> “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” That quote from Jefferson, and ma

> “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” That quote from Jefferson, and many others of his, I always find very strange. Jefferson was a slave owner. It would appear that he desired an end to slavery but was incapable of doing it himself, which of course is disappointing. This wiki entry appears to make the case that Jefferson’s own debt prevented him from freeing his slaves, because he still saw them as property on a balance sheet. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_slavery https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_slavery In the end all of his slaves (minus the few known children of his and Sally Hemmings and others of her family) were sold to pay off his estate’s debts, most likely breaking up families in the process. In some ways Jefferson possibly hoped for a rebellion to overthrow the status quo in the South, and free all the slaves. Ironically though it wasn’t the slaves that rebelled and brought about that change, it was the Southern white confederates who felt they needed to protect their right to own slaves, and throw off the oppressive North (like western mass vs. Boston). They rebelled, and then Slavery was made illegal... Although we all know that the rights of those former slaves have never truly be equalized across the entire US. The point is, I always find Jefferson to be an interesting character, because he clearly understood the plight of those who were oppressed, but he lacked the conviction to overthrow his own life comforts to correct the greatest injustice of the founding of the US.