Jefferson and Charlottesville

Michael Nelinson

07/03/2019

One of the many problems with human understanding is our tendency to project our cognitive context, the way we see ourselves in our world in our social, moral and geographical context, on other cultures or historical contexts that are dissimilar to our own. Our perceptions and values are shaped at the individual level by our own unique set of contexts and the conventions that are connected said context.

In this regard, we are unable to cross cultures or time due to our lack of cognitive flexibility and lack of knowledge that could aid us in properly understanding, at least at a basic level, how people in different context view the world that has made them who they are.

To put this in context, most of us have learned about the witch hunts that took place in the 15th century in both Europe and the American Colonies. However, few are aware that there was a formal doctrine within the Catholic Church, the Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of the Witches that formalized the understanding of how witches are to be identified and exterminated. I don’t think that it’s a stretch to say that most people living in a 21st century industrialized country would agree that witches don’t and have never existed and we could never see ourselves accepting the tenets of the Malleus’ teachings and take it upon ourselves and communities to rid ourselves of witches. To reach back into the realm of conventions, in 15th century Christianity it was normal and accepted to believe in witches and to view them as a threat to self and society. Taking this one step further, should we rebuke Christian institutions for their ridiculous beliefs and actions or should we be led to make an assessment that different times have different contexts as well as conventions? On a philosophical or legal level would it be right to punish a people or an institution for existing under a different historical context and acting in accordance with their beliefs or social norms?

From witches and witch hunts, we need to step forward back into modernity and discuss how our inability to cross cultures and historical context launches us into our own witch hunt demonizing and murdering the memory of some whom we owe a debt for our freedom and liberty. My motivation for writing this article was the city of Charlottesville VA’s removal of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday as a state holiday due to his ownership of slaves. While in today’s world slave ownership both illegal and immoral, this as not the case in Jefferson’s context. In fact, human slavery had existed in most cultures for the entire 55,000 years of modern human development. Slavery is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible and many of the great culture used forms of slave labor to grow their nations. The Egyptians had slaves from nations that the conquered as well as a Jewish population that had move there to avoid famine. The Greeks and Romans were slave holders, even as they propelled the West forward in philosophy and science. In addition to slavery there was forced social stratification that provided a slave like division of labor as we see in countries that had tribal orders or caste systems. While slavery is not a convention in our historical context, in these United States, the International Labor Organization states that there are currently 20.9 million people enslaved around the world today.

In Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia slave ownership was a normal, socially acceptable means of expanding one’s labor force. Jefferson was a lawyer, philosopher, diplomat and a principle architect of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution that guarantees us the freedoms and liberty that we have in this country. Calling Jefferson a racist based upon today’s social conventions is superimposing our values on a different historical context: which amounts to an abuse of history to make a point that may seem relevant today. To tie an educated 18th century historical figure to modern day white supremist views is a form of historical neglect that distorts our perception and leads us down the road to a revisionism where anyone who held an unpopular belief by todays standard can be burned at the stake in our own self serving witch hunt. In a day where fake news seems to dominate our media outlets polarizing our citizens against one another, let us not corrupt history as we have so many other institutions.