#1440 Enslavement
Listening to America
Listening to America
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2021
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We are joined this week by the author and historian Professor Joseph Ellis. He and Clay have an in-depth discussion about the Founding Fathers and their willing participation in the enslavement of people.
Read about Clay's upcoming online courses here: https://jeffersonhour.com/onlinecourse
Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog. Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at jeffersonhour.com/tours. Check out our new merch. You can find Clay's publications on our website, along with a list of his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and other topics. Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Good day, Thomas Jefferson, our podcast listeners. Thank you so much for listening. |
| 0:05.4 | Thank you so much for writing to us with your questions for Mr. Jefferson or Mr. Jenkinson. |
| 0:12.1 | And thank you for your criticisms. We we read through one today. |
| 0:17.6 | And also thank you, those of you who go to JeffersonHour.com and choose to support the show by |
| 0:24.6 | clicking on Donate and joining the 1776 Club. We don't say enough how much we appreciate your support |
| 0:34.2 | and probably don't say enough how much we appreciate your listening. |
| 0:38.1 | It's great that we have this communication with people from all over the country, |
| 0:42.4 | even all over the world. When we do these Zoom Town meetings, we get to see faces to attach |
| 0:50.5 | to some of the names that we encounter from time to time in correspondence with the JeffersonHour, |
| 0:56.3 | members of the 1776 Club and so on. It's it's very enlightening and it's it's satisfying and so |
| 1:03.5 | we'll be doing more Thomas Jefferson Town meetings probably one every five or six weeks |
| 1:09.4 | through the year 2021. This program, we've done some very hard programs in the last few weeks |
| 1:16.6 | and we're talking about this fundamental problem in Jefferson, the problem of enslavement of slavery |
| 1:23.7 | of race. And the Jefferson doesn't come out very well and I think today we actually |
| 1:29.6 | probably spoke more critically of Jefferson in this regard than in any previous program because |
| 1:36.4 | that's the truth. And so I think Joe Ellis is right when he says that if you want to understand |
| 1:42.5 | race in America and race in the founding fathers, the place you begin is Thomas Jefferson because he |
| 1:48.5 | embodies all that's best in the American spirit and some of what is not. But I find it hard, David, |
| 1:53.9 | I find it innovating and soul damaging to as a historian to be attached to this story and to have |
| 2:03.2 | to sort it out. And as a reenactor, as a someone who pretends to be Jefferson to have to embody |
| 2:09.7 | the paradoxes of his life in this way, we still haven't figured out race in America, that's clear. |
| 2:18.5 | And so this legacy goes on and on and on. We keep hoping that the day will come when Martin Luther |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Listening to America, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Listening to America and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.