AP Success - AP US History: Thomas Jefferson On Slavery
Thomas Jefferson was active in the Independence Movement, most known for his first draft of the Declaration of Independence. After Independence, he served as a governor of the State of Virginia. He started writing Notes of the State of Virginia in 1781 as a response to questions to French diplomats about the new country.
They seem to require less sleep...They are at least as brave, and more adventuresome...In general, their existence appears to participate more of sensation than reflection...Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me, that in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior...and that in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous…Many millions of them have been brought to, and born in America. Most of them indeed have been confined to tillage, to their own homes, and their own society...Some have been liberally educated, and all have lived in countries where the arts and sciences are cultivated to a considerable degree...But never yet could I find that a black had uttered a thought above the level of plain narration; never see even an elementary trait of painting or sculpture. In music they are more generally gifted than the whites with accurate ears for tune and time, and they have been found capable of imagining a small catch.
Jefferson, Thomas. "Notes on the State of Virginia," 1781.
Question 1
Briefly identify one perspective about enslaved African Americans described in the excerpt.
Question 2
Briefly identify one economic trend that influenced Jefferson's statement, "Many millions of them have been brought to, and born in America."
Question 3
Briefly explain one way the attitudes toward enslaved African Americans expressed in the excerpt influenced the Three-Fifths Compromise.
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