re: #222 ggt

I have a hard time with Jefferson, especially compared to Washington. Monticello is such an unnecessary display of pomp. He could have gotten out of debt, he chose not to. He died broke, his family had to sell Monticello and the slaves.

Washington, on the other had, had a much more modestly built home, died solvent and willed his slaves free after Martha’s death.

Personally, I’d like to think that someone really dedicated to Liberty would have figured out a way to pay-off his debts and set his slaves free.

Jefferson was utterly unable to deal with money, and as he got older, he seems to have gotten more and more tangled up in fears of what a post-slavery America might look like.

Washington was a very different man.

Jefferson is hard for me to deal with on so many levels—his relationship with his family—his weirdness about race—his blindness over the French Revolution—his obsessive housebuilding hobby he couldn’t afford.

But then, I’m really an Adams girl, with Franklin overtones.