The steep payments he owed British bankers forced Jefferson to retain him enormous workforce of slaves despite his professed hatred for the institution. "The torment of mind I endure till the moment shall arrive when I shall owe not a shilling on earth is such really as to render life of little value," he told his American manager in 1787. But he would not sell land to pay his debts; "nor would I willingly sell the slaves as long as there remains any prospect of paying my deb

I believe it is impossible for a man, though he has all the cunning of a devil, to live and die a villain, and yet conceal it so well as to carry the name of an honest fellow to the grave with him, but some one, by some accident or other, shall discover him. Truth and sincerity have a certain distinguishing native luster about them, which cannot be perfectly counterfeited; they are like fire and flame, that cannot be painted.

But if you censure other men while you are hiding a little sweet-cake under your arm, I’ll say to you: Wouldn’t you rather go off into a corner and eat up what you have stolen? What have you to do with other people’s business?