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Nature and Society June-July 2006 edition Thomas Jefferson wrestled as we wrestle today For the past 150 years Americans have tried to reconcile the fact of Thomas Jefferson’s slave-owning with his pursuit of liberty and freedom. The following is a recent attempt at explanation, using an analogy from contemporary globalisation. On that count alone, it would be relevant to NSF. But if we bear in mind another analogy, from that of climate change and our personal ecological footprint, the message is even more poignant. Although Jefferson rationalised his slaveholding by keeping slaves in a style that exceeded most whites of that day, it was nonetheless a rationalization of slavery and his own lifestyle was made possible by slave labour. Many Americans are righteously indignant and quick to judge him harshly. But to them I would ask ‘how many are willing to free our own slaves?’ I’m typing these words on a computer containing parts made in countries where labourers exist with less freedom and in conditions worse than those of Jefferson’s slaves. My rationalisation is that no companies in America or other developed nations make those parts any longer and without parts from China or Malaysia I’d have no computer. But it’s just a rationalisation, just like Jefferson’s. Sitting at my keyboard I notice my shirt is made by modern-day slaves in China where workers who try to organise are imprisoned ... I can rationalise all the products of distant slaves that I use. I didn’t have to look into their faces like Jefferson did ... My rationalisation is that we didn’t end slavery, we just simply exported it and we are accelerating that export with NAFTA and the World Trade Organisation. But it’s so much more comfortable for us to sit around and self-righteously criticise Jefferson who agonised over slavery in his time and yet we still use slave labour when we don’t have to look into the faces of labourers who make the clothes we wear, the tools we use. This is not an issue that has gone away. Thom Hartmann Thom Hartman is the author of What Would Jefferson Do?, (2005) June-July 2006 edition accessible here
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