08-25-2017, 11:33 AM
(08-25-2017, 10:59 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: At the time, slaves were not considered to be men. They were chattel in this country.
Edit to add: Jefferson did see black people as inferior to white people. He said as much in his book Notes on the State of Virginia. He even laid out in some detail why he saw whites as superior. This wasn't uncommon in the day and for a century after, even among abolitionists. There were many people that wanted an end to slavery as they saw it as unjust and immoral, but they still believed the black race to be inferior (and some didn't want them around once they were freed).
You are correct. Blacks being inferior was a "fact of life" or norm in those days, a belief accepted even by those who tried help blacks succeed. Not only here but cultures around the world held and still hold the same view.
