History Memes

I get what you're saying, but... it's hard to get over the fact that Jefferson owned slaves, raped at least one of them, then enslaved the kids that resulted. Just saying that nobody's perfect doesn't really help us understand how someone could enslave their own kids.

I’m never sure of what the goal is in this topic.

This is a valid concern. My answer is: I think that the complexities and ambiguities of real history are far more instructive than the good/bad dichotomies of simplified legends. The American revolutionaries were bad people in a lot of ways, but they still managed to achieve something impressive. Therefore we, who are also deeply flawed, can also aspire to do good things.