Thomas Jefferson and slavery

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Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, owned more than 620 slaves during his adult life. Jefferson freed two while he lived, and five others were freed after his death, including two of his children from his relationship with his sister-in-law Sally Hemings, who was also his slave. His other two children with Hemings were allowed to escape without pursuit. After his death, the rest of his slaves were sold to pay off his estate's debts. Privately, one of Jefferson's reasons for not freeing more of his slaves was his considerable debt, while his more public justification, expressed in his book Notes on the State of Virginia, was his fear that their release into American society would cause civil unrest between white people and those whom they had once enslaved. Jefferson consistently spoke out against the international slave trade and was president when it was outlawed. He advocated for a gradual emancipation of all enslaved Americans and the colonization of Africa by...

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