Thomas Jefferson: Self and Society Flashcards
1
Q
Why were Jefferson’s writings so important?
A
- became a central point of reference and influence during a time of changing attitudes and actions in regards to blacks and slavery
- so many people read and reacted to them
- his remarks about blacks were read more widely than any others until mid-19th century
- valuable for historical analysis because he shows ideas about blacks in relation to his culture
2
Q
Jefferson’s overall feelings towards blacks
A
-He hated slavery but thought blacks were inferior to whites
- said they had a mental inferiority which stirred up public controversy on the subject
- The natural rights philosophy was the governing aspect of his theology and science
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3
Q
Jefferson and Slavery
A
- He personally owned slaves
- saw blacks as objects of financial calculation
- He hoped to transform his slaves into tenants to get out of his involvement in slavery, but the cost prevented him from taking action
- he freed a few, but more than 100 remained in slavery
4
Q
Notes on the State of Virginia 1781-2
A
- answered question on what might happen to a state by discussing the damaging effects of slavery
- he recognized the condition of slaves a “miserable” but the weight of concern was reserved for the evil effects of slavery upon masters
- with slavery’s effect on black men, he was not overly concerned
- horror of slave rebellion; felt that white men must liberate black men in justice or black men would liberate themselves in blood
- almost immediate criticism after they were published
5
Q
Assertion of Black Inferiority
A
- doubted blacks inherent fitness for freedom
- was convinced that blacks could never be incorporated into white society on equal terms
- seemed incapable of complementing blacks without immediately adding qualifications
- dismissed Phyllis Wheatley claiming that she was not a poet
- went to great lengths to prove that the blacks lack of talent did not stem from their condition because the environmentalist argument had to make a case for blacks
- inferior to whites in both body and bind
- stated that their “moral sense” was as fully developed in blacks as in whites
- “moral sense” was a conscience and as much a part of a man as his leg or arm and was made part of his physical constitution as necessary for a social being
- to say blacks possessed it was the Jefferson analogue of the Christian axiom that blacks had a soul
6
Q
Issue of Intellect
A
- Widespread debate
- in years before revolution antislavery men had increasingly recognized importance of asserting black mental equality but Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia stimulated widespread debate
- Gilbert Imlay
- Benjamin Franklin
- William Pickney of Maryland
- one reason for outbreak interest in mental equality was in 190 sudden apperance of several blacks whose fresh example men might readily appeal:
- Benjamin Rush
- Thomas Fuller
- Benjamin Banneker
7
Q
Gilbert Imlay
A
refuted Jefferson saying blacks and whites were in the same shape and intellect and his argument was absurd because it rested on comparison between slaves and free men
8
Q
Benjamin Franklin
A
- 1789 declares that the chains which bound the slave’s body fetter his intellectual faculties and impair the social affections of his heart
9
Q
William Pinckney of Maryland
A
- later attained fame as an orator
- raided his huge bulk in the state legislature faculties and impair the social affections of his heart
- endued with equal faculties of mind and body; no evidence of their inferiority
10
Q
Benjamin Rush
A
first engaged in anti-slavery controversy in 1773 was responsible for bringing to light the strange case of Thomas Fuller
11
Q
Thomas Fuller
A
- Maryland black who perfectly embodied the hopeful proposition that a slave might demonstrate great natural talent despite his slavery.
- “Negro Tom” was a self taught Arithmetician born in Africa and brought to America at 14
- famous “African Calculator”
- commenced for his mathematical career by counting hairs on the tails of cows and horses he had been sent to tend and though illiterate became able to perform complicated arithmetical calculations in his head
- became anti-slavery hero overnight
- referred to as the “Negro Mathematician”
12
Q
Benjamin Banneker
A
- Ethiopian surveyor and astronomer
- fame rested particularly on his almanac
- wrote Jefferson and he was still unconvinced that blacks were equal intellectually
13
Q
Jefferson’s confusion
A
- at times became monumental
- on one hand he had intellectually derived his belief in human equality from the existence of an orderly creation
- on the other he possessed a larger unquestioning faith, strengthened by his political experience which predisposed him toward equality
- ## wrote in Notes about indian deficiencies but then to Marquis de Chastellux said they were equal to the white man
14
Q
Jefferson passionate realities
A
- brief assertion of the necessity for colonizing blacks elsewhere once they had been freed
- thought whites were more beautiful than blacks
- Blacks as crude sensual beings
- sources of his feelings remain obscured by unsurprising failure to articulate emotional patterns and processes of which he was unaware
15
Q
Sally Hemings
A
- enslaved by Thomas Jefferson
- house servant
- had children by him
