of the highest order. Let's not make excuses for slavery or try to soften its ugliness. A slave woman has no choice. If it was a matter of choice, we would see black men and white women getting together, and we know that didn't happen since looking at a white woman could get a black man killed.

I love this country. It is the best in the world. It fought a war to end slavery. Let's not talk nonsense about fluid race lines and slave women and their owners becoming lovers, as if a slave woman could be courted and say no and her owner would bring her flowers and get down on one knee and propose and ask her father's permission. Puh - lease!

If you can't say no, it's rape. If they can take your baby and sell it, it's an abomination. Just because Sally Hemmings was able to work something that looks like a deal, doesn't mean that she was an equal partner.

And let's not forget, the family was "liquidated" to pay the debts of Jefferson's estate...

Yup, that just reeks of touching, beautiful love. Sounds like Sally Hemmings did the best she could with the hand fate dealt her. Maybe she even loved Jefferson. I'm sure that love was great comfort to the family as they were dragged away from each other at the auction block.

PS -- I question whether you're really speaking "as a conservative." Seems more like you're talking from the perspective of a human being. Nice comments.

conservatives think slavery is wrong, whether you libs accept that or not.

slavery is going on as we speak in africa. Do you think that is wrong or do you excuse it because the enslavers are not white/western? speaking of which, I have heard libs argue that is not so bad. something nice for the slaves to think about as they are killed and raped, the masters are the same color as us.

Who are these liberals that you're ranting about?

Are these the same liberals who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement? The same ones who fought against conservative senators like Strom Thurmond, who set the record for the longest filibuster ever to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1957? (By the way, as Slate has pointed out, Thurmond never renounced his old racist, segregationist views.)

OK, you may say that not all conservatives can be painted with the same color. Well, likewise with liberals.

"As a conservaive I say this is BS"

And as a conservative, you've naturally done all the research to know.

In what universe are liberals pro-slavery? Are you getting your information from those intellectually gifted pundits like Limbaugh and Hannity again?

I'm with John Stuart Mill (look him up) on this one, when he said:

Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.