Having in mind when he wrote the Declaration of Independence the rights of the blacks as well as those of whites, this disciple of John Locke, could not but feel that the slaves of his day had a natural right to education and freedom.

Jefferson said so much more on these important questions than his contemporaries that he would have been considered an abolitionist, had he lived in 1840.
Giving his views on the enlightenment of the Negroes he asserted that the minds of the masters should be "apprized by reflection and strengthened by the energies of conscience against the obstacles of self-interest to an acquiescence in the rights of others." The owners would then permit their slaves to be "prepared by instruction and habit" for self-government, the honest pursuit of industry, and social duty.[1] In his scheme for a modern system of public schools Jefferson included the training of the slaves in industrial and agricultural branches to equip them for a higher station in life, else he thought they should be removed from the country when liberated.[2] Capable of mental development, as he had found certain men of color to be, the Sage of Monticello doubted at times that they could be made the intellectual equals of white men,[3] and did not actually advocate their incorporation into the body politic.
[Footnote 1: Washington, _Works of Jefferson_, vol.vi., p.

456.] [Footnote 2: _Ibid_., vol.viii., p.

380; and Mayo, _Educational Movement in the South_, p.

37.] [Footnote 3: As to what Jefferson thought of the Negro intellect we are still in doubt.