One of the most remembered founding Father’s of The United States of America was Thomas Jefferson, who is famous for writing the document that declared the Colonists separation from Great Britain and independence as it’s own nation. In the original rough draft of the document Thomas Jefferson made it very clear that slavery was to be ended in the new founded nation, but the paragraph that states the freedoms and ending slavery was removed from the final draft. Even though Thomas Jefferson himself was a slave owner and held many slave workers on his plantation Monticello, he was opposed to the slave trade and disliked the effects of slavery on the Government. What was going on at the time? During this time the Government ruled that slaves had to request permission to be free, but that request was rarely granted by the state. Instead another ruling took place and it involved the slave owners themselves granting freedom to their slaves, or they could free themselves by purchasing their freedom. But, as the population of the free slaves grew they could not move into the state and required newly freed slaves to move within the year.1. During this time period a great influence on the European Enlightenment movement, and …show more content…
According to the Smithsonian Institution “Jefferson owned slaves. He did not believe that all were created equal. He was a racist, incapable of rising above the thought of his time and place, and willing to profit from slave labor.”3 All of the founding fathers wanted this paragraph to be removed because all people could profit from having slaves. Looking back at this time period we know that slavery wrong, but during this time it was the easiest way to gain profit through all avenues. From textile industry such as cotton, or farmed goods like tobacco, corn, and