I really have to disagree with this statement when you consider someone like Jefferson who spoke and read multiple languages, had an in-depth understanding of history, and was very talented in a variety of areas. I think it puts a lot of us to shame when you consider all of the knowledge he possessed. Not many of the founders were this qualified though, but still received a much better education than our public school system offers us today.
This is pretty much romantic bullshit. Being multilingual isn't unusual in most of the developed world, the US is the exception in that regard. People aren't taught history because its dangerous but its not hard to get a good education in history if you seek it out through public institutions. Education was not nearly what it was then what it is now, the science and art of education has developed immensely in the past few centuries. What is especially relevant is that education is now based in a broader culture and is not a realm dominated by cloistered elites like Jefferson who have little relation to the lives of most people, by that metric alone even the worst aspects of public education in the US are a huge advancement over those times. Saying otherwise is crazy reactionary talk.
Jefferson contradicted himself quite a bit. Being about 30 years older than Hemings, one can only assume he took advantage of her. The man owned slaves and yet he worked to abolish the slave trade. Very conflicted indeed and yet there's plenty there to learn from him, good or bad.
He did not do anything significant to abolish slavery and was quite supportive of the institution overall, particularly later in life he was very adamant that it was a just and necessary institution. I think this is a whitewash.
I'm not sure where you get your information from. Jefferson criticized Britain for sponsoring the slave trade in the colonies during the revolution. He even lead Virginia to prohibit the importation of slaves in 1778. In 1784, he proposed federal legislation to prohibit the slave trade in new territories of the US (which was voted down). On March 2, 1807 during Jefferson's presidency, he supported and signed an act to prohibit the importation of slaves to the US. These were all steps toward abolishing slavery in the US.
Before he signed the act in 1807, he said this in his annual message to congress:
"I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country, have long been eager to proscribe."
