Post

jamelle
@jamellebouie.net

learned recently that the guy who wrote "The Night Before Christmas," clement clarke moore, also wrote a takedown of thomas jefferson's proto-scientific racism in "Notes on the State of Virginia," basically accusing him and others of making it up to justify slavery. which, that's right.

jamelle
@jamellebouie.net

just a reminder that there were people of the time — and of the same class and station — who saw this stuff and thought, "yeah this is bullshit"

307 reposts4.3K likes

Just A Tinker 🟥🍁🟥
@john-gardi.bsky.social

Folks really should appreciate that their ancestors were just as smart as they are... and maybe smarter! It's only been a hundred generations since the time of Jesus and a few hundred more to the birth of civilization itself. 𝘒𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 are more evolved then we are at 6000 generations... and it shows.😉

Jim Vandewalker
@jimvan.bsky.social

I kind of have the idea that the coming of the cotton gin in the 1790s made it look like slavery was gonna be real profitable. Jefferson however wasn't going to rely on cotton (I think Monticello is in the wrong place for it). He had the notion to breed slaves to sell south to cotton country.

Damn Vanguard
@damnvanguard.bsky.social

Absolutely. I used to be of the mind that slavery was an absolute stain on human history but that you had to judge people by the morals of the time, etc., and someone made this exact point to me and it made me re-think my position. People at the time said it sucked!

Sandy Netherton
@sandynetherton.bsky.social

YES! There were! And compromises were made to keep slavery so they could unite to become this new nation. I mean, they even rationalized their own slaves while still believing slavery was wrong. Human beings are odd creatures. We've come so far since then, but we still have a long way to go.