Hillary Clinton is scheduled to speak at the Virginia Democratic party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Friday in northern Virgnia. The event is from 2-6 p.m. in Fairfax.
As an announcement on Clinton’s website reads:
Just as the name suggests, the dinner is named for Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Both former presidents of the United States. And both former slave owners.
Regarding Jefferson, CBS has explained that “The author of the Declaration of Independence, who wrote that all men are created equal, owned 600 slaves over his lifetime, and in addition to his legitimate children almost certainly fathered at least six children borne by his slave, Sally Hemings.”
Jackson, known affectionately as the people’s president, owned about a quarter of the number of slaves as Jefferson. As thehermitage.com reports, “In all reality, slavery was the source of Andrew Jackson’s wealth.
When Andrew Jackson bought The Hermitage in 1804, he owned nine enslaved African Americans. Just 25 years later that number had swelled to over 100 through purchase and reproduction. At the time of his death in 1845, Jackson owned approximately 150 people who lived and worked on the property.
While Democrats traditionally speak at Jefferson-Jackson dinners, Republicans speak at a dinner named after the president who freed the slaves, Abraham Lincoln.
