23. Jefferson’s Pals: Washington
Thomas Jefferson was hardly alone in his keeping of slaves. Brace yourself; 12 of the 45 presidents so far kept slaves while in office. The hard truth is that the first president of the United States, George Washington was one of those presidents. What separated Washington from his contemporaries was that he freed them on his deathbed. Little Georgie Washington inherited 10 slaves on his eleventh birthday. By the time he died, he had 123 people he kept as slaves. This doesn’t get him off the hook necessarily, but he ordered that every one of them go free when he died. His wife Martha saw to his wishes.
22. Jefferson’s Pals: James Madison
It was Thomas Jefferson’s successor in the White House, James Madison, who proposed the Three-fifths Compromise. That compromise suggested that America count slaves as part of a person for taxation purposes. This was not a step in the right direction. Madison, according to Madison’s slave Paul Jennings, who reported on Madison post-mortem, was a kind man to his slaves. It’s not saying much to say he wasn’t cruel, but that’s what history knows of him in this regard. Unlike Washington, Madison did not free any of his slaves, not even in death.
21. Jefferson’s Pals: James Monroe
One might think that as time moved forward so would progress the zeitgeist. It may have, but not quickly. James Monroe succeeded Madison. He lobbied for freeing the slaves, but then he wanted them shipped out of the country to Africa. He wanted to create a capital for the freed slaves in Liberia, and call it Monrovia. What Monroe couldn’t reconcile was his desire to join the rest of the developed world, where slavery was illegal, but he didn’t want to let go of the 100 or so slaves who ran his family’s plantation. It went on like this for a few more presidents until history moves closer to the Civil War… But, back to Monticello.