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Question: If Thomas Jefferson supported abolition, then why did he own slaves!?
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At that time, many people began to see that it was wrong to own another human, but didn't know how to stay above water without help!. The more humane slave owners either freed their slaves or made deals with them!. Some slaved refused to leave ( because they had nowhere to go) so the owners instead gave them small shares of land or profit from the crops to "pay" them for their help!. In some cases this worked for everyone, the newly freed people could stay in their homes and actually see a profit, and the plantation owner was able to keep up!. I don't know if Jefferson was one of these, but that might be why!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Jefferson realized slavery was an evil and was only reluctantly convinced that it was a necessary evil ecomically!. In the Declaration his orginal draft called for an end to it, but that section was struck because of southern objections!.
In his own case, that of being a slave owner, he could not afford to free them, except on his deathbed, and that was overturned by his creditors!. His slaves were re-sold to satisfy his debts!.
Understand Jefferson was steeped in John Locke, Natural Rights, from the English Enlightenment!. He believed slavery was wrong but the economics of the day, and his own economics, dictated, he could do nothing about it!.
Labor was dear and land was cheap!. To make money from the land one needed cheap labor and there was none cheaper than African slave labor!. Slavery had been tried on the Indians and failed (they ran off), and indentured servitude didn't work as too many died in the first couple of years of seasoning (exposure to New World diseases)!.
Jefferson owned slaves because he inherited them and could never afford to free them!. He was in debt most of his life and to free the slaves would mean he would need to abandon his lands and Monticello!.
There will be those who will interject the old libel that Jefferson had an affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings!. This comes from a shirt tail relation to Jefferson who continually hit him up for loans which he never paid back!. His name was Thomas Collander or similar, and when Jefferson finally shut him off, he sold the story to the Adams campaign of 1800 for President!. It was never true and would have been unthinkable in Jefferson's time!. He would have been ostrasized completely from polite society!. It is a persistant rumor without foundation, to this day!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Many of the early American leaders owned slaves, but were personally against the concept - yet failed to act on it!. George Washington freed his slaves in his will, but would not so it before that, simply because in his mind he could not "afford" to!.Www@QuestionHome@Com