On the Fact that Thomas Jefferson Was Born Into 18th Century Virginia Aristocracy and so of Course the Guy Had Slaves

But instead of comparing him to today's sensibilities, we stack him up against his contemporaries......and, yeah, when you do that he doesn't look so bad in that a) he recognized slavery as an evil institutions and b) he supported measures over the years that chipped away at it (from his time in the House of Burgesses circa 1769 to when as President he signed the Slave Trade Act of 1807 banning the importation of slaves into the U.S.)...............................................................................................And what do these absolute drooling morons believe was happening in Africa in the 18th Century? That, what, there wasn't any slavery going on over there? Surely they can't be that stupid (the reality of course being that slavery was rampant all throughout Africa, from the Barbary Coast all the way down through sub-Saharan Africa, and that it was practiced with an element of cruelty unfathomable even by 18th Century standards)............though, yeah, on second-thought, maybe they are (these damned fools being similar in ilk to the ones currently running roughshod in Seattle)................................................................................................P.S. And, yes, I suppose that you could ask why Jefferson never freed his own servants but then you'd also have to ask, free to do what? Starve within weeks? My suspicion is that most of them would have simply remained on the plantation and requested a small stipend beyond their basic room and board. But being that that interpretation doesn't portray Jefferson as an 18th Century Snidely Whiplash, yeah, it'll probably be rejected.