Slavery In Thomas Jefferson Documentary By Ken Burns

1.) Many historians have called Thomas Jefferson in terms of his life and work an “enigma” due to how difficult it is to understand his character. As one of the most prominent figures in American history, Jefferson represents more than himself; he represents an ideal. Despite what he has said, his actions are irregular enough to raise questions. In the Thomas Jefferson documentary by Ken Burns, the main controversy was his silence on slavery. In the beginning, he was one of the first individuals to advocate measures to restrict and eventually eliminate slavery. As one of the Founding Fathers, his word has a lot of political power in this newborn nation and yet he said nothing on the topic. He remained silent and did nothing for those bound

He considered them to be not as great as white men; they could never do what white men do, referencing back to how the Romans were white and very accomplished. Jefferson claims he is a humanist, but he undermines blacks as incapable human beings inferior to whites. That is literally a paradox: supporting the potential value of humans while disregarding a group of humans’ value. Also, Jefferson was a slaveholder. Although he thought himself as a ‘good slaveholder’, he made them reconstruct his home multiple times, sold and bought them freely, and so forth. What’s worse is that he didn’t even free them after his death. In spite of all his bravado of being against slavery, he followed the system for economic and social purposes. All of these points go against what Jefferson said he is against/for, and this is why many historians found him to be an enigma. Regardless of his obvious weak point to slavery, Jefferson is a good figurehead for

The British Parliament enacted this tax to raise colonial tax to help fund the cost of the French and Indian War. There were several issues with this that the colonists had with this. The first and most prominent concern is the taxation without representation (Declaration of Rights, 60). The colonists did not have a problem with the cost of the tax; they had had a problem with the approach. The British Parliament imposed this tax without the approval of the colonial legislatures. Their reasoning was that if they allowed this tax to go through then similar taxes will keep continuing. This would cause for more troublesome taxation in the future. Another issue is the purpose of the tax. The British Parliament wanted to help the cost of the French and Indian war. Instead of taxing every subject, the British Parliament decided to tax the colonists. Previous taxes were seen as means to regulate commerce, but the Stamp Act was literally just to raise money. What makes it worse is that the colonists were the ones who mainly fought in the war. They were supported by the military units of Great Britain but the ones did the dirty work was the colonists. That’s why the colonists were outraged that they had to pay for the costs of the war that they fought for Great Britain. Overall, taxation without representation and the purpose of the tax are what caused the colonists