Re: The power of an Idea - The Long View.
Noble words. Jefferson always talked a good game.
In 1814 Edward Coles wrote Jefferson, asking for support and encouragement in his personal campaign against slavery. Coles asked Jefferson to endorse his plan to take his slaves to Illinois and free them. Jefferson rebuffed his neighbor. In counseling Coles against freeing his adult slaves he said that people "of this color" were "as incapable as children of taking care of themselves." Free blacks were "pests in society." He spent himself into bankruptcy, selling slaves to raise money along the way. He had opportunities throughout his life to free some or all of his slaves, and only freed three, all of them members of the Hemings family, and thus Jefferson's own relatives. His will freed only five--also Hemings family members.
Saddles on their backs indeed.
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