In this article, Jefferson discusses the problems that the
institution of slavery created in Virginia and how it affected the slaves.
The notes were written while Jefferson was the Governor of Virginia and
were based on an inquiry made by the French legation in Philadelphia and
discussed several different aspects of life in Virginia. The article
explains the reasons why Jefferson believes that freeing blacks would be
detrimental to the state. Jefferson begins by explaining that it would be
difficult to incorporate the slaves into the state because of the racism
that the institution of slavery had caused. Jefferson argues that
"Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand
recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new
provocations, the real distinctions which nature has made; and many
other circumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce
convulsions, which will probably never end but in the extermination of
one or the other race." (Jefferson 182)
Jefferson also asserts that the Black race is inferior to the white
race on many different levels. He explains that this inferiority would
make it difficult for the slaves to function in society. The notions of
black inferiority abound throughout the article and the Governor asserts
that blacks are inferior intellectually and in the arts, lack physical
attractiveness and lack the ability to reason.
Jefferson attempts to parallel Roman slaves with American slaves and
concludes that the inferiority that he saw in black was not a result of
their condition, but instead a result of nature. Because of this perceived
"inferiority", Jefferson believes that abolishing slavery would be
difficult asserting that the "unfortunate difference of color, and perhaps
of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these pe...