"Although it took courage for young Jefferson, raised in a slave society, to speak out against the institution, there is ultimately no defending Jefferson on slavery or race. He did indeed oppose slavery as a young man, and he even tried to do something about limiting it, but his suspicion of black inferiority and racial distinctiveness as expressed in Notes on the State of Virginia are so abhorent that his moral credentials appear to be fatally compromised. Yet despite his repugnant views on race, Jefferson still has something to say to us Americans today. Indeed, I think he deserves his traditional reputation as America's supreme apostle of democracy."
Gordon Wood, The Idea of America, p. 226-227
Why, Professor Wood, does Jefferson deserve this reputation? I don't understand how you can say this.
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