Thomas Jefferson's Racist Views

Paper Summary:

The paper introduces the background context of the work, which was written in 1780 when Jefferson was governor of Virginia, to a Frenchman asking for information about the new nation. The paper cites the work to contrast Jefferson's views of Indians and of Blacks. It argues that Jefferson defended Native Americans precisely because they were native to America and did not want them to be used as an example to deprecate the continent. The paper argues that, in comparison, he denigrated African-Americans because he was trying to justify his proposal of staged emancipation. In conclusion, the writer finds that Jefferson's views were neither hypocritical or contradictory, but were driven from his same vision of the white man having the responsibility to affect the emancipation.

From the Paper:

"Though visionary in many aspects, there is considerable evidence that Thomas Jefferson never foresaw the future of America as a racial and cultural "melting pot". Indeed, he makes a substantial argument against further emigration of foreigners to the New World. ... The Jeffersonian vision of America given here seems somewhat in keeping with the Puritanical, Eden-like view, in that it should fall upon the new Adams to populate the new world that had been created for them. Jefferson saw "foreigners" as a source of interference; thereby, a potential threat to peaceful governance of a nation."

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