Random Painful Reminders That Thomas Jefferson Was Kind Of An Awful Person (14 items)

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  (#2) Sally Hemings Was A Teenager, His Slave, And Trapped Overseas With Him When Jefferson Began His Affair

  Thomas Jefferson’s affair with Sally Hemings after his wife’s death is well-known. This relationship is sometimes portrayed as a forbidden romance between slave and master, but the truth is far more disturbing. When Thomas and Sally first started sleeping with one another, Sally was Jefferson’s property and stuck overseas in France with him, meaning she didn't really have a choice. In addition to this, Sally may have been as young as 14 when the affair began.

  It would not be long after their return to American soil that Jefferson would impregnate her for the first time.
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  (#1) He Pioneered Smear Campaigns To Destroy Alexander Hamilton And John Adams

  Modern politicians are no strangers to smear campaigns and dirty politics, but these weren’t always a part of the American scene. Thomas Jefferson deserves much of the credit for introducing smear campaigns to the American system, thanks to the slanderous campaigns he secretly ran against Alexander Hamilton and John Adams.

  Jefferson hired James Callender as a “pamphleteer,” but in practice Callender was a minister of propaganda, helping to spread scandal and rumor about Jefferson’s opponents. Callender helped the story of Hamilton’s amorous affair get out and launched countless attacks against Adams’s presidency. Ironically, Callender later turned on Jefferson and began spreading tales of his dalliances with Sally Hemings.
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  (#12) He Accused George Washington Of Treason

  Thomas Jefferson and George Washington may share some real estate on Mount Rushmore, but that doesn’t mean that the two got along. The duo shared a mutual dislike, which only grew as Jefferson became a vocal critic of Washington’s presidency.

  At its worst, Jefferson’s criticism accused Washington of being beholden to the British Empire and of committing outright treason against their new nation. Jefferson made these criticisms as public as possible. Given Jefferson’s pro-France actions as Secretary of State, this was particularly hypocritical of him. 
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  (#13) He Ignored Contemporaries Freeing Slaves Despite His Own Anti-Slavery Rhetoric

  Some people attempt to downplay Jefferson’s use of slavery by saying that he was a product of his time, but that’s giving him too much credit. Jefferson may have lived in the days before slavery officially ended in America, but several of his contemporaries had already made a stand by freeing their slaves, including the first President, George Washington. Jefferson threw around as much anti-slavery rhetoric as anyone else, but he refused to put his money where his mouth was. 
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  (#3) Sally Hemings Was Martha Jefferson’s Half-Sister

  Many sources believe that Sally was actually the half-sister of Thomas’ wife ,Martha Jefferson, as a result of her father’s own dalliances with a slave woman. This makes Thomas’ decision to start sleeping with Sally after Martha’s death all the more troubling. In addition, there's the weird fact that he was okay with owning people who were technically family. 
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  (#6) Jefferson Owned A Ridiculous Amount Of Slaves

  The fact that, despite his views on liberty and equality, Thomas Jefferson was a slave-owner is well-known. However, the actual number of slaves that he owned isn't often talked about. Jefferson inherited 52 slaves when his father died. He had increased that to over a hundred by the time he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

  At the height of his human-owning days, Jefferson owned 267 slaves, although he would later free some of them. Thomas Jefferson owned more human beings than most libraries at the time contained books.

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