the workers were allowed to stay in the house with Jefferson and do the household chores while others were specially trained in areas such as nail making, brick making and cooking instead of working outside in the fields. Jefferson also tried as hard as he could to keep slave families together. He would sometimes buy a family of four or more slaves instead of the one slave that he desired so that he could keep the family together. Jefferson was quoted as saying that his slaves were “worth a great deal more” because he kept married slaves and their families together. Jefferson sometimes even explained to his slaves what their lives would be like outside of his plantation to discourage them from running away to a much harsher life. Jefferson did have six children with one of his enslaved workers named Sally Hemings. However, he freed these children of slavery because he believed that they appeared to be white enough to survive in the free world without being discriminated against.

            Jefferson also believed that slaves could not be released during the time that he owned them because they were too important to the young country’s economy. One of the country’s main cash crops was tobacco. Almost all of the plantations in the east grew the plant because it was such a huge money maker. Slaves were vital to this operation because they did everything but sell the tobacco and without them tending to it the economy would have taken a huge hit. Another reason that Jefferson could not free his slaves was because he was in debt for almost his entire life. His slaves made it easier for him to live in debt because he obviously did not have to pay anybody to do the work for him.

            In a letter to Edmund Cole, Jefferson explains to him why he does not think emancipation was necessary at that time. One of the things Jefferson writes to Edmund is "...the hour of emancipation is advancing, in the march of time. It will come; and whether brought on by the generous energy of our own minds; or by the bloody process of St Domingo, excited and conducted by the power of our present enemy, if once stationed permanently within our Country, and offering asylum & arms to the oppressed, is a leaf of our history not yet turned over." He is saying that slavery will be abolished whether they advocate it or not. This was one of the main reasons that Jefferson did not push for the abolition of slavery anymore than he did.

            If Thomas Jefferson was hypocritical about slavery like so many people believe, he would have been violent with them and he wouldn’t have cared about keeping families together like he did so often. He did not like slavery by any means but he knew how important it was t him and the country so he chose to turn a blind eye to the cruel side of slavery and hoped people would treat their slaves the way he did until the nation no longer depended on it.  

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_slavery