Thomas Jefferson -- no hero for us
His writings are all conflicted also on the issue -- while at times he talks about being lenient and whatnot, at the core he's just an out and out racist in how he thinks about Black people, and NO, NOT everyone of that era was, to that degree. The only reason he was with Sally Hemings was because she was 3/4 white -- and at least he had the decency to treat his offspring OK, but his daughter Martha Jefferson (by his wife who had died earlier, in 1782), was pretty miserable to the slaves as well.
Mostly I gathered all these things from the Wikipedia pages on Jefferson, his relation to slavery etc., but this particular long detailed article is quite damning:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/
and compares Jefferson in particular negatively to Washington on this issue.
Other historical writings have just been revisionist, and there's been a clear and dedicated suppression of the actual information about just how wretched his attitudes and behavior towards the slaves he owned, and how brutal the treatment he at times ordered directly for "misbehaving" slaves, was.
Yup -- ultimately we ARE going to have to take down all the Jefferson statues etc. in the country. And I realize that's a big one, because he is still regularly classed in the top five of the best presidents by many, and his face is on the two dollar bill and carved into Mount Rushmore etc. etc. But nope, when you're actually presented with the facts of the case, you cannot look away, or just pretend it can all be swept under the rug given the positive things he did (which were substantial, no doubt) -- and you just have to make things right eventually.
As of now, from what I know, I would replace many of those statues, figures, images with that of John Adams, instead, and some with that of his wife, Abigail Adams -- both were clearly and explicitly anti-slavery from the very get-go. And perhaps replace some of them by people like Gabriel Prosser -- a slave of the same era who organized meticulously to start a massive slave rebellion in Virginia but was found out when two of the slaves ratted it out..
[Sidenote: Adams wasn't of course perfect either, and had e.g. some issues with how he dealt with Native Americans, but at times he was also quite sympathetic to them too, much more than his contemporaries, more on this later...]
---- From Jim Burklo, sent in email:
ReplyDeleteGood stuff here, Mandeep! thanks for it....
Want to get much wider support for taking down Jefferson's statues? Make a big deal about the fact that he took a razor to the Bible and created his own "Jefferson" version of it - with the supernaturalism removed. Much to my liking, but he was and remains a total heretic to fundamentalist Christians... who downplay this fact when they celebrate the "Christian" founding "fathers"....
All that aside...
It seems to me that in our national reckoning with racism, we need to tell history like it was, in all its messiness. Fact is that racism was baked into the founding of our country, and it remains a reality. Fact is that Jefferson participated fully in an abominable practice for which there was and is no excuse. Fact is also that Jefferson was a genius who had a very major role in the establishment of democracy in America and beyond. He was both a jerk and a hero.
Do we take down the statues of him, or do we put new inscriptions below them, indicating that he was a cruel slave-keeper and one of the framers of the US Constitution? And around his statues, place statues of other less unsavory figures in the messy history of this country?
What we need is context, not cancelling. Education, not erasure.
I feel the same way about the Confederate statues. Imagine the powerful statement of a bronze Robert E. Lee on his horse, surrounded by bigger bronzes of liberated and liberating American Black figures. Re-define and re-contextualize these monuments - shrink them down to size - put them in their proper place. The fact that the Confederate statues were placed as a stick-in-the-eye to the Reconstruction, intended to intimidate Black people, is itself part of American history that ought to be remembered.... but in a very different context than the one that prevailed until recently.
The former Soviet Union went through this challenge, and came up with a pretty cool solution. They took the statues of the brutes who killed millions under Communism out of the town squares, and placed them all together in special parks, where folks can come see them in a very, very different context... "rogues galleries" where the people can reflect on the mess that these Soviet leaders put them through.
I am concerned that taking down Jefferson's statues, instead of re-contextualizing them, will backfire spectacularly. This is a culture war we won't win. The Constitution, with all its obvious flaws, is still a crowning achievement of humankind. Jefferson was a very major figure in creating it. That part of his legacy ought to continue to be celebrated. Steve Bannon, creep that he is, understands how this works politically. He wants progressives to obsess about race, because that will win elections for reactionaries. As we are seeing now.
There's another path for progressives, and that is to "out-patriot" the reactionaries, and to press for policy changes that will have profound effects on bringing equality of opportunity to everyone - which will have a disproportionately positive effect on people of color.
We need to be progressive patriots... reclaiming and re-contextualizing our country's history and symbols... re-defining patriotism - waving the flag not for slavery, not for untrammeled individualism and capitalism, but for all, including ourselves, who have struggled to right our country's wrongs through the practice of American democracy.
The good in Jefferson's legacy is this: he helped create a form of government that would enable our people to do and to be better than him... to progress toward an ever-more-perfect union, with liberty and justice for all... not just for him and the other members of the racist upper class of colonial America....
Onward, all!
J.
Heyyya Jim + all who are interested in this discourse-
DeleteFirst, on the whole I agree with you on your perspectives, and I'd like to
paste this in as one of the responses to my blogpost if you're OK with that.
Some specific reactions:
On Thu, 2 Dec 2021, Mr Jim Burklo wrote:
> Good stuff here, Mandeep! thanks for it....
> Want to get much wider support for taking down Jefferson's statues?
> Make a big deal about the fact that he took a razor to the Bible and created
> his own "Jefferson" version of it - with the supernaturalism removed. Much to
> my liking, but he was and remains a total heretic to fundamentalist
> Christians... who downplay this fact when they celebrate the "Christian"
> founding "fathers"....
Yes, I knew some of that, and that's a very good point to get buy-in from the
more Bible-thumping religious right..!
> All that aside...
>
> It seems to me that in our national reckoning with racism, we need to tell
> history like it was, in all its messiness. Fact is that racism was baked into
> the founding of our country, and it remains a reality.
OH, yeah.
> Fact is that Jefferson participated fully in an abominable practice for which
> there was and is no excuse.
And he did much more so than say John and Abigail Adams, contemporaries who
absolutely abhorred and opposed it.
> Fact is also that Jefferson was a genius who had a very major role in the
> establishment of democracy in America and beyond.
yeah -- although even there I will point out that John Adams took a lot of
physical risks right after the declaration of independence was submitted, both
in the colonies, and in travels over to Europe, where are he ended up in
desperation crossing the Pyrenees in midwinter on donkeys at one point, with
his young sons because of a near shipwreck! Where Jefferson retired back to
comfy, genteel, luxurious Monticello.
Up till just a couple of weeks ago I was happily and preferentially using the
$2 bill (which has TJ on it), certainly much more than I was the $20 (with
Andrew Native American-slaughtering Jackson on it). But as you can tell, he's
really been demoted several notches in my book in recent days.
> He was both a jerk and a hero.
DeleteWell, all agree with the former, and I'll reserve some judgment for now on the
latter until I feel like I understand context and history better..
E.g. When the Continental Congress was looking for someone to initially write
the Declaration, they first asked Adams in fact, but Adams turned to Jefferson
and asked him -- not sure why. Adams was quite powerful in his words,
speeches, and writings already by this point, one of the most influential in
fact of the Founders at the Congress.
> Do we take down the statues of him, or do we put new inscriptions below them,
> indicating that he was a cruel slave-keeper and one of the framers of the US
> Constitution? And around his statues, place statues of other less unsavory
> figures in the messy history of this country?
So on this, and your argument for keeping the statues below.. I feel a little
mixed as of now. Certainly if we were ever to get to a consensus to take down
Jefferson statues, it will be a long time, and a whole lot of education, from
now. It would certainly not be my highest priority, anytime soon.
And I also think it may not be that clear-cut of an issue -- Hitler was a
leader that many on the far right still admire for how efficacious he was, how
good of a military strategist (at least early on) and his powerfully dramatic
speeches. Many in this country still admire Drumpf for the same reasons. But
I (and I'm pretty sure most on this list) would never want to see a statue of
Drumpf put up. And the large majority in this country would never stand to see
a statue of Hitler put up. (I would be surprised if there are any anywhere in
North America in fact -- other than possibly small shrines to him on complete
right wing communes.)
Was Jefferson 'that bad'? Well, I suppose not really by any reasonable
measures -- on the other hand his treatment of the humans he 'owned' is pretty
abominable when you look into details of it. So I personally just don't know
that I can ever respect any of his writings in the same way now that I finally
learned those things in a lot of detail (I learned the most from this long
piece:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/
).
Delete> What we need is context, not cancelling. Education, not erasure.
>
> I feel the same way about the Confederate statues. Imagine the powerful
> statement of a bronze Robert E. Lee on his horse, surrounded by bigger
> bronzes of liberated and liberating American Black figures. Re-define and
> re-contextualize these monuments - shrink them down to size - put them in
> their proper place. The fact that the Confederate statues were placed as a
> stick-in-the-eye to the Reconstruction, intended to intimidate Black people,
> is itself part of American history that ought to be remembered.... but in a
> very different context than the one that prevailed until recently.
Yes, agreed..
> The former Soviet Union went through this challenge, and came up with a
> pretty cool solution. They took the statues of the brutes who killed millions
> under Communism out of the town squares, and placed them all together in
> special parks, where folks can come see them in a very, very different
> context... "rogues galleries" where the people can reflect on the mess that
> these Soviet leaders put them through.
That's interesting, I didn't know that..
> I am concerned that taking down Jefferson's statues, instead of
> re-contextualizing them, will backfire spectacularly. This is a culture war
> we won't win. The Constitution, with all its obvious flaws, is still a
> crowning achievement of humankind. Jefferson was a very major figure in
> creating it. That part of his legacy ought to continue to be celebrated.
> Steve Bannon, creep that he is, understands how this works politically. He
> wants progressives to obsess about race, because that will win elections for
> reactionaries. As we are seeing now.
Yes, that's a valid point about the current politics.
> There's another path for progressives, and that is to "out-patriot" the
> reactionaries, and to press for policy changes that will have profound
> effects on bringing equality of opportunity to everyone - which will have a
> disproportionately positive effect on people of color.
>
> We need to be progressive patriots... reclaiming and re-contextualizing our
> country's history and symbols... re-defining patriotism - waving the flag not
> for slavery, not for untrammeled individualism and capitalism, but for all,
> including ourselves, who have struggled to right our country's wrongs through
> the practice of American democracy.
I'm quite with you on all this -- though I think a younger me would have rolled
my eyes at me saying this: I am much more for practical outcomes and
incrementalism than radicalism and posturing just for the sake of it.
As we always say though, all approaches are needed in social change. I am
pretty wary of being critical of others who choose different reactions and
routes, even if I wouldn't choose them now. The best way to lose a war is
always to engage in a whole lot of infighting.
> The good in Jefferson's legacy is this: he helped create a form of government
> that would enable our people to do and to be better than him... to progress
> toward an ever-more-perfect union, with liberty and justice for all... not
> just for him and the other members of the racist upper class of colonial
> America....
All true, THAT!
> Onward, all!
> J.
Definitely!
Thanks again for your thoughts--
-M