If Thomas Jefferson supported abolition, then why did he own slaves?
At that time, many people began to see that it was wrong to own another human, but didn’t know how to stay above water without help. The more humane slave owners either freed their slaves or made deals with them. Some slaved refused to leave ( because they had nowhere to go) so the owners instead gave them small shares of land or profit from the crops to “pay” them for their help. In some cases this worked for everyone, the newly freed people could stay in their homes and actually see a profit, and the plantation owner was able to keep up. I don’t know if Jefferson was one of these, but that might be why.
