Fox News guest decries 'wokeism' at Monticello over inclusion of Thomas Jefferson's enslavement history

11 July 2022

For the second time in as many days, right-wing voices are complaining that tours at President Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate are too focused on his enslavement of human beings rather than his academic and secular accomplishments.

The first instance occurred on Sunday when Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy said that she was made to feel "ashamed" and "guilty" by the 'diabolical' information she received when she visited the historic mansion and museum.

"There are slaves across human history," the Fox News host continued. "I get that. It's a terrible history we should talk about but we should not feel guilty or ashamed of our leaders when we go and visit the people who brought us the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence. You leave feeling that way."

Then, on Monday, libertarian writer Jeffrey Tucker expressed his outrage over Monticello's inclusion of the darker aspects of Jefferson's complex and paradoxical legacy.

Jefferson "still inspires everybody today" with his "all men are created equal" wording in the Declaration of Independence "and all this kinda stuff," Tucker said on Fox News, noting that Jefferson was "a great architect, scholar, you know, Thomas Jefferson!"

Tucker griped that "instead, I got exactly the opposite, you know, just debunking his history, his reputation, putting him down, demoralizing everybody on my tour. It was just sad. Sadly predictable, too, these days. I just thought that maybe Monticello would be protected from this disease of wokeism."

Watch here via Ron Filipkowski.

From Your Site Articles