The Complicated Legacy of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson served from 1801-1809 as the third president of the United States. He also wrote the Declaration of Independence, which he wrote as a declaration for settlers to enforce their rights against the British government and set up their own government based on the premises. He also wrote that all men have the right to life , liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and are created equal. Jefferson helped James Madison implement government bills of rights, and he was also an aspect of writing the religious freedom bill. Along with all else, by acquiring the territory of Louisiana in 1803, Jefferson doubled the size of the United States.
Even though Jefferson was for our country apart from all these important things, he had a lot to do with slavery as well. He owned a lot of slaves and decided never to let any of them be a part of democracy. He would also tell people that he thought that slavery was wrong, but he would never do anything to try to stop it. He had never set up his slaves so they could be free.
John Green argues that because he feels the monuments of our past presidents, like Jefferson, distort history and glorify people who perpetuated slavery, attempted secession from the United States, and lost the Civil War, we should take down monuments of our former presidents. He claims the monuments are a painful reminder of institutionalized racism in the United States in the past and present. He also claims that many other individuals should be represented by statues that would better reflect the country’s historical development and diversity.
The professor who says we should keep up the statues says, no matter how complicated, the statues reflect the past of the country. It’s to censor, whitewash, and potentially forget your history to take them down. He thinks destroying statues is a slippery slope that could lead to any mildly troubled person brashly destroying monuments. He also argues that the monuments do not cause racism and, if placed into historical context, may be used to address racism.
I do not think that since the statues are from a significant period in our history, the sculptures should be destroyed. Yes, horrible things have happened, like slavery and other things, but that’s part of our history, and it was a different time back then. For instance, if in a few hundred years there was a statue of you or me but they wanted to take it down because in our day we used phones and it wasn’t okay to use phones in their day, then your defense would most likely be that it was a different time and it’s part of our past. The same goes with the sculptures, they can be problematic and not everyone agrees with what the people have done, but in their time they have all done amazing things and that’s what the sculptures represent.
I think that all of this data falls into the Character and Citizenship POG. The character comes into play because Jefferson’s character was a major controversy. He did many wonderful things for our country, as we spoke about earlier. He had a big slave dispute too because he owned them and would not allow them to be free. The nation’s character often comes into play because, in language, region, race, or culture, the nation plays an immense role. Citizenship also comes into play because American history is a huge part of being an American citizen. Jefferson assumed that all human beings were born with basic natural rights, which all American citizens have. This is why Thomas Jefferson relates to Character and Citizenship of POG.
It was certainly a journey to construct my essay, The Difficult Legacy of Thomas Jefferson. In early October, I began investigating various details about Jefferson and I was genuinely surprised by the knowledge I had found. The actual writing of the essay portion was one thing that came naturally for me, because I feel like I’m pretty good at wording stuff for people to understand and I think I have a natural writing ability. Finding all of the material to go into the essay was one thing that was a little more complicated for me. I’m not the best at finding data for things, so it was a battle I had to overcome. I agree that Thomas Jefferson and his story are most relevant to the character aspect of POG since the character comes into play and his character was a big controversy. He did many great things for our country, but since he owned slaves and would not allow them to be free, he also had a major slave dispute, too. I think Thomas Jefferson was a great part of our community, so I don’t think the monuments should be destroyed, but I think schools across America should make sure they educate all students about Thomas Jefferson ‘s complicated legacy.