Talk:Thomas Jefferson

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This United States politics related article has been awarded BRONZE status for quality. It's getting there, but could be better with improvement. See RationalWiki:Article rating for more information.

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Comment[edit]

This is a good page. I think the other pages about the Founding Fathers should look more like, this instead of Wikipedia-style biographies. Thoughts? User:JS_Leitch Stu the Foo' 02:30, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Whitewashing his slave ownership[edit]

Quotes from this article:

1. "The immediate question this usually raises is whether Jefferson was a good or bad slaveholder"

2. "Jefferson had a love-hate relationship with slavery."

3. "it's basically impossible to know whether or not Jefferson forcibly raped Sally Hemings. That some element of coercion was there is probably certain, however."

4. "His treatment of slaves was sadly typical of the time"

1 and 3 are so outrageous that I shouldn't even need to explain my objections to them, 2 I would consider whitewashing, and 4 has a "don't meet your heroes" tone to it - why else would it be particularly sad that it was Thomas Jefferson abusing his slaves rather than someone else?

Suggestions for changes:

1. Delete entirely or specify that people who ask these questions are apologists for slaveowners

2. Replace with "Although Jefferson supported some anti-slavery reforms politically, he was a hypocrite and continued to own slaves himself"

3. Replace with "Jefferson raped Sally Hemings"

4. Replace with "he abused his slaves just as much as contemporary slaveowners"

Jesuscameback2life4u (talk) 17:45, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

I don’t see anyone objecting to those changes. Christopher (talk) 19:18, 19 August 2021 (UTC)
Wow you're right about 1 and 3 being objectionable. That "forcible rape" part is huge cringe. It really is a shame (putting it mildly) that language that echoes that Akin guy was in the article for so long. Thank you very much for spotting these and correcting them. --It's-a me, Lgm sigpic.png LeftyGreenMario! 04:37, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Current State of Article[edit]