"All Men are Created Equal," said the Slave Owner Who Founded America

Whatever else is said about Thomas Jefferson, it must include some highly conflicting moral implications about his hypocrisy as the author of such eloquence of thought and rhythm, and the owner and father of children who were enslaved by his "legitimate" white children. 

Jefferson's wife, Martha, inherited enslaved people from her father, one of whom was Sally Hemmings, the youngest daughter of her father's "shadow family." When Martha died, Jefferson promised that he would not remarry. Instead, it is readily accepted these days, he fathered children born by Sally, who was Martha's much younger half-sister. Their children would be Jefferson's shadow family, but, unlike their mother who was one-quarter black and three-quarters white, their children were one-eighth black and seven-eighths white.