Today in Supreme Court History: February 17, 1801

2/17/1801: House of Representatives breaks tie in Electoral College, and selects Thomas Jefferson as President.

Thomas Jefferson

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Brilliant and complicated man.

[DaivdBehar]

He was ambassador to France for 5 years, so the Founding Fathers could rid of him during the making of the constitution. All his slaves were freed upon stepping on French soil. All chose to return to America when the assignment ended. He sent one to French cooking school, and he became a wine expert. Sally Hemmings, her brother, her children, all chose American slavery over French freedom.

[Dilan Esper]

We truly have no idea of any of that.

And you are really denying agency to this rapist. He could have just refused to own slaves in the first place. Found a mistress who could have consensual sex with him, if he was hell-bent on cheating on his wife, rather than raping his slave.

Jefferson is at the center of a fundamental point- that the rhetoric about freedom and equality that this country was supposedly founded on was nothing but propaganda. We became a better country despite the fact that the founders enjoyed raping slaves and committing genocide against Indians as pastimes, and by pretending they really meant things that they just said because they sounded good while they really believed something else entirely.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Most of the slaveholding Founding Fathers were embarrassed by the contradiction and didn’t want to put themselves in the position of defending slavery. Aggressive defenses only came later during the Calhoun era when slavery had become the backbone of “King Cotton”.

[DaivdBehar]

Hi, Dilan. What Jefferson slave chose to remain in France at the end of his assignment? All were legally free to do so. Many were fluent in French by then, and could have thrived in France.

Jefferson was also not very assertive personally. I doubt he would have proceeded with anyone who was not interested in sex with him. He was a celebrity, and thus very sexually attractive.

I once had a 10 minute interview on the radio. This beautiful young woman kept staring. I said, "Whaat, whaat?" She replied, I heard your interview on the radio. I never had another after that.