Final answer:
Thomas Jefferson held complex and contradictory thoughts about enslaved people. He believed that Black people were inferior to White people and only freed a few slaves during his lifetime. Although recognizing the violation of natural rights, Jefferson feared the consequences of immediate abolition.
Step-by-step explanation:
Thomas Jefferson's Thoughts on Enslaved People
Thomas Jefferson's real thoughts about enslaved people were complex and contradictory. Although he wrote the Declaration of Independence, he also enslaved over 100 people and freed only a few. He believed that Black people were inferior to White people and even had a sexual relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, with whom he had several children.
Despite recognizing that slavery violated the natural rights of Africans and African Americans, Jefferson did not advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery. He believed that abolition would lead to grave threats and risks, including an apocalyptic race war. He also held pseudo-scientific racist ideas that Africans were intellectually inferior to Europeans.
Jefferson understood the contradiction between his beliefs in natural rights and his ownership of slaves. In his writings, he discussed the possibility of gradual emancipation and the removal of Black people from the United States. He believed that deep-rooted prejudices, differences in nature, and historical injustices would divide the races and eventually lead to their extermination if they were not separated.