“Council member Adrienne Adams said she "immediately noticed the statue of Thomas Jefferson" after she was elected, saying it is one of the "most prominent" statues in the chamber.
"He ... compared the very idea of freeing slaves from captivity to abandoning children," she said, noting that Jefferson fathered children with a teenage enslaved woman, Sally Hemmings.
Testifying in favor of the removal, council member Inez Barron said slaveholders acted as a sort of "pimp" so plantations could be expanded and profits could "be increased."
She also said Jefferson enacted some of the first removal measures against Native Americans, contributing to the "ethnic cleansing and genocidal replacement" of Indigenous people.
"We are not being revisionist. We are not waging a war on history. We are saying that we want to make sure that the total story is told, that there are no half-truths and that we are not perpetuating lies," Barron said.”
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/thomas-jefferson-statue-be-removed-new-york-city-hall-n1281768
It is confusing, but the whole truth and nothing but the truth always is. Just like realizing that there is no Santa Claus. We need to take in the full measure of the history not cherry pick what each group thinks should be ignored or promoted. It is a difficult task, but first the full story must be told, and everything weighed following that.
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