re: #210 Dark_Falcon

No, he was more high-minded than that. And he’d really like slavery the way others did. But a combination of debts and his neighbors hostility to manumission, saw him largely forced to keep his slaves.

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.