Jefferson grieved slaveholder deaths more than enslaved peoples’ deaths

Evidence

Thomas Jefferson, for one, did not view the Haitian Revolution in the same guise as the American or French Revolutions. “Never was so deep a tragedy presented to the feelings of man,” he wrote in July 1793. To Jefferson, the slave revolt against the enslavers was more evil and tragic to the feelings of man than the millions of African people who died on American plantations. Jefferson would soon call General Toussaint L’Ouverture and other Haitian leaders “Cannibals of the terrible Republic.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 324

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete evidence for the causal-inversion thesis: Jefferson’s moral scale (mourning 4,000 enslavers over millions of enslaved) is a racist framing that justifies policy, not a neutral moral judgment. Useful test case for the reader’s scheme.
• SHARE: Sharp, quotable evidence of Jefferson’s inversed moral calculus — good to share with anyone teaching or studying the Founders and race.