Slavery and Enlightenment. A letter from Jefferson to Grégoire on the natural abilities of blacks deals with the thought of Thomas Jefferson about slavery and race, with special reference to his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785). The reconstruction of the intellectual relations between the federal president and Henri Grégoire, a French revolutionary priest and famous abolitionist, casts a new light on the internal contradictions of Jefferson’s ambiguous position on American slavery.
Keywords: Schiavitù, razzismo, Thomas Jefferson, Henri Grégoire, abolizionismo