Dare To Be 100: Tom Jefferson's Edit

The high point of our family July 4 every year is the reading of the Declaration of Independence by good friend Dave Ross. He reads the magnificent words to great effect that cause each of our hearts to swell with pride for being an American.

This year brought a new twist. Dave and our daughter Danna discovered additional details about the sacred document. It is now seen that the words that Tom used originally had become subverted, and the later official text was changed substantially. His first rendering used soaring, damning, fiery prose. He denounced slavery as "an execrable commerce, an assemblage of horrors, a cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberties." Such powerful rhetoric caused Massachusetts to abolish slavery on the spot.
However all was not peaceful in the early days of American government as the southern states with their deep commitment to slavery as a way of life raised strenuous objection. This then caused the Continental Congress eventually to strike down the passage because both Georgia and South Carolina promised that they would abstain from signing the final document, unless...

At our barbecue celebration Dave read both versions which caused much subsequent discussion. An article published in the Smithsonian in 2012 contained an article by Henry Wiencek called "The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson". It turns out that despite his words he was deeply conflicted on the slavery issue. He was a slave holder, and more. Sally Hemming was his mistress. It is reported that in the 1790s the most remarkable thing about Jefferson's stand on slavery was his immense silence. All his emancipation efforts ended, and upon his death he sold the number of slaves that he had held on his property at auction.

It hurts our idealism when any of our heroes is smirched, but at least we know the rest of the story.

Tom's edit really did not contaminate our collective pride in America. Another chorus of Happy Birthday to the United States of America.

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