Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Understanding The Civil War More Clearly

Interesting thing about Jackson, he was otherwise as anti-Federalist as anyone. If money is really the root of politics and power, Jackson actually took apart and terminated the centralized government Bank of the US and handed the funds, hence control, over to the States.

Part of where Jackson screwed up is insisting on a return to silver and gold for real estate transactions, creating economic chaos for which his successor in office Van Buren took the fall.

Quite apart from politics, an interesting thing about Jefferson is that he took up with his mixed-blood slave mistress only after his wife's death when he was in his forties, the girl was fourteen at the time.

Very possibly she loved him, and he her. Being his mistress was probably the very best deal she could get in life in that time and place. Reportedly he had promised at the outset to free her and their children, which he eventually did.

The surreal thing is that some of their children were named according to the wishes of Jefferson's friends, which seems to indicate the relationship was not entirely hidden from Jefferson's social circle.

After being freed at least two of the Jefferson children moved north to Ohio, where one was able to live as a White and even IIRC marry a White woman.

Whatever his feeling on the issue, Jefferson never did free many of his 100+ slaves, he couldn't afford the catastrophic loss of capital that would represent. After his death some 130 slaves (??IIRC) were sold off to pay accmulated debts owed against his estate.

All corrections accepted.

Birdwatcher