re: #550 realwest

I’ll have to give that one some thought and get back to you. Seems to me that MOST books about TJ were either written to defend his ownership of slaves or to condemn him for his ownership of slaves and of course whichever course the author(s) took, was - excuse the expression - colored - by their POV on that issue.
But there are some out there - some which deal almost exculsively with his Presidency - but there are a couple of decent, over-all views of TJ, but alas I’ve taken my meds and the HD between my ears is suffering a serious overload right now!

What I have been reading as of late suggests that he could not have freed them even if he wanted to as he borrowed against them— he used them as collateral for his loans to pay down his ever-present debt.