Pirate's Cove

Someone got infected with Virtue Signal Syndrome. And is anyone surprised that the NY Times would publish this? When does the NY Times get cancelled, considering it stole the property for its current building from People of Color via eminent domain?

From Thomas Jefferson’s own family, a call to take down his memorial

A direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson has called for the memorial to the third president to be removed from Washington, D.C.

Writing in the New York Times Monday morning, Lucian K. Truscott IV says his ancestor’s former estate at Monticello is enough of a tribute and that the Jefferson Memorial, located next to the Tidal Basin in the nation’s capital, should be replaced with a statue honoring the abolitionist hero Harriet Tubman.

“The memorial is a shrine to a man who during his lifetime owned more than 600 slaves and had at least six children with one of them, Sally Hemings,” Truscott writes. “It’s a shrine to a man who famously wrote that ‘all men are created equal’ in the Declaration of Independence that founded this nation — and yet never did much to make those words come true. Upon his death, he did not free the people he enslaved, other than those in the Hemings family, some of whom were his own children. He sold everyone else to pay off his debts.”

In the piece, Truscott argues that Monticello serves as an “almost perfect memorial” to the nation’s third president. In his opinion, Monticello notes Jefferson’s major contributions to the creation of the United States — including the Declaration of Independence — but also includes his history as a slave owner, or, as Truscott writes, “it reveals him with his moral failings in full, an imperfect man, a flawed founder.”

“I am the sixth-generation great-grandson of a slave owner,” Truscott continues. “My cousins from the Sally Hemings family are also the great-grandchildren of a slave owner. But the difference is that our great-grandfather owned their great-grandmother. My family owned their family. That is the American history you will not learn when you visit the Jefferson Memorial. But you will learn it when you visit Monticello: There’s now an exhibit of Sally Hemings’s bedroom in her cavelike living quarters in the south wing, a room my brother and I used to play in when we were boys.”

People have flaws. Things were much different in the 1700’s than they are now. I wonder if Truscott will come out against all the slavery in China? His other writings do not

Truscott is a novelist and columnist for Salon whose grandfather was a general during World War II.

Ah, Salon. You know Salon, right? A major hotbed of uber-far left insanity.

But, hey, Truscott is welcome to his opinion. Of course, he’s just one descendant. Jefferson had 10 kids and this was over 200 years ago. In the Yahoo article comments, Andrew writes

Furthermore, no, the memorial should not be removed. You can make a very compelling case that Thomas Jefferson is not only the most important man in the history of our country, but of Western society altogether. He was not perfect, but he should be judged based on when he lived, and the cumulative contributions he made to society.

It’s almost incomprehensible that even his direct descendants don’t understand his own legacy. Mr. Truscott says “It’s a shrine to a man who famously wrote that ‘all men are created equal’ in the Declaration of Independence that founded this nation — and yet never did much to make those words come true.” This is simply incorrect. Firstly, Jefferson was a vocal proponent for ending the institution of slavery. He was a leading member of the Continental Congress, a governor, the first secretary of state, second vice president, and then finally the third president. His words both at the time in in the future had a profound impact. And yes, he did take legitimate, meaningful steps to halt and roll back slavery.

While Jefferson served as governor of Virginia in 1780, Virginia banned the importation of slaves into the Commonwealth, they were one of the first jurisdictions in the world to do so. In addition to being governor and an obvious political and ideological leader, Jefferson also probably authored the actual law itself. While serving as president in 1807, the entire US followed suit, criminalizing the importation of slaves. Jefferson was again a principle driving force behind the new legislation. While addressing Congress in 1806 he referred to slavery as a “violation of human rights” and stated that is was in the country’s moral interest to end the practice.

Truscott also says that “Upon his death, he did not free the people he enslaved, other than those in the Hemings family, some of whom were his own children. He sold everyone else to pay off his debts.” That’s technically true, but it completely ignores the fact that legally, he couldn’t set them free. Jefferson inherited a significant number of slaves and debts from his father-in-law, and he never managed to pay those debts down. He was a notoriously generous man, giving out money to anyone that arrived at Monticello, letting visitors spend the night, and feeding them. He also focused his efforts on founding an nurturing a new country rather than managing his estates. As a result, he was saddled with debt his entire adult life, and when he died, Virginia law did not permit him to free his slaves. They legally had to be sold to pay off his considerable debts.

Finally, what I consider to be his most considerable contribution towards ending slavery and even racism in general was his written word. Jefferson, and many of the other founders, introduced enlightenment ideas into mainstream American life. The phrase “All men are created equal,” even if not properly enforced at the time, was spread all throughout the Western world and did eventually become an observed reality. Jefferson didn’t live at a time when all men were viewed as equal, but his belief that it was true and his written eloquence literally shaped a society in which it is true. He was a pioneer whose ideology was ahead of his time, and whose system of beliefs is directly responsible for the rise of modern Western society. It’s to him that we owe our gratitude for securing for us our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Yeah, let’s leave his memorial alone.

Well said. Let’s run a poll, see what the nation as a whole thinks. I can bet the SJWs won’t like the results.