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SCI LIBRARY

The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson

By Subject


VIRGINIA / CONDITION OF LANDED ESTATES



The unprofitable condition of Virginia estates in general, leaves it now next to impossible for the holder of one to avoid ruin. And this condition will continue until some change takes place in the mode of working them. In the meantime, nothing can save us and our children from beggary, but a determination to get a year beforehand, and restrain ourselves vigorously this year to the clear profits of the last. If a debt is once contracted by a farmer, it is never paid but by a sale.

to Maria Jefferson Eppes, 7 January 1798