Talk:Frederick Douglass vs Thomas Jefferson/Rap Meanings/@comment-99.117.41.48-20161026010423

This particular battle shows an uncharactaristic lack of research. Most of these, you could show to a classroom and save kids of any age months of research. Peter & Lloyd & their team obviously put a ton of study into the Rap Battles.

Not this one.

Jefferson inherited slaves as a young teenager, he grew up in a world where they were as ubiquitous as cars (maybe luxury cars.)  And yet, as a young man he quickly say the evils of slavery, many years before most of his contemporaries.

He was beholden to the laws of the land. Many of  which did not allow him to free his slaves. He was in debt when he dies so, by state law, his slaves could not be freed on his death. Even if he put that in his will, it would have been ignored by the police, etc.

Jefferson had a conundrum. Form a country OR free slaves in a half-country. The southern states would never had joined the new US if slavery were illegal, and Jefferson knew that a US without them would be small and weak and horribly divided.

Regarding the 3/5 clause, the southern states wanted 1/1 - that is, they wanted every slave to count as a full person. This would have allowed them to count all their slaves as citizens in the census, giving the southern states more representation in Washington DC. If they had gotten their way, slavery would have continued much MUCH longer than it did. Jefferson knew this and was willing to do almost anything to stop it. In this case, counting slaves as 3/5 of a person was a good thing, and helped end slavery sooner.

Feel free to research what I say here, it should not take too long. And to Peter & Lloyd and their team - please work to be more accurate in your historical depictions. You wouldn't write Deadpool as a wallflower, you should not have had Jefferson as an apologizing wimp.

All of that said, you guys are making some of the best stuff out there! Thank you!!