Untold Truths
“Untold Truths” There is a ton of history in the texts of today and the improvement of their accuracy has only gotten better since the early recordings. The one solid truth is that as Americans we want our past to look a lot more saint like than it really was. There were many passages that make Thomas Jefferson look like a kind gentle and loving man, which in reality he did own and operate a slave plantation. Then their was a great myth about the reconstruction of the South being the fault of the freed African Americans when it was the racism of all white people that brought it down. Still not many people realized the impact that racism had on our foreign relations with the Indians and neighboring countries. These areas should be known and of common interest to any knowledgeable American citizen. We do not need our past to be sugar coated. Our past is what makes us who we are. We may not be proud of all of the things that we have done as a country, but we need to let everyone know the truth about their own heritage. Thomas Jefferson was one of the brilliant founding fathers of our country. He was also a very wealthy leader of his time. Some would like to think that he attained this great wealth through the writing of our Declaration of Independence or from one of his many inventions. The fact of the matter is that he achieved this wealth through a southern tobacco plantation like many men of his era. This was not a problem or a horrible thing. It is the fact that he owned any where form two to three hundred slaves during his ownership of the plantation, which lasted his entire life (Lowen 148). You also might presume that he might even have released his slaves at his death, but once again this is not the case. He released three salves while still alive and then five slaves in his will. The interesting part is that they were all blood relatives of himself (Lowen 148). Thomas Jefferson was not as for the passage “all men are created equal” as one might have presumed if they read a textbook from today’s schools.