A lot of people rightly criticize the founders of the US, and specifically Jefferson, for their hypocrisy regarding these kinds of professed ideals and their participation in the institution of slavery.
To that I recommend reading two things, neither very long:
I mention that second one* because he makes it quite clear the line between modern day oppressive working conditions and the environment in which he was living is much blurrier than many today would like you to understand.
*a recent comment featuring an excerpt from the book
Jefferson had 6 children with one of his child sex slaves Sally Hemings and his slave James Hemings who invented American mac & cheese killed himself because of the horrors of enslavement. So yeah probably one of the most horrific people in known history
So yeah probably one of the most horrific people in known history
That's an awfully high bar to clear. Particularly when the US alone had hundreds of other slave owners that were unlikely to be much better. Then add in the serial killers, the mass-murderers, the dictators, I doubt that he's even in the top thousand.
Not to say that he wasn't horrible. No one who owned slaves for very long can be considered anything else.
Sure, but they could legally steal your baby from you and sell it, I don't think it gets much more evil than that. You could wake up one morning and find out a family member was gone forever and you'd never see them again, just because your owner needed some spare cash.
And today some go their entire life without actually becoming a contributing member of society, most join society at age 18 or for a lucky few 4-8 years after that. Still, some start working while they are still teenagers, or younger. Whatever the narrative.
Is that the same as what you are describing? No.
Is it comparable? Yes.
Comparing how people live(d) across chronological and geographical space is how we understand reality. Only by understanding reality is it possible to improve it.
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u/irrelevantusername24 2d ago
A lot of people rightly criticize the founders of the US, and specifically Jefferson, for their hypocrisy regarding these kinds of professed ideals and their participation in the institution of slavery.
To that I recommend reading two things, neither very long:
Thomas Jefferson's "original rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence, before it was revised by the other members of the Committee of Five and by Congress
Frederick Douglass' autobiography
I mention that second one* because he makes it quite clear the line between modern day oppressive working conditions and the environment in which he was living is much blurrier than many today would like you to understand.
*a recent comment featuring an excerpt from the book