Rob Shimshock, DCNF

A William & Mary student posted two pictures of a Thomas Jefferson statue stained with fake blood and a message reading: “Overseen: TJ caught with the blood of all the people he owned on his hands.”

The hands of the statue appear to be covered with some kind of red paint. Student Brendan Thomas, who’s also an historical interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg according to his Facebook page, posted this photo and one other to Facebook on Saturday, one day after William & Mary’s Charter Day, which celebrated the 324th birthday of the school.

The red paint below the statue seems to scrawl out “slave owner,” presumably labeling the Founding Father and William & Mary graduate as such.

Some comments on the photo, which was posted in a William & Mary student group page on Facebook, were of an anti-Jefferson nature.

“I love how the response to the graffiti illustrates the need for the graffiti,” one student remarked.

However, other comments condemned the action.

“What does this accomplish?” asked one user. “I know this likely isn’t the case with many other places, but at least in this community of intelligent, well-read people, I would imagine that most people here are aware that Jefferson did indeed own slaves. Owning slaves is shitty and inexcusable, full stop. But I’m confused about what this accomplishes.”

“Absolutely nothing except forcing the College’s underpaid maintenance staff to take time out of their day to clean up petty vandalism,” reads one reply, which was also the most-“liked” comment on the thread, apart from the original post.

Interestingly, while some users responded to the post with the “love” reaction, none responded with the “sad” or “angry” reactions.

University officials did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment at time of publication.

Follow Rob Shimshock on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

• Author
• Recent Posts

BPR Wire

Latest posts by BPR Wire (see all)

• The Florida candidate laser-focused on eradicating horrific animal crimes - March 22, 2024
• Sabo: ‘Rush was our GOAT, there was no equal and he made it look easy’ - February 18, 2024
• Dana Bash appears to want to crawl out of her own skin when Ramaswamy ‘goes there’ on J6 - December 7, 2023

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.