Thomas Jefferson and Slavery

How could the author of the Declaration of the Independence own slaves? How could twenty percent of the population of the new United States, founded on the principles of liberty and equality, live in bondage? What was life like for enslaved people in the early republic?

Thomas Jefferson called slavery a “moral depravity” and a “hideous blot,” but continued to hold human beings as property his entire adult life.

Jefferson profited not just by the crops and products produced by his enslaved laborers but also from the value of the slaves themselves.