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Edit 1 on article Thomas Jefferson and Slavery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_slavery#Revolutionary_period_%281775%E2%80%931783%29

Section: Revolutionary period (1775–1783)

In 1775, Thomas Jefferson joined the Continental Congress as a delegate from Virginia when he and others in Virginia began to rebel against the British governor Lord Dunmore. Trying to reassert British authority over the area, Dunmore issued a Proclamation in November 1775 that offered freedom to slaves who abandoned their rebel masters and joined the British army.[24] Dunmore's action provoked the mass exodus of tens of thousands of forced laborers from plantations across the South during the war years; some of people Jefferson held as slaves also took off as runaways.[25]

The colonials opposed Dunmore's action as an attempt to incite a massive slave rebellion. In 1776, when Jefferson co-authored the Declaration of Independence, he referred to the Lord Governor when he wrote, "He has excited domestic insurrections among us."[26][27] In the original draft of the Declaration, Jefferson condemned King George III of forcing the African slave trade on the American colonies and "inciting American Negroes to rise in arms against their masters." [28][29][30][31] The Continental Congress, however, due to Southern opposition, forced Jefferson to purge this language in the final draft of the Declaration.[28][32][33][34][35] Jefferson did manage to make a general criticism against slavery by maintaining "all men are created equal."[28] Jefferson did not directly condemn domestic slavery as such in the Declaration, as Jefferson himself was a slaveowner. According to Finkelman, "The colonists, for the most part, had been willing and eager purchasers of slaves."[36] '''Researcher William D. Richardson proposed that Thomas Jefferson's use of "MEN" in capital letters would be a repudiation of those who may believe that the Declaration was not including slaves with the word "Mankind" '''

Edit 2 on article Thomas Jefferson and Slavery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_slavery#Following_the_Revolution_%281784%E2%80%931800%29

Section: Following the Revolution (1784-1800)

Some historians have claimed that, as a Representative to the Continental Congress, Thomas Jefferson wrote an amendment or bill that would abolish slavery. But according to Finkelman, "he never did propose this plan" and "Jefferson refused to propose either a gradual emancipation scheme or a bill to allow individual masters to free their slaves."[48] He refused to add gradual emancipation as an amendment when others asked him to; he said, "better that this should be kept back."[48] In 1785, Jefferson wrote to one of his colleagues that black people were mentally inferior to white people, claiming the entire race was incapable of producing a single poet.[49]

On March 1, 1784, in defiance of southern slave society, Jefferson submitted to the Continental Congress the Report of a Plan of Government for the Western Territory.[7] "The provision would have prohibited slavery in all new states carved out of the western territories ceded to the national government established under the Articles of Confederation." [6] Slavery would have been prohibited extensively in both the North and South territories, including what would become Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.[7] His 1784 Ordinance would have prohibited slavery completely by 1800 in all territories, but was rejected by the Congress by one vote due to an absent representative from New Jersey.[7] However, on April 23 Congress accepted Jefferson's 1784 Ordinance without prohibiting slavery in all the territories. Jefferson said that southern representatives defeated his original proposal. Jefferson was only able to obtain one southern delegate to vote for the prohibition of slavery in all territories.[7] The Library of Congress notes, "The Ordinance of 1784 marks the high point of Jefferson's opposition to slavery, which is more muted thereafter." [50][51] Jefferson's Ordinance of 1784 did influence the Ordinance of 1787, that prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory.[7]

From the 1770s on, Jefferson wrote of supporting gradual emancipation, based on slaves being educated, freed after 18 for women and 21 for men (later he changed this to age 45, when their masters had a return on investment), and transported for resettlement to Africa. All of his life, he supported the concept of colonization of Africa by American freedmen. The historian Peter S. Onuf suggested that, after having children with his slave Sally Hemings, Jefferson may have supported colonization because of concerns for his unacknowledged "shadow family."[52] '''In addition, Onuf asserts that Jefferson believed at this point that slavery was "equal to tyranny." '''