Last year, during the mass protest demonstrations in the United States triggered by the "Death of Floyd", the statues of politicians in the Southern slave states during the American Civil War were torn down and smashed. Soon after, the wave actually burned on the founding "Founding Fathers" of the United States — protesters took tools and pushed directly to the statue of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and the main drafter of the Declaration of Independence, standing in Portland, Oregon, Richmond, Virginia, and other places.
A statue of Jefferson falling to the ground in Virginia
One of the core reasons why Jefferson's statue was torn down by passion is that he was not only a great slave owner, but also openly supported slavery, which obviously contradicted Jefferson's idea that "everyone has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of pleasure".
Looking at it this way, such a hypocritical and ugly "Father of the Nation" must be overthrown!
However, the specific things are always complicated, and to forcibly equate Jefferson directly with the politicians of the Southern slave states during the American Civil War may lead to the neglect of another part of the historical reality, which is also very unobjective.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) painted people with tight mouths, largely because of bad teeth
More than 200 years ago, the founding fathers of the United States who wrote "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence, except for Franklin, were all big slave owners, of which the largest number of slaves was Washington and Jefferson.
After all, on the pre-industrial American continent, planters were clearly the closest people to the upper class to have the opportunity to enter the core decision-making level of the anti-British ranks.
In the context of the day, black slaves were not recognized as true American "citizens"—even if you had believed in God.
For example, in the contemporaneous, the first census of the United States at the end of the 18th century, in practice, a black slave was counted as only 3/5 of the person, which was used to count the total population of the United States.
It is clear that in the United States, which had not yet begun to industrialize, the plantation economy was the main pillar of American finances except for the commercial and financial forces in the North, and the extremely low-cost labor of black slaves gave American cotton, tobacco, and sugar extremely competitive in the international market.
In this particular interest relationship, slavery and republican regimes were thus used in combination.
Therefore, the American elites of that year, on the one hand, shouted "equality" and "human rights"; on the other hand, they drove the slaves on the manor to be cattle and horses, and in their hearts, they did not feel how screwed.
Even having relations with one's own slaves and having children will not produce the so-called "moral degeneration".
In the long era of American slavery, black slaves also had a chain of contempt, specific, which can be roughly divided into two categories -
"field negro" and "house negro".
The "field slaves" do not need to be repeated in this regard, they are far away from the "big house" (the master's mansion) where the slave owners live, they are whipped all day long to do rough work in the field, and they are exposed to vicious white overseers. They never regarded their master's house as their own, they wished that their sick master would die tomorrow, that if his house was on fire, they would pour fuel on the fire, and when the Liberators came, they would take advantage of the fire and rob and run away desperately.
The "house slaves" are the opposite, they mainly do housework in the "big house", eating and dressing, and etiquette, and may even be more exquisite than the average white citizen. They lived in the semi-basement or attic of the owner's "big house" and had a lot of contact with the upper whites.
As long as the white people treat them and say that they have to go, many times, they will identify with the master in their hearts and regard this "big house" as their home, anxious for the master, thinking about the master's thoughts. When the master is sick, they will follow along with them; when the master's house is on fire, they will say anxiously—"Our house" is on fire.
For example, the docile and kind black uncle in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a model of this kind of "house slave" who reassures white slave owners.
Illustration of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Even, during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, when the British and the Federal army came to kill them and wanted to "liberate" them, some "domestic slaves" not only did not run, but also chose to "defend the homeland" with the white masters - they felt that the masters were "kind" to them, and they needed to be "loyal" to the masters.
Obviously, the Fathers of the United States came into contact with such domestic slaves on a daily basis.
From the cradle to the grave, Jefferson never left the "house slave" in his life.
In his memoirs, he once said that the first memory of his childhood was that of a kind black maize who lifted himself off his horse.
The last words left on his sickbed were to ask the male servant (black slave) beside him to adjust the pillow.
Jefferson had more than six hundred slaves during his lifetime, and in addition to what he inherited from his father, more than that, he was married by his wife,Jefferson's father-in-law was the largest slave owner in Virginia.
These slaves also included the love of the second half of his life, Cyril Hemmings, and the six children born to the two of them.
A poster for the American film Jefferson's Love that plays the story
On the night of June 3, 1781, the British army surrounded Jefferson's manor house, and Jefferson's "house slaves" took weapons and spontaneously stood guard at the door, protecting the property and life of their masters, and refused the "freedom" brought by the British;
But on a nearby tobacco plantation in Jefferson, more than a dozen black slaves regarded the British as "liberators" and ran away with them.
After a day and a night, Jefferson's Wife Martha fell ill and became weaker and weaker. In September of the following year, Martha died, leaving behind four minor children.
Cyril Hemmings, a 14-year-old mixed-race slave girl, became a nanny for four children, even though she was just over three years older than Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha Washington Jefferson.
Jefferson's Love poster
Slave girl Cyril Hemmings was inherited by Jefferson from his father-in-law John Wells, 20 years younger than Jefferson's wife Martha.
According to historical speculations, Cyril should have 1/2 or 1/4 of her black ancestry, and she was almost certainly Martha's half-sister, Jefferson's father-in-law, Han Wells, who was born to a mixed slave girl.
In other words, Cyril was Jefferson's sister-in-law.
Although Cyrel was a slave, she was also educated with several of Jefferson's children, which was very rare in the context of the black slaves being forbidden to read.
A few years later, Jefferson became U.S. ambassador to France and moved his family to Paris.
Because there was no slavery in France, in France, Cyril was a free man.
It also talks about Cerri in the past French film "The President's Secret Lover"
As the "companion reading" of Jefferson's eldest daughter Martha, Cyrie and Miss A classmate French, social etiquette, dress accessories are also customized with Martha, and Miss go in and out of Paris social places with Miss.....
In the beginning, Jefferson and a French noblewoman, Maria, have a fiery relationship.
However, Maria was a married woman—as the ambassador of a nascent country with unstable foundations, Jefferson at this time could not afford any stain on his personal reputation or the image of the country.
Jefferson and Maria in the movie
Distressed, Jefferson caught a glimpse of the chubby Cyril.
Jefferson's eyes lit up, and Maria suddenly became a floating cloud.
Omit five hundred words in the middle.....
By 1789, the earth-shattering French Revolution had broken out, the United States had begun to evacuate its homeland, and Jefferson was ready to bring everyone back to the United States.
Although Sairee did not want to lose her free status, it was clearly more sinister to remain in turbulent France at this time than to return to the property and slaves of Lord Jefferson.
What's more, at this time, Cyril was already pregnant with Jefferson's flesh and bones.
In Jefferson's Love, Jefferson and the pregnant Cyril
Soon after returning to the United States, Cyrrie gave birth to a boy, Thomas (the same name as Jefferson, which is very telling), and although the son's skin and appearance were almost the same as those of a white child, and belonged to Jefferson's own flesh and blood, he was still a slave.
By this time, Jefferson had become U.S. Secretary of State.
For more than thirty years, privately he and Sairee lived as a normal couple, giving birth to six children (but two died prematurely).
According to the records of the manor and the memories of Jefferson's eldest daughter Martha, Jefferson, who traveled frequently, stayed at home every time Cyrel gave birth.
Cyril and her six children have been living in the "big house" like their masters, and the mixed-race children are well educated. However, none of them had the right to use their father Jefferson's last name, and all of them followed Cyril and took the surname Hemmings.
Stills from Jefferson's Love
Speaking of which, one might ask, isn't jefferson, as a slave owner, fully empowered to turn Sally and her children into free men?
Could it be that Jefferson was too possessive to run away?
Originally, in order to restrict the enlightened slave owner from voluntarily freeing the black slave, the master slave turned into an employment relationship , which would disrupt the existing "order", and the law in Virginia at this time required that the slave freed by the master must leave the state immediately and never return for life - which was obviously something that Jefferson and Cyrel did not want to happen.
When Jefferson ran for president, in order to avoid creating a topic for competitors, his team urged him to sell Cyrel; or pretend to sell it, first move to other "masters" and avoid the limelight before making other plans.
But the suggestion was rejected by Jefferson, who insisted on living with Cyril.
After Jefferson entered the White House (the White House was not yet white at this time, it was a gray sandstone building), he still ate and lived with Cyrel in private, but in public, he would invite the secretary of state's wife, Dolly Madison, to deal with related social affairs, as a surrogate "first lady", or to call back the married eldest daughter to act as a hostess.
During Jefferson's second presidency, the widowed Mrs. Smith once frantically pursued the no. 1 single king in the United States, and even took the initiative to put down her body to say that she could accept him and Cylie to continue to associate, as long as she could become the "first lady of the United States".
However, President Jefferson was unmoved, which made Mrs. Smith feel a great insult.
Mrs. Smith was powerful and rather unproductive—and soon, the reporters of the Richmond Chronicle began to talk about the "unrequited love" between the president and the slave girls, stirred up the fire, and published articles to denigrate the current president and publicly question Jefferson's personality.
Jefferson resisted the enormous pressure and ignored it.
But Cyley's brother, Jefferson's brother-in-law James Hemmings, who had long since regained his free status and had a successful career, could not bear the harassment of gossip and committed suicide in anger.
In "Jefferson's Love", Cyril and her mother and brother. James was a well-educated, mixed-race black man with an arrogant personality who had his own career in France
After Jefferson stepped down as president, he returned to his hometown in the South.
At this time, the president of the United States did not have a pension system (President Truman after World War II was the first outgoing president to receive a pension), and Jefferson exhausted his family in order to start the University of Virginia, and he also owed a huge debt.
Eventually, he had to heed his daughter's advice and sold more than half of the manor's slaves.
In Jefferson's later years, it was his and Cyrie's eldest son, Thomas of his own name, who helped run the estate, although Thomas himself was a slave.
On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson died.
Cyril Hemmings, on the other hand, died in 1835 and had been looking after Jefferson's big house and grave like a woman.
Shortly after Cerlie's death, Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha, gave Cyril's four children freelancer status and a substantial living allowance in accordance with her father's will.
A year later, in 1836, Martha died.
Monticello Manor, Jefferson's former home, has now become a popular tourist attraction in the United States
Based on Martha's diary and Jefferson's living records, the people later pieced together the origin of the matter.
When I went to France that year, James, the brother of Cyrrie, who was very fluent in French, also went with him. Originally, he and his sister wanted to stay in France without slavery, but Jefferson insisted on returning to the United States with her pregnant Cyril.
At James's insistence, Martha witnessed an agreement between the two sides that Jefferson promised that he would never marry again, that he would always be in a partnership with Cyrie, that he would never abandon her and her children, and that he and the children would be free in his will; at the same time, Jefferson might promise that if James kept it a secret, he would sign a free letter to him as soon as he returned home, and fund him to build his own business.
It turns out that Jefferson has almost all of these promises, except for being harassed by Mrs. Smith when he was president, he has never had any scandals with other women, and his eldest daughter Martha has honestly obeyed her father's will.....
By 1998, by comparing the Y chromosomes of the descendants of Cyril's younger son with those of the Jefferson family's descendants, it was revealed that the Y chromosome of the offspring of Cyrley's younger son did indeed come from the Jefferson family. The test report was published in the authoritative journal Nature, which immediately caused a huge sensation.
After that, about fifty or sixty people of different surnames and different skin colors and nationalities emerged, claiming that they were all descendants of Jefferson and Cylie....
To be honest, it is not objective in itself to judge the ancients more than 200 years ago with the vision, vision and values of the 21st century.
Because Thomas Jefferson was once a great slave owner and had a long and indescribable relationship with a female slave, it would be unfair to demonize him to the extreme.
As mentioned at the beginning, slavery in the United States was very deeply rooted and had a strong economic base, which in turn profoundly affected the superstructure. It was not until the mid-19th century, when the Industrial Revolution in the United States developed to a certain extent, and the economic base was transformed, that it finally shook the former "superstructure".
Jefferson, as a vested interest in slavery at that time, did have a moral stain that could not be cleansed, but as far as he was concerned, this "father of the Declaration of Independence" who called for "all men are created equal", in his heart, did not support slavery.
In June 2020, a seated statue of Jefferson was torn down
On the issue of abolition, Jefferson has publicly expressed his views on many occasions, which can be roughly summarized into four points:
1. He agreed only with the progressive abolition of slavery, but not with the direct abolition of slavery, stressing that the financial losses suffered by slave owners in the abolition of slavery should be compensated by public financial appropriations.
At the same time, he suggested that the federal government should not unilaterally announce the abolition of slavery, but should be carried out spontaneously by the vast number of slave owners;
2. He believes that freed slaves should be sent back to their homeland in Africa, and that the model of black and white coexistence is not desirable, and will not form a truly "equal society";
(3) The labour gap created after the emancipation of the slaves should be filled by immigrants who brought in free labour from Europe – preferably German Protestants;
4. If domestic abolition of slavery cannot be achieved in the short term, then coercion should be used to prohibit the international slave trade.
The first three points do have obvious racial color and are not feasible, but in the end, Jefferson did.
In 1778, at Jefferson's urging, Virginia legislated to ban slave imports, and Virginia became the first region in the world to begin regulating the slave trade, even before European countries (France began to ban the slave trade in 1794, even though it did not have slavery in its own territory, but France was also an important participant in the slave trade; England only passed the abolition of the slave trade in 1807).
When Jefferson was president, he criminalized the slave trade through Congress and signed the Slave Trade Prohibition Act in 1807.
Embarrassingly, on the other hand, this meant that the labor force on which the Southern plantations depended could only be made up of the existing blacks.
This led to many free blacks in the North being maliciously lured and kidnapped as "slaves" and sold to the South. For example, the unfortunate encounter of solomon, the black male protagonist in the movie "12 Years of Slavery".
At the beginning of the movie "Twelve Years of Slavery": The male protagonist was originally a free black man who lived a wealthy life, and was lured to the southern plantation by the drugging of "talking about business"
Or, force black people to have more small slaves ~ some inhumane manor owners will allow white people to hire workers, family members, or even specially hire people to rape female slaves, and the mixed-race offspring they give birth to, regardless of skin color, are defaulted to slave status, which is the property of their masters.
It can be seen that in order to achieve "equality of all men", to abolish the slave trade, but to retain the slave system against the will, this itself is contradictory.
And that's the contradiction and the entanglement of the facts—Jefferson, Virginia's largest slave owner, worked tirelessly throughout his life to end the slave trade; he opposed the coexistence of people of color and white people, but he was not afraid of gossip and Cyril for decades.
But I have to admit that in that era when the slave owner had absolute control over female slaves, although he could not give Saire a formal name, he always kept his promise, never touched other women, and could even be said to be "from one end to the end".
Perhaps, this is the power of honest personality and true love.