Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743, with slavery going on over 75 years in Virginia. He grew up up with indentured servants, while owning nearly 200 slaves as an adult. Though he was an opponent of slavery and made attempts to slowly end slavery, he believed in the moral and social superiority of whites over blacks. “Blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind,” meaning the idea of blacks’ physical and intellectual inferiority to whites. He shared his beliefs about the dangers of race mixture, the cultural differences, and the unwanted physical characteristics. He went on to describe the physical appearance of blacks and dismissing