Jefferson Among His Fellow Racists

DURING THE FINAL YEARS of his life, Thomas Jefferson sat atop his mountain at Monticello and used a telescope to monitor the progress of construction of his final, favorite enterprise, the University of Virginia. Although generally satisfied with the adherence to his in drinking, gambling, and firing weapons.for the campus, he became disenchanted when the first class of students, all male, turned out to be less interested in scholarship, and more interested in drinking, gambling, and firing weapons. Fearful that his new citadel of learning might devolve into a religious seminary populated by religious zealots, he avoided hiring devout Christians for his faculty, following the advice of john Adams. perhaps that was a mistake, considering that his students behaved more like drunkards and thugs than serious students. Fast forward a couple hundred years, and one can only speculate what Jefferson's reaction would be to the erection of a statue of Robert E. Lee, or to its eventual removal amid an atmosphere of political correctness. Would he want it removed? its hard to say. Jefferson was quite fond of history, good and bad. Both lee and Jefferson, in their own ways and times, believed strongly in state's rights, and both were inveterate racists. lee, however, fought for the right of Virginia to remain a slave state, while Jefferson would most certainly have been horrified to know that the peculiar institution lasted until 1865. Although a slave owner himself, he was trapped by his inheritance of his father's slaves, and his wish was that the institution would fade away, converged on the small charming town, and marched without pain. Even as we speak, Jefferson's university and Charlottesville, Virginia is fraught with controversy, a vestige of the issues with which Jefferson and his contemporaries struggled. White supremicists, calling themselves "unite the right" marched into town, igniting violence by inspiring opposition with the stench of their presence. Unite the right around what principle; white supremacy? How likely is it that the American conservative will consider this prudent? Too likely, in all probability. Jefferson, in his 18th century incarnation as a racist, might fit in. An updated twenty first century version of dreamny Tom would most definitely not. Yes, he firmly believed that Africans were intellectually inferior to Europeans, despite being surrounded with strong evidence to the contrary. yet, he was egalitarian in spirit. he was born a bit too early to see the futility and lunacy of segregation by skin pigment. We'' see whether American right wingers unite behind the alt right, and the notion of white supremacy. Although you can't necessarily put it past them, you have faith that America's far right have enough of a sense of history to understand that this idea is far outdated, and should be relegated to the scrap heap of history. Surely Jefferson, in today's environment, would.