tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post5897705868256134084..comments2024-03-14T13:25:20.613-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: Thomas Jefferson Reviews Phillis WheatleyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-28741590697294932962023-03-21T21:27:08.633-05:002023-03-21T21:27:08.633-05:00Other men of his time quite liked Wheatley's w...Other men of his time quite liked Wheatley's work, including Voltaire, so it's disingenuous to handwave his racism in this instance. Other well educated men disagreed with him meaning, at least in this instance, he was extraordinarily racist even among his peers. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-24268931821115272262023-01-24T21:34:05.318-05:002023-01-24T21:34:05.318-05:00Like it or not, he was a man of his times, we all ...Like it or not, he was a man of his times, we all are. How will people judge our attitudes and actions in 250-350 yrs.? Given his words about the black man, Sancho, I do wonder though if her being black was his only objection, after all, many in those days thought women incapable of thinking any more deeply than what to plant in the garden come spring time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-85817904026231819232017-12-12T11:02:42.805-05:002017-12-12T11:02:42.805-05:00I feel like he has a right to his opinion, but I d...I feel like he has a right to his opinion, but I don't agree with him. I am glad he felt that slavery was wrong, but then to go as far as saying that whites are, "biologically and intellectually superior" is very rude.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-30777080678274745822017-12-12T11:02:32.851-05:002017-12-12T11:02:32.851-05:00I would have to disagree with Jefferson and his ar...I would have to disagree with Jefferson and his argument. I feel that African Americans deserve just as many rights as whites do especially since Phillis was so talented with her poetry and the way she expressed herself and her life through her works.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-11962016892632397192015-12-05T16:28:25.669-05:002015-12-05T16:28:25.669-05:00We should not assume that Jefferson only wrote to ...We should not assume that Jefferson only wrote to express his opinion, and not to shape the opinions of others. Moreover, pace not Bridget, he actually made a compelling case that science could <i>not</i> determine inferiority--<br /><br />"The opinion that they are inferior in the faculties of reason and imagination, must be hazarded with great diffidence. To justify a general conclusion, requires many observations, even where the subject may be submitted to the Anatomical knife, to Optical glasses, to analysis by fire or by solvents. How much more then where it is a faculty, not a substance, we are examining; where it eludes the research of all the senses; where the conditions of its existence are various and variously [58] combined; where the effects of those which are present or absent bid defiance to calculation; let me add too, as a circumstance of great tenderness, where our conclusion would degrade a whole race of men from the rank in the scale of beings which their Creator may perhaps have given them."<br /><br />--and then argued for it anyway:<br /><br />"I advance it, [264] therefore, as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind."<br /><br />A Twitter friend describes it as a rhetorical knuckleball or spitball.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04616106414422271836noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-6470806811787579622014-11-03T14:29:32.695-05:002014-11-03T14:29:32.695-05:00Washington invited Wheatley to visit him, but ther...Washington invited Wheatley to visit him, but there's no evidence that she took him up on that offer—no statement from either of them, no remark on their meeting from others when it would surely have been remarkable.<br /><br />But you're right that Washington changed his mind over the years while Jefferson wrote a lot about the issue but grew less flexible as the decades passed.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-90370291603053753882014-11-03T14:12:25.887-05:002014-11-03T14:12:25.887-05:00I'm reading An Imperfect God; George Washingto...I'm reading <i>An Imperfect God; George Washington, his slaves and the creation of America.</i> We've seen how GW began life with attitudes typical of a Tidewater planter. <br /><br />Early in the War, he began to accept that Black troops could be valuable. And he wrote a very complimentary letter to "Miss Phyllis"--thanking her for the poem she wrote about him. Apparently she visited his HQ. <br /><br />Of course the poem's style is very much of the day--but she showed intelligence & learning; GW was truly impressed. Eventually, he freed his slaves in his will; late--but no other Southern slaveholding president did as much. <br /><br />From other studies of Jefferson, it's become evident that he was one of the very first to give a "scientific" explanation for the inferiority of non-white people. <br /><br />Washington's experiences taught him; Jefferson closed his mind as the years passed....not Bridgethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17956053583913278364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-65502592864569522902014-01-03T18:22:33.080-05:002014-01-03T18:22:33.080-05:00Wheatley's poetry is really not very good, but...Wheatley's poetry is really not very good, but it's bad in an accomplished way that should make it the subject of criticism rather than "beneath the dignity" of it. It would be hard to distinguish from the equally conventional poetry of literary men with whom Jefferson rubbed Elbows. Put her poem "To His Excellency George Washington" next to Philip Freneau's "To the Memory of George Washington." Tie Jefferson up and make him--or anyone--identify who wrote which. Yet he trusted Freneau to be his editorial mouthpiece.Mal Kiniry@anromeda.rutgers.edunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-74353752930225818892013-01-01T14:12:19.899-05:002013-01-01T14:12:19.899-05:00In Stephan E. Ambrose's book of essays "T...In Stephan E. Ambrose's book of essays "To America", he goes on and on of how very disappointed he was in Jefferson and in his obvious contradictions. He slams TJ for never putting his money (his investment's worth in slaves)vs. where his mouth was (proclaiming freedom and liberty). I understand Ambrose's disgust, but like J.L. says - Jefferson was caught in that no-man's land of real life self-denial. Jefferson in that regard then was like each of us today. Human.John L Smith Jrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209064146960498237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-87160915503337737492013-01-01T13:40:44.610-05:002013-01-01T13:40:44.610-05:00We often start from the position of Jefferson as b...We often start from the position of Jefferson as being so much smarter and more perceptive than the ordinary person, so he has nowhere to go but down. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-83417284849640322522013-01-01T02:32:48.611-05:002013-01-01T02:32:48.611-05:00The more I learn about Jefferson the less I like h...The more I learn about Jefferson the less I like him. -- Joe BaumanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-8244779368502001032012-12-31T15:01:11.076-05:002012-12-31T15:01:11.076-05:00I think 'American Sphinx' shows that he wa...I think 'American Sphinx' shows that he was aware of a lot of his own contradictions. It's a littled dated now, I guess, but it's still a pretty great read.Robert S. Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06208771657848284055noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-39426231223213997972012-12-31T14:57:25.127-05:002012-12-31T14:57:25.127-05:00Rhetoric like this makes me feel that Jefferson di...Rhetoric like this makes me feel that Jefferson did sense his contradictions, at least subconsciously, but (like most of us) would have denied or compartmentalized them to make life easier. Of course we'd like him and everyone else involved in the nation's founding to be right all the time, but the Founders' struggles make them more interesting. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-87666022270019311372012-12-31T14:34:38.420-05:002012-12-31T14:34:38.420-05:00Another case in point of why I feel Jefferson is t...Another case in point of why I feel Jefferson is the most complex character in the first string of Founders. A racist maybe by modern terms, but in his time - an enigma certainly. I wonder if at times T.J. saw his own contradictions?John L Smith Jrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209064146960498237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-56907031548718336912012-12-31T11:27:57.844-05:002012-12-31T11:27:57.844-05:00But but but, insert apologist claims here and rant...But but but, insert apologist claims here and rant about 'man of his times', &c.Robert S. Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06208771657848284055noreply@blogger.com