Thomas Jefferson, hypocrite. Robert 'Councillor' Carter, emancipator.

Every time I have to hear yet another paean to the Founding Fathers, or see George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as graven images on Mount Rushmore, I think of the blood, backs, and bones of those enslaved black people they built their wealth on—some of whom were my ancestors—and I want to puke. I've grown weary of hearing Jefferson lauded for hypocritically stating that "all men are created equal" out of one side of his mouth, while buying, owning, selling humans, and siring children on his wife's enslaved half-sister. I've already discussed my perspective on George Washington, the slaveholder, in George Washington is not my 'Great White Father.' I hold Jefferson in even lower esteem.

If this country needs to applaud and honor any of the early slave-owning historical figures from the days of the founding, my choice would be the man who was the contemporary of and antithesis to Jefferson—Robert Carter III, known also as "Councillor" Carter. His story is told by Andrew Levy in The First Emancipator: The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves:

Robert Carter III, the grandson of Tidewater legend Robert “King” Carter, was born into the highest circles of Virginia’s Colonial aristocracy. He was neighbor and kin to the Washingtons and Lees and a friend and peer to Thomas Jefferson and George Mason. But on September 5, 1791, Carter severed his ties with this glamorous elite at the stroke of a pen. In a document he called his Deed of Gift, Carter declared his intent to set free nearly five hundred slaves in the largest single act of liberation in the history of American slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation.

More below the fold.