The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION / SLAVERY
The bill on the subject of slaves, was a mere digest of the existing
laws respecting them, without any intimation of a plan for a future
and general emancipation. It was thought better that this should be
kept back, and attempted only by way of amendment, whenever the bill
should be brought on. The principles of the amendment, however, were
agreed on, that is to say, the freedom of all born after a certain
day, and deportation at a proper age. But it was found that the public
mind would not yet bear the proposition, nor will it bear it even at
this day. Yet the day is not distant when it must bear and adopt it,
or worse will follow. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of
fate, than that these people are to be free.
from Notes for an Autobiography, 6 January 1821
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