Thomas Jefferson - How do people feel about him today?

[Anonymous]

I am a millennial who went to UVA so we obviously grew up admiring him. Right now I am reading a biography of him, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power.

I am obsessed. He was so smart and well educated and ahead of his time in so many ways but I know he is considered controversial today since he was a rich plantation owner who also had a "relationship" with one of his slaves.

I am curious what people think of him these days.

[Anonymous]

I learned recently that he was moderate once in the White House and kept executive staffers from the Federalist party.

Had he been a total partisan (the US was brand new at the time) perhaps the country would have crumbled.

[Anonymous]

Mix of good and bad politics.
Mix of good and bad behavior.

We can appreciate the good things without worshipping him.

[Anonymous]

His marble statue should have been toppled and smashed to dust in 2020.

[Anonymous]

Why don't you form your own opinion, UVA grad?

[Anonymous]

What’s to know?

He’s a dead, white, male, cisgender, slave-owner. Full stop.

[Anonymous]

Even though it seems like everything is getting more polarized and black & white, I think most reasonable people can be in awe of his great accomplishments while understanding he was not a great person and quite hypocritical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s to know?

He’s a dead, white, male, cisgender, slave-owner. Full stop.

What a useful post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s to know?

He’s a dead, white, male, cisgender, slave-owner. Full stop.

+1

So tired of people elevating these historical figures and not speaking the truth of who they were outloud.

[Anonymous]

I honestly get him confused with Abraham Lincoln.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even though it seems like everything is getting more polarized and black & white, I think most reasonable people can be in awe of his great accomplishments while understanding he was not a great person and quite hypocritical.

Also, this goes for most (if not all) people who are deified: Dr King, Picasso, Roald Dahl, Coco Chanel, Mother Teresa, John Lennon, Dr Seuss, Oliver Cromwell... basically everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s to know?

He’s a dead, white, male, cisgender, slave-owner. Full stop.

Wow what a pithy comment from a clearly intellectually curious and open-minded person who is definitely not a raging bigot stewing in their own hate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s to know?

He’s a dead, white, male, cisgender, slave-owner. Full stop.

You forgot rapist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s to know?

He’s a dead, white, male, cisgender, slave-owner. Full stop.

And our country, and the entire world, was blessed to have him. His wisdom was greater than all of ours.

(Maybe we should rethink all of our undeification of dead white males. Hmm?)

[Anonymous]

Years ago, I listened to a podcast about Thomas Jefferson and the main guest was a scholar who was a black woman and Thomas Jefferson expert. The host asked her if Thomas Jefferson should be “cancelled” because he was a white cisgender slaveholder.

The woman said no. She said we should continue to recognize his brilliance and judge him by the standards of the times in which he lived, which sadly were accepting of slavery and other horrors. The woman also said that she feels differently about people who still defended slavery later in the 1800s, because by then it had been denounced and abolished throughout most of the world.

It’s complicated, no?