April 13, 1743 (April 2, 1743 Julian Calendar), birthday of President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was the primary drafter of the Declaration of Independence, a two-term President who was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase, and the founder of the University of Virginia. He was a lawyer, but also an architect, a botanist, a bibliophile, and, sadly, a racist and slave-owning hypocrite. While writing that all men are created equal, he also wrote that blacks were inferior, and he owned between 175 and 267 men, women and children as slaves. He freed a handful of his slaves in his will, most probably his own children with Sally Hemings, his slave and his late wifes half-sister.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 15:19:29 +0000
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