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I don't see how he could be seen any other way.
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There lies your difficulty. If you can't even understand my viewpoint, can you really argue against it? I fully understand your point of the view on the matter, and am really just trying to clear things up.
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Again, by showing how much Jefferson wrote that slavery was wrong makes it even worse that he kept slaves.
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I think this is beyond the point I was trying to make in my earlier post. Jefferson and other founders understood that slavery was an essential part of the union, which they desired to see succeed more than anything, and they were willing to compromise their own values for the good of the union. This isn't the only example, and that's the glorious part of the Constitution.
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But was Jefferson personally dependant on slavery?
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None of us can say for certain (at least I can't) but I my opinion would be that yes he was dependent on slave labor, just like the vast majority of the country at the time. In fact I think only 3 of the smallest colonies, Delaware comes to mind, were "free" states. While Jefferson and Franklin relied on black slaves for their livelyhood (who else would take care of their estates while they were gone?) they also championed for their freedom. Hypocritical to keep slaves and speak out against slavery, sure, but there were bigger fish to fry at the time...like securing the new colonial Constitution and in doing so guaranteeing a better union.