Jefferson

From the passage I couldn’t really understand how Jefferson felt about race. I feel like he was describing the “black” persona and then stating how they were different from whites. On page 488 Jefferson writes, “it appears to me that in memory they are equal to the whites: in reason much inferior.” To me that isn’t a good sign. Even though he feels slaves should be free I think he is a white supremacist. He constantly points out how the blacks have a persona based sort of an animal instinct, and in lot of catagories that seem civil, like reason, blacks are inferior to whites.

In the picture I see a world that has evolved. We still have prejudices, but we have gotten to a point where white people and black people can live as equals. Now I’m not saying everything is perfect, because I know our country isn’t perfect, but this shows how white and blacks can get in a picture together and be equal. Both the white and black people come from Jefferson in some way, so this shows progress in the country. Jefferson’s way of thinking seems different from the photo. I feel that he was proposing the slaves not as equals as Americans but as living creatures. I don’t think he wanted to live among them as much as them be free. It seems to me that Jefferson would be happy with giving the slaves their own place to live separate of the whites. Overall I think Jefferson had a good and bad way of looking at blacks and whites. It was good that he wanted blacks to be freed, but I don’t like how he wants to put them out of the country. At the time it was a good way of thinking, so I feel that this was an important step in the emancipation of slaves.