Thomas Jefferson and slavery

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, enslaved more than 620 people during his adult life. Jefferson freed two while he lived, and five others were freed after his death, including two of his children from his relationship with his sister-in-law Sally Hemings, whom he also enslaved. His other two children with Hemings were allowed to escape without pursuit. After his death, the rest of his enslaved persons were sold to pay off his estate's debts.

Privately, one of Jefferson's reasons for not freeing more of the people he enslaved was his considerable debt, while his more public justification, expressed in his book Notes on the State of Virginia, was his fear that their release into American society would cause civil unrest between white people and those whom they had once enslaved.

Jefferson consistently spoke out against the international slave trade and outlawed it while he was president. He advocated for a gradual emancipation of all enslaved people within the United States and the colonization of Africa by freed African Americans. However, he opposed some other measures to restrict slavery within the United States, and also was against voluntary manumission.

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