“I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”

Only if you had been educated, you would know that Trump is spelled with a T R U M P

That was posted in 2013, but good on you for trying.

Thats JUST FUNNY, common sense wins over education...ROFLMFAO

some still do

Jefferson inherited his slaves and they were already used as collateral and could not be freed without the debts being paid off.  Had his entry in the Declaration of Independence been accepted by the Southern states, slavery would have been abolished, and Jefferson's slaves would have been freed.

 Guy stop lying. Jefferson inherited 62 slaves but he ended up owning about 600 slaves in his lifetime. But nice try at revising history

Not a lie.  Virginia law prohibited the freeing of slaves.  Jefferson treated his slaves well, and they were lucky to have him as their master.  Had his slavery clause been included in the Declaration of Independence, his slaves would have been free. (!!)

Treated his slaves well!  That's a huge oxymoron. 😢

Put yourself in Jefferson's position.  You have inherited slaves.  Some are mortgaged.  The slaves are in your care.  They run the farm (requiring hundreds of laborers), the household.  The law of the land prohibits free slaves.  A freed black could be enslaved again.  Jefferson tried to free ALL slaves in the Declaration of Independence.  If you were prohibited from freeing your slaves and you were against slavery in principal, how would you treat those under your care?

There are millions of slaves being treated well. It's called public assistance.

You do realize that there were also black slave owner's and that slavery was wide spread in Africa as well as the muslim slavers, right ???

In fact, Africa still trades slaves and so do the muslims !!!

Actually you are wrong.  There was an age requirement for freeing enslaved people.  Remember Jefferson had his wife's half sister as a concubine and had children with her.  If he was a moral human being he could have freed them.  Also, Jefferson did not believe that enslaved people had the intellectual capability of competing with white people.

Again, the Jefferson estate was mortgaged, including the slaves which were essentially attached as property.  Jefferson was unable to pay them off, he died in debt.  Fathering children out of wedlock may be considered immoral, but it certainly wasn't/isn't uncommon — certainly not a cause to throw the baby out with the bath water.  Jefferson brought the case for freeing the slaves before the Continental Congress — that is a fact.  And if that clause had been included, his slaves would have been free.  Who is to say how many of Jefferson's slaves would have remained?  Who can really bear witness to how Jefferson interacted with his servants?  Can you even conceive of the idea that slaves were also loved and treated as family? (Some were.)  I give Jefferson the benefit of the doubt.  Far from being perfect, he was one of the most brilliant minds in American history.

E Archer, He could have stood up and defied the law, but he didn't. He chose his wealth over humanity. I do love the fact that you honestly believe that his slaves were "lucky to have him as a master." As if anyone that was enslaved was lucky to be there.

Jefferson did all that.  The reasons have been well explained.  He defied the King and freed EVERYONE with the Declaration of Independence.  He could not end slavery on his own, nor could he free his slaves any more than you could stop paying your mortgage and demand to keep your house.  Again, there is no claim (or evidence) that Jefferson abused his slaves, quite the contrary.

Not woke, I guess. 

To KeithNC

She was not his concubine. She was his repeated rape victim.

There are different ways to look at it — none of which are common practice today.  Sally Hemmings was Martha Jefferson's half-sister, raised as one of the family all her life.  Martha died after giving birth — Sally had always been in the family.  Sally and Thomas wrote each other in letters in addition to their affair.  Is love between the two an impossibility?  Sally was there for Thomas as she was there for Martha.  To assert that Sally was raped is a lie.

Raping them was not treating them well.

And, legal manumission was permissible (if frowned upon) in Virginia.

No lie will justify ever owning a slave. He could have moved them out of Virginia and freed them elsewhere IF it mattered enough to him.

Perhaps over the period of time  the Slaves Jefferson inherited got married, and had children and grandchildren so it wasn't like Jefferson continued to "buy" slaves at the auction..

Matthew, title should be People's Republik of Kalifornikate.

Matthew doesn't know real history. Matthew is an idiot !

no

The Latin phrase "Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium" is in the letter from Jefferson to Madison, verbatim.  He was not directly quoting Count Palatine, but it was an idiom of which both were familiar. 

Would you prefer the original Latin?

"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem."

Jefferson and Madison were versed in Latin and Greek, often included famous idioms in their writing.  The phrase is in a letter from Jefferson to Madison on January 30, 1787.

Shall we put this to rest? We are happy to remake the meme in Latin for the purists. The English translation of the phrase will stand.

Sure he did, but you see history belongs to the victor. So while it may be true that he owned like 600 slaves in throughout the course of his lifetime and fathered more than a few illegitimate children with some, most of us have grown up only learning of their virtue. Praising Jefferson for his profound statements on freedom is a farce. I’m not saying that he was an awful person or didn’t do anything good, but let’s not honor a slave-owner for his thoughts on freedom. Just as we shouldn’t honor an adulterer for his thoughts on marital fidelity, or a pathological liar for his thoughts on honesty, or a misogynist for his thoughts on women’s suffrage. It’s disingenuous at best, ignorant at worst. 

Rewriting history to suit your own 21st century take on the 18th century is not serving the truth.  Note, all plantations in Virginia were run by slaves.  There was no way to free a slave in Virginia at that time — the slave would be enslaved to another laying claim to him.  How slaves were treated by their masters varied widely, and like other domesticated animals, many were loved and cared for by their owners.  There are no anecdotes of Jefferson being a hard master — on the contrary, he treated his slaves well.  His slaves were also used as collateral (since they were considered property).  There is still some question on whether Jefferson fathered any children with his slaves, but it doesn't matter to me.  Jefferson tried to free the slaves in the Declaration of Independence — it was South Carolina that refused to sign the Declaration with the slavery clause.  To call Jefferson a misogynist is disingenuous at best.  As well, to ignore the times and context of Jefferson's life is to choose self-righteousness over reality.  What is your contribution to the liberty of the People?  It will never come close to Jefferson's...  Honor that.