He Undermined The Freedom Of Slaves In Other Countries
Wikimedia CommonsJefferson supported European nations like France in revolting, but was adamantly against black slaves doing the same, as in the case of the Haitian Revolution.
Thomas Jefferson’s support for slavery was not limited to the United States. When slaves led by Toussaint Louverture revolted against the French colonial rule of Haiti, Jefferson — a noted Francophile and racist — personally financed French slaveholders to quash the rebellion.
In 1795 when Jefferson was Secretary of State, he gave 1,000 firearms and $40,000 to Haiti’s slaveholders. Furthermore, he used his eventual powers as president to loan France $300,000 intended “for relief of whites on the island.”
Despite his best efforts, however, the slaves of Haiti succeeded in liberating themselves in 1804. But in the uncertain year before their success, a former slave and leader of the rebellion named Jean-Jacques Dessalines, wrote to Jefferson that the Haitians were “tired of paying with our blood the price of our blind allegiance to a mother country that cuts her children’s throats.” He said they would fight for freedom, instead.
Dessalines became the nation’s first ruler when it won its independence the following year, making him the first black head of state in the Americas.
Thomas Jefferson never responded to his letter and refused to recognize Haiti as a sovereign republic.
In 1803, before independence was guaranteed, he wrote Thomas Jefferson a letter
Wikimedia CommonsJefferson supplied Haiti’s slaveholders with one thousand firearms and $40,000 to quell the rebellion.
Of course, Thomas Jefferson was a vital voice in America’s quest for independence and he served his country in numerous ways. But he also held racist views, ran a small town of slaves, raped at least one of his enslaved women — a child no less — and nearly caused the nation’s first depression.
Thomas Jefferson was a man of many things — perhaps “moral depravity” was one of them.
After learning these dark Thomas Jefferson facts, read about the most shocking presidential quotes in U.S. history. Then, learn about Joseph P. Kennedy’s dark past as a Nazi sympathizer.
