Problem of Slaves and The Article Notes on Virginia Written by Thomas Jefferson essays

Problem of Slaves and The Article Notes on Virginia Written by Thomas Jefferson essays In this article, Jefferson discusses the problems that the institution of slavery created in Virginia and how it affected the slaves. The notes were written while Jefferson was the Governor of Virginia and were based on an inquiry made by the French legation in Philadelphia and discussed several different aspects of life in Virginia. The article explains the reasons why Jefferson believes that freeing blacks would be detrimental to the state. Jefferson begins by explaining that it would be difficult to incorporate the slaves into the state because of the racism that the institution of slavery had caused. Jefferson argues that "Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations, the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions, which will probably never end but in the extermination of one or the other race." (Jefferson 182) Jefferson also asserts that the Black race is inferior to the white race on many different levels. He explains that this inferiority would make it difficult for the slaves to function in society. The notions of black inferiority abound throughout the article and the Governor asserts that blacks are inferior intellectually and in the arts, lack physical attractiveness and lack the ability to reason. Jefferson attempts to parallel Roman slaves with American slaves and concludes that the inferiority that he saw in black was not a result of their condition, but instead a result of nature. Because of this perceived "inferiority", Jefferson believes that abolishing slavery would be difficult asserting that the "unfortunate difference of color, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these pe...