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:
Hillary Clinton is coming to speak at the Democratic Party of Virginia's Jefferson-Jackson Event! We are taking this opportunity to talk to the hundreds of people who will attend and sign them up as Hillary supporters. Many volunteers will be needed, primarily before the event; you can volunteer AND see Hillary!
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.
The Hermitage was a 1,000 acre, self-sustaining plantation that relied completely on the labor of enslaved African American men, women, and children. They performed the hard labor that produced The Hermitage’s cash crop, cotton. The more land Andrew Jackson accrued, the more slaves he procured to work it. Thus, the Jackson family’s survival was made possible by the profit garnered from the crops worked by the enslaved on a daily basis.
