Jefferson

Jefferson has always been an extremely stylized figure, which is the view of most historical figures. However, I am somewhat disgusted by this piece of writing because it really illustrates the view that he had that black people were inferior, and not even people. However, in a way, it is eye opening. The people during the time period weren't simply racist, but uninformed. In a way it makes me understand why they acted the way they did, because they had never really realized that there were different types of people, and just simply didn't understand that people of a different color were still the same as they were. The people of the time seemed to believe "scientifically" that black people were inferior- their where there "data" was lacking was in the fact that black people were not allowed to be educated, whereas white people were, so of course they were going to SEEM intellectually inferior.

There are many different pictures painted of Jefferson- when I started reading the essay, as I said before, i was disgusted by what he was saying. However, the time period does indeed have to be taken into account, and I believe, from the nature of his statements, that if he lived in a more informed time period, he would not hold these beliefs.