THE JEFFERSON PARADOX
Thomas Jefferson was a remarkable man and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, served under Presidents Washington and Adams, and was himself third President of the United States. (During Jefferson's presidency, he bought the immense Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon for over $27,000,000-- a sum which was difficult to raise.)
Jefferson was also an architect, creating his beautiful estate Monticello.
Jefferson was also paradoxical. Having written in the Declaration that
<all men are created equal>, he was nonetheless a slaveholder. In all some 600 slaves were sometimes Jefferson's property.
But of special note was Jefferson's slave girl Sally Hemings, by whom he had a number of children, starting when she was about sixteen. Some of Sally Hemings's children he allowed to escape to <Liberty>; others were freed upon his death. (Even today, Jefferson's descendants through Sally Hemings are proud to be descended from him.)
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