Thomas Jefferson knew slavery was wrong — he wrote a condemnation of it into his original draft of the Declaration of Independence that Southerners forced him to remove — yet he perpetuated it to maintain Monticello, creating the defining moral contradiction of the founding.
Conan highlights the most striking fact from the Jefferson episode — that Jefferson wasn't simply a man of his time on slavery; he knew it was evil and wrote against it, but kept his plantation running on enslaved labor, embodying the central contradiction Americans must reckon with. ✦ AI generated
Conan O'Brien · The Rest Is History · 2026-07-25 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 27:00
The greatest fact that you guys brought up, I thought, in the Jefferson episode, was there are probably a lot of people who would guess that, well, this is the world that Jefferson was brought up in. He's a Virginian. Slavery is just part of their world. And he didn't know any better. And that's just not true. And that you said that he wrote in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, he lambasted slavery and tore away at it and said this is a great evil and that other southerners made him take it out. But he knew better. He knew better. And as you pointed out, if you've been to Monticello, it's absolutely stunning. He's very proud of Monticello. And he probably loves Monticello more than anybody or anything and the only way he can keep it going is with slavery. So it's a terrible failing and I'm a big believer in we need to acknowledge those things while I think not throwing the baby out with the bath water and closing one's eyes to the fact that he was a remarkable writer, a remarkable ideologue, a remarkable politician, a remarkable president.
verbatim transcript · starts at 27:00
27:02was brought up in. He's a Virginia. Um, slavery is just part of their world. Uh, and he didn't know any better. And that's just not true. and that you said that, you know, he he wrote in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, uh, he lambasted slavery and tore away at it and said this is a great evil and that, uh, other southerners made him take it out. But he
27:31knew better. He knew better. And as you pointed out, he, if you've been to Montichello, it's absolutely stunning. He's very proud of Montichello. and he probably as you said probably loves Montichello more than anybody or anything and the only way he can keep it going is you know with slavery. So, it's a terrible failing and I'm a big believer in we need to acknowledge those things while I think not throwing the baby out
28:01with bath water and closing one's eyes to the fact that he was a remarkable writer, a remarkable ideologue, a remarkable politician, a remarkable president. And I suppose it's a it's a question for Americans that I am not qualified to appine on. How easy it is to do that to have this man of incomparable genius who also has this great kind of moral blot and can the two be squared. You and
28:32Dominic do this all the time on your podcast. You'll be talking about um you know Admiral Lord Nelson and you absolutely I mean uh Dominic clearly has a portrait of Nelson in his bedroom that he that he looks at just before he he pulls up the covers. You know he gave me um a letter of Nelson. >> Oh. And it's got a little picture of Nelson. So actually it's in my bedroom.