hment (of slavery) in Virginia which became
permanent, was made in 1607. I have found no mention of negroes
in the Colony until about 1650. The first brought here as slaves
were by a Dutch ship; after which the English commenced the
trade, and continued it until the Revolutionary war. That
suspended, _ipso facto_, their further importation for the
present, and the business of the war pressing constantly on the
legislature, this subject was not acted on finally until the year
'78, when I brought in a bill to prevent their further
importation. This passed without opposition, and stopped the
increase of the evil by importation, leaving to future efforts
its final eradication.--Autobiography.[132]

Our only blot is becoming less offensive by the great improvement
in the condition and civilization of that race, who can now more
advantageously compare their situation with that of the laborers
of Europe. Still it is a hideous blot, as well from the
heteromorph peculiarities of the race, as that, with them,
physical compulsion to action must be substituted for the moral
necessity which constrains the free laborers to work equally
hard. We feel and deplore it morally and politically, and we look
without entire despair to some redeeming means not yet
specifically foreseen. I am happy in believing that the
conviction of the necessity of removing this evil gains ground
with time. Their emigration to the westward lightens the
difficulty by dividing it, and renders it more practicable on the
whole. And the neighborhood of a government of their color
promises a more accessible asylum than that from whence they
came.[133]

Showing the difficulty of purchase in case of the adoption of the
policy, Jefferson wrote Jared Sparks in 1824:

Actual property has been lawfully vested in that form (negroes)
and who can lawfully take it from the possessors?[134]

Who would estimate its blessed effects? I leave this to those who
will live to see their accomplishment, and to enjoy a beatitude
forbidden to my age. But I leave it with this admonition,--to
rise and be doing. A million and a half are within our control;
but six millions (which a majority of those now living will see
them attain), and one million of these fighting men, will say,
"we will not go."[135]