Thomas Jefferson statue toppled in Portland, Oregon

[melm00se]

24. Jefferson was a complicated guy

While he did own slaves, he also

- called out slavery in the Declaration but was overridden at the Continental Congress and that wordage was struck.
- led the charge for a ban on slave importation into Virginia in 1778.
- proposed federal legislation banning slavery in the New Territories of the North and South after 1800 (it did not pass by 1 vote).
- proposed and signed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves just after timeline expired for laws about slavery that was embedded in Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 US Constitution.
- expressed his opinion of slavery in multiple letters, words like "moral depravity", "hideous blot". - stated that slavery was against the laws of nature, which decreed that everyone had a right to personal liberty
- worked to move away from labor (slave) intensive crops.

But to some none of that overcomes the fact that he owned slaves.