Thomas Jefferson was a man of man contradictions. While he wrote a very famous statement on equality, he himself was a wealthy aristocrat. Also, he promoted a farming society but admired the art of architecture. The biggest contradiction of Jefferson was probably the fact that he was a firm believer in human rights yet he owned slaves.

Jefferson was deep in debt when he returned home in 1794. Even though he was deep in debt, he still thought of himself as a wealthy man. Most of his wealth was concentrated into land, all 11,000 acres.

To pay off his enormous debt, he began to manufacture nails. This was another contradiction to Jefferson’s philosophy of a farming society he was trying to popularize. His slaves said he was not very “enthusiastic” about farming. Jefferson never did any farm work and rarely watched his slaves work. Jefferson enjoyed new projects rather than farming. His biggest project was remodeling his house which took years. Slaves handled most of the work at Jefferson’s estate. The number of slaves stayed around 200.

In his early years, Jefferson was anti-slavery, but by the time he retired he just wanted the issue to disappear. In the 1780s, he wrote the Notes of the State of Virginia which advocated the prohibition of slavery. It became the only book Jefferson would publish. He did not know what to do with the slaves once they were free; however, he believed both races living together would never work.

Later in the 1780s, Jefferson realized that slave labor was essential to the smooth operation of his plantation. In order to insure his survival, Jefferson knew he would have to either sell land, sell slaves, or rent slaves out. He did not want to sell or rent slaves. But as much as he tried as a young man to get rid of slavery, he was devoted to it as an older man because of his financial situation. He felt as if society caused him to become dependent upon these slaves, thus keeping slavery longer. He changed his mindset toward slaves and thought of them as family that he had to care for. They needed him and he needed them.

Jefferson had little contact with most of his slaves. If he did cross them, it was when they were remodeling his house. Most of the slaves that worked in the house or along Mulberry Row were two families that Jefferson was partial towards, giving them things the other slaves did not receive. One of these families was the biracial Hemings family. They were given to Jefferson by his father-in-law and Jefferson vowed to take care of them. When Jefferson had visitors, they most likely meet members of one of these two families which was less “black” and nothing like true slavery. He kept the real slaves at a distance. This made him feel better about being a slave owner.

In the 1820s, Jefferson’s look on slavery would change again. He no longer believed slavery had to be contained. Now, he wanted it to spread to all the states in “diffusion.” But on July 4, 1826, Jefferson lost 130 of his slaves to bankruptcy. The slaves that were part of his “family” were broken apart and sold by auction. Jefferson was not present but his daughter and grandchildren were. The auction did not cover all of Jefferson’s debt. Jefferson’s whole life was based “promise” and in the end he failed to deliver all his promises because there were things that Jefferson refused to accept his entire life.

WORKS CITED

Carriker, Robert M. and Mary Farmer-Kaiser. Optimism, Struggle, and Growth: Readings on an Expanding American. Vol 1. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 2001.