“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This is the most iconic line from the Declaration of Independence. In it, Thomas Jefferson provides a rallying cry for the American Revolution. But in addition to serving as the mantra of America’s founding fathers, it raised a lot of questions, particularly regarding the exact definition of “men.” As history has shown, in contrast to the notion of a united mankind, “men” in Jeffersonian America referred almost exclusively to white, landowning males. And yet, when one considers the private life of Thomas Jefferson - the life he led with his slave Sally Hemings - his views on race become a much more complicated topic. The issue of interracial sex became a divisive issue during the nineteenth century. By the mid 1800’s, white males who had enjoyed a sort of …show more content…
It can be suggested that the piece, which was created by an unknown artist not long after Thomas Jefferson finished his final term in office, was actually meant to depict Jefferson. Even if the piece is not specifically about Jefferson, “Virginian Luxuries” illustrates the hypocritical ideals of the South. While white slave owners often carried out affairs with black women, they still did not view them as equals; slaves were still a severely oppressed group. The “Virginian” shown in “Virginian Luxuries” fails to see the hypocrisy in his affair with a black woman and ruthless beating of a black man. This makes it apparent that, whether or not there was any degree of romance involved in the relationship between the master and his slave, at the root of the relationship were still the ideas of dominance and white