Reply to Thomas Jefferson - How do people feel about him today?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Jefferson started sleeping with Hemmings when she was 14.  I can't even with these "he was a complicated man" posters.  FOURTEEN.[/quote]

In Shakespeare's time people were married at 14.  FOURTEEN.  Yeah, imagining time used to be different is difficult for some people.  My great grandfather used to work at 7.  SEVEN - and that's why this country implemented labor laws.  Geez, times were different.  Did you know women used to be treated like property?  I know history is crazy.  In the future we will be the crazy ones.[/quote]

It’s not that long ago.  My grandmother had to drop out of school at 13 to work in a factory.  People keep saying 14 but there’s no evidence  he was having sex with her at 14.  16, yes, but that was the normal age even for well to do white women.  That doesn’t excuse his major complicity in the slave system and the fact that he explicitly saw reproduction of enslaved people are a capitalist endeavor — but he wasn’t a pedophile and people acting like he was are just historically inaccurate.  He did enough sh!tty things—we don’t need to make up extra things.  It’s also somewhat interesting that it appears Sally was the only person he was sleeping with, and apparently the only enslaved person he slept with (unlike some slave holders).  Clearly in his mind he viewed himself as different from (better than) other slave holders.  We’ll never know if Sally thought he had any redeemable qualities at all — her ovoice has been totally erased.  Her descendants knew they were descended from him, so we know she thought it was important for them to know that, although there are clearly a lot of complicated reasons why they might be the case.   We also know that Jefferson’s legitimate children seemed to know Sally’s status, which is a little unusual.  [/quote]

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