Founding Father Farmers:Thomas Jefferson

I'm hoping to visit Monticello next year. I can't wait.

I went with the garden club tour and the people on the tour had to drag me away. I didn't have enough time to do everything I wanted to do. I had books of Monticello and in fact I collect anything related to Thomas Jefferson and that time period.
Make yourself aware of what you want to see so you can notice as much as possible. It is very hard to take in all of his wonderful contributions to inventiveness and beauty and his love of history and science and ...Well I could go on....Just leave yourself enough time to truely enjoy it.

I'm jealous!

As was the country's father, George Washington.

Give it up! You can't sully his name. You have no idea how he treated the slaves at his home. He wanted to free all men in his Declaration others wrote it out. He feared others would capture and beat those he freed. He wanted every slave to be freed and given land to be independent on. Do you also understand he educated his slaves, and gave them trades so they could be independent. If you had been a slave since birth you would not have been able to be independent off of the site unless your owner saw fit to prepare you to live outside of the society within the plantation.

@nurse

You are sounding very ignorant, but then again, you are racist about it, after all....

Metalcookie, Yes, there were slaves in this country. There were white slaves, red slaves and black slaves. I for one know no one in any of my family back round owned any slaves. In fact, some of my relatives on the native American side may have been kept as slaves and some of my other ancestors may have been indentured 'servants' to come to this country.
Slavery ended in this country decades and decades ago. But some black leaders continue to keep it alive only to financially benefit from it.
Do Americans born here and happen to have brown skin benefit from continuing to complain about something that happened more than a century ago?
No, they do not. Move on, The white man pushed my native American relatives out of our country, but I live with it. We assimilated into the surrounding people and laid low. Many ex-slaves moved on and lived as farmers and felt lucky to be in this country and not back in the land were their own people actively sold them into slavery.

Well he is someone I look up to for many reasons. And so did his "slaves" who were really more like his family.

...Jan...this is the first time I have not liked what you placed here...I mean no disrespect to you but many of them were his family...his children...and he wrote and lived the life of white supremacy at the same time he hypocritically was having sex with his slaves...again I am not here to argue or hurt any persons feelings...but very little truth makes it into the history books....but one truth is that Monticello was built by slave labor...and there are many persons of African descent that carry Jefferson's DNA...so he did plant many seeds...Will

Sorry, but I'm with Jan on this one, it's kind of foolish to condemn someone who died nearly 200 years ago, who did much for the freedom of what became a great nation, for owning slaves.
As repulsive as it seems today, back then it was a legal proposition that had been practiced for thousands of years.
Now as long as he wasn't mistreating, whipping, torturing, killing etc, that would be a entirely different issue. But none of that was mentioned.
Condemning the owning of slaves as a practice is correct, but singling out one individual who contributed much to society in many areas simply because he owned slaves, I can't agree with. WADR

...Common sense tells me to let this lie...I can not...Jefferson wrote on many occasions that Negroes were inferior to Caucasians in all ways...and as far as slavery goes...any one that thought slavery was proper was so narrow minded that their ears should have touched each other...I have not singled out Jefferson...he did that...by leading a life of complete duality...this is a good place to bring up the Golden Rule...if you would not enjoy being a slave to someone...do not have slaves...almost everyone is a slave to one thing or another...but what went on in early day America is a dark spot on this nation...and nothing can change that...and to be so obsessed with Jefferson and not give thought to all those that lived at the same time and fought slavery daily...sometimes giving their life for what they believed...baffles me beyond belief...and never try to justify something wrong...Will....

You didn't have to come in here and ruin this thread. This wasn't about what you turned it into, this was about honoring agriculture and its corrolation to personal freedom, which Thomas Jefferson DID believe in regardless of how you wish to skew it. There is no disputing that agriculture was part of what birthed this nation, and that Thomas Jefferson along wth John Adams and others saw agriculture as an extension of that freedom. If you want to debate about other facets of Jefferson's life ( which BTW have been disputed) start a thread about it and have a discussion.

http://www.monticello.org/jefferson/dayinlife/plantation/dig.html

Thanks for hurting my feelings about something I care about.

This thread on Jefferson is a mixed bag indeed. On one hand I totally agree with Jan on the fact that owning your land and being able to grow food on it is a wonderful and egalitarian thing, however, the caveat that Will posted about finding the true owners; the government is also true, and very very sad.

It used to be, and I can't remember exactly when it ended, that you could declare a homestead on a piece of land and it could never be taken away from you because you couldn't pay your property taxes or other taxes that people tried to put on you. I think in Florida you can still hold on to your land as long as you are alive; perhaps someone else knows more about Florida (It was the reason OJ moved to Florida so he could keep the Browns from collecting on their judgment against him). Without a homestead we are living an illusion of ownership.

I respect that this is a thread on linking agriculture with personal freedom, but I must support the caveat that Will mentions with regard to Jefferson's other side. Many things are legal, but not all things are beneficial or fair in good conscience. Slavery is one of those things that could be legal in some circles and definitely was legal in the past in this country, but people of good conscience could not tolerate under any circumstances. Jefferson did care deeply for his slaves, but it is true that he benefited from White Privilege. Hence the mixed bag that I started out my post with.

Johnnie I think it would be a good idea to start another thread with the ironies and duality of Jefferson and the conversation could be continued there.

This whole discussion reminds me of a quote "We are but sojourners, strangers in a strange land. We pass this way and our existence is for not, but nothing from this land can we take away. What we take is the love we have in our hearts and nothing more."

I have searched the internet but can't find who said this, or perhaps it is my own mind mixing up a few different quotes.

Jan...I apologize for hurting your feelings about Jefferson...and as you say...ruining your post...I do not know why you possess the feelings about him and do not need to know...it seems that feelings that deep should be reserved for those you know first hand accounts of...that have not been filtered by time....you are the one that posted about the founding fathers and agriculture...I could not sit back and let it go by that most of them sat under shade trees drinking and eating while the work...and growing anything is work...was done by others...mostly against their will...and the ones that benefited the most were the ones in the shade...not of the shade....when you do the wonderful things you have done in the past I am always behind you...when you post something like this please do not get upset when I do not agree with you...that is what makes this country great...that we can disagree and still be civil...I did not ruin your post...just brought a little color to it...Jefferson would have liked it....Will

Thomas Jefferson's opinions changed over the years and you must read his adaptions to understand that.
As for him planting his seed... Martha, Jefferson's wife was raised by Betty Hemings with Betty's children. Martha's mother died shortly after child birth. Betty was Martha's father slave and concubine and had many children to him, Sally Hemings was among them. So Sally was Martha's half sister. Betty and her children were in the home with Martha, in fact present at her death. So Sally Hemmings was a lot like Martha and would be the closest relative of hers other than Jefferson's daughters. It would make sense that Sally could have had a lot of the Wayles characteristics. Do you see how Jefferson might have been attracted to Sally?