What, but education, has advanced us beyond the condition of our indigenous neighbours? and what chains them to their present state of barbarism & wretchedness, but a besotted veneration for the supposed supe[r]lative wisdom of their fathers and the preposterous idea that they are to look backward for better things and not forward, longing, as it should seem, to return to the days of eating acorns and roots rather than indulge in the degeneracies of civilization
It seems here that Jefferson is referring to Native Americans. He is asserting that their society is barbaric and backwards because they do not educate themselves. This shows a clear lack of understanding of other cultures and indifference towards the virtues and differences between them.
- cat