Random Painful Reminders That Thomas Jefferson Was Kind Of An Awful Person (14 items)

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  (#1) He Pioneered Smear Campaigns To Destroy Alexander Hamilton And John Adams

  Modern politicians are no strangers to smear campaigns and dirty politics, but these weren’t always a part of the American scene. Thomas Jefferson deserves much of the credit for introducing smear campaigns to the American system, thanks to the slanderous campaigns he secretly ran against Alexander Hamilton and John Adams.

  Jefferson hired James Callender as a “pamphleteer,” but in practice Callender was a minister of propaganda, helping to spread scandal and rumor about Jefferson’s opponents. Callender helped the story of Hamilton’s amorous affair get out and launched countless attacks against Adams’s presidency. Ironically, Callender later turned on Jefferson and began spreading tales of his dalliances with Sally Hemings.
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  (#2) Sally Hemings Was A Teenager, His Slave, And Trapped Overseas With Him When Jefferson Began His Affair

  Thomas Jefferson’s affair with Sally Hemings after his wife’s death is well-known. This relationship is sometimes portrayed as a forbidden romance between slave and master, but the truth is far more disturbing. When Thomas and Sally first started sleeping with one another, Sally was Jefferson’s property and stuck overseas in France with him, meaning she didn't really have a choice. In addition to this, Sally may have been as young as 14 when the affair began.

  It would not be long after their return to American soil that Jefferson would impregnate her for the first time.
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  (#3) Sally Hemings Was Martha Jefferson’s Half-Sister

  Many sources believe that Sally was actually the half-sister of Thomas’ wife ,Martha Jefferson, as a result of her father’s own dalliances with a slave woman. This makes Thomas’ decision to start sleeping with Sally after Martha’s death all the more troubling. In addition, there's the weird fact that he was okay with owning people who were technically family. 
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  (#4) Jefferson Refused To Emancipate Sally Hemings

  Over a few decades, Sally Hemings bore Thomas Jefferson seven children, four of whom reached adulthood. Some believe that Hemings maintained her relationship with Jefferson due to a promise that he would eventually grant her children their freedom, a promise that Jefferson later upheld. This sounds mildly commendable, although it should be noted that Jefferson dragged his heels on freeing them for fear of public appearances.

  Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Sally herself. Despite their romance, Sally remained Thomas’ property right up until his death, after which his daughter quietly granted Ms. Hemings her freedom.
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  (#5) He Split Up Slave Families As Punishment

  Thomas Jefferson may have sired an entire family with a slave, but that certainly didn’t leave him with any level of respect for slave families. Jefferson was known to punish unruly slaves by separating them from their friends and families, sometimes permanently through selling off individual family members.

  In one awful incident, Jefferson gave away a family of slaves who happened to be related to Sally Hemings (and thus Martha Jefferson) as part of a wedding gift. The new owner wanted to sell off the slaves and split them up, so Jefferson stepped in to re-purchase the family - that is, only the useful family members. Jefferson let the others be sold off to whoever wanted them, as he had no use for them. 
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  (#6) Jefferson Owned A Ridiculous Amount Of Slaves

  The fact that, despite his views on liberty and equality, Thomas Jefferson was a slave-owner is well-known. However, the actual number of slaves that he owned isn't often talked about. Jefferson inherited 52 slaves when his father died. He had increased that to over a hundred by the time he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

  At the height of his human-owning days, Jefferson owned 267 slaves, although he would later free some of them. Thomas Jefferson owned more human beings than most libraries at the time contained books.
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  (#7) He Wanted To End Slavery, But Send Free Blacks Back To Africa

  Thomas Jefferson was a major slave-owner, but he also campaigned in several ways to end slavery. Jefferson attempted to write a passage denouncing slavery in the Declaration of Independence, but was overruled by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. He would go on to make other attempts.

  However, the fact that Jefferson continued to own slaves makes some believe that he only made those attempts for political reasons. Even when he did support freeing the slaves, Jefferson still didn’t want to grant them citizenship and had a plan to ship everyone back to Africa, regardless of their actual origins. Some believe that this was an attempt to get rid of his Black descendants.
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  (#8) He Was Legislatively Racist

  Thomas Jefferson wasn’t just racist in his private life. In his public life, Jefferson used his career as a politician, including his stint as the third POTUS, to enact plenty of discriminatory legislation and fight attempted advancements in equal rights. As a governor during the Revolutionary War, he encouraged enlistment by giving slaves to those who signed up.

  He also attempted to restrict free Blacks from entering or exiting the States and tried to ban all children born of Black fathers from entering. Most hypocritically, he attempted to expel white women who had birthed children with Black men, despite his own fathering of children with Sally Hemings. 
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  (#9) Jefferson Hated On Haiti

  As a slave-owner, it makes sense that Thomas Jefferson would have mixed feelings about slave rebellions. Jefferson was all for revolutionary action by those of European descent, but he actively opposed any slave uprisings, including the popular movement in Haiti that became the Haitan Revolution. Jefferson provided the beleaguered slave-owners of Haiti with economic and military support in an attempt to put down the rebellion, and refused to recognize the new state when the slaves were successful.
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  (#10) He Supported The Worst Of The French Revolution

  Thanks to his time in France, Thomas Jefferson was a major Francophile and a major revolutionary. This made Jefferson an obvious fan of the French Revolution, and he continued to hold a high opinion of the event long after it had devolved into a period known as “the Terror.” The Jacobins waged a bloody war on all dissent as they enforced change upon France and Jefferson was there to cheer them on every step of the way. Jefferson spoke fondly of the Jacobins and their methods, which famously included mass executions by guillotine.
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  (#11) Jefferson Employed Political Hatchetman While Secretary Of State

  Thomas Jefferson was the first Secretary of State for the brand new United States of America. He served his country with distinction, but kept his not-so-glamorous attributes close at hand. Jefferson employed a professional hatchetman while in office, who was on the State Department’s payroll with instructions to write anti-administrational articles to inflame public opinion. It could be argued that the notorious Francophile Jefferson used his position to advance French interests as much as he did American. 
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  (#12) He Accused George Washington Of Treason

  Thomas Jefferson and George Washington may share some real estate on Mount Rushmore, but that doesn’t mean that the two got along. The duo shared a mutual dislike, which only grew as Jefferson became a vocal critic of Washington’s presidency.

  At its worst, Jefferson’s criticism accused Washington of being beholden to the British Empire and of committing outright treason against their new nation. Jefferson made these criticisms as public as possible. Given Jefferson’s pro-France actions as Secretary of State, this was particularly hypocritical of him. 
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  (#13) He Ignored Contemporaries Freeing Slaves Despite His Own Anti-Slavery Rhetoric

  Some people attempt to downplay Jefferson’s use of slavery by saying that he was a product of his time, but that’s giving him too much credit. Jefferson may have lived in the days before slavery officially ended in America, but several of his contemporaries had already made a stand by freeing their slaves, including the first President, George Washington. Jefferson threw around as much anti-slavery rhetoric as anyone else, but he refused to put his money where his mouth was. 
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  (#14) Jefferson Falsely Accused His Own Vice President Of Treason

  Presidents and vice presidents rarely engage in direct conflict with one another, but Thomas Jefferson managed to make it happen with one of history’s favorite villains, Aaron Burr. Burr, the man who would one day shoot Alexander Hamilton, was chosen by the electors as Vice President. He was not picked by Jefferson, which is part of the reason the rules were changed.

  Jefferson eventually became convinced that Burr was involved in a treasonous plot and had him brought up on official charges, but Burr was found innocent. Their relationship was forever destroyed, if it had ever existed at all.

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