- Oct 2019
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benjaminrobbins1999.net benjaminrobbins1999.net
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extend to them our alliance and protection, till they shall have acquired strength
Jefferson explains the proposition that the US should evict the enslaved people and support them in the creation of a separate country. This was probably contrived from the Haitian revolution.
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produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race
Makes an argument that one race would always the feel contempt towards the other due to the atrocities committed.
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The man, in whose favour no laws of property exist, probably feels himself less bound to respect those made in favour of others
Someone who has nothing longs more for those things that he does not have than those who takes it for granted.
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It is not their condition then, but nature, which has produced the distinction
Differentiating based on race. He again argues that, since those enslaved in the US are of a different and 'lesser' race than their masters, it is a more ethical version than what the Romans practiced where the master and those enslaved were often both of the same race.
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Here punishment falls on the guilty only, and as precise proof is required against him as against a freeman
This is not an act of mercy but rather a calculation, not wanting to 'wast' that enslaved peoples working years.
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The exposing them is a crime of which no instance has existed with us
Slaves often worked through the winter and summer over exposed in the US. Many did die and get ill from over exposure to the elements as well as poor living conditions.
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to raise a child cost the master more than to buy one
This is the same grim calculation that many US enslavers did to justify the poor conditions that lead slaves to an early death
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was much more deplorable
The enslaved in Rome were generally prisoners brought back from war not civilians captured to be sold. What is more, how do you think that Jefferson would know the differences between the enslaved that lived 1800 years ago and those that are spread out over the americas?
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The improvement of the blacks in body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites
Seems to try to justify slavery by saying that the enslaved lives are somehow enlightened by those that enslave them.
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His subjects should often have led him to a process of sober reasoning
The lives of slaves were brutal so and with little education so the poetry produced that Jefferson saw will not be similar to those made by scholars behind desks.
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Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry
Again most enslaved people were not taught literacy.
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In music they are more generally gifted than the whites
He tries to argue that the enslaved are incapable of creating art, yet he seems to fold admitting that he has seen a considerable amount of music come from them.
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The Indians, with no advantages of this kind
Jefferson's racism extended beyond that of African-descended people.
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Some have been liberally educated
This only happened on rare occasion as this was a time when only rich males were generally well educated
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and born in America
Slavery was hereditary
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as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid
The enslaved were often prohibited from being educated. The literacy rate among the enslaved is estimated to be 5-10%
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An animal whose body is at rest, and who does not reflect, must be disposed to sleep of course
Again he tries to draw similarities between animals and enslaved.
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to be more an eager desire, than a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation
While many enslaved tried to protect their spouses, enslavers would often rape their female slaves while being unfaithful to their wives. Who seems to be more have a more "tender delicate love".
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They are at least as brave, and more adventuresome
Many African-descended people fought valiantly in the revolutionary war while Jefferson was in Paris.
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They seem to require less sleep
He makes these statements from behind a desk without actually experimenting. He likely just assumes that the enslaved needed less sleep because they were often pushed to the edge human exhaustion.
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which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odour
The fowl oder is likely due to the lack of sanitary conditions the enslaved people were forced to live in as apposed to Jefferson's pseudo science theories.
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physical distinctions proving a difference of race
Jefferson is trying to build an argument that the enslaved are not really man and therefore do not qualify in his famous line "all men are created equal".
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worthy attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and other domestic animals
Here Jefferson literally compares African-descended people to animals, implying sub-humanity.
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