Reprinted From "SEARCHERS" (No. 13 - Summer 1995) - A Newsletter for Members and Subscribers of the Polish Genealogical Society of New York
Widely published copies of the "will" of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko made in the form of a letter in 1798 to his friend, and then Vice President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. That "will", we recently learned, was an edited version of Kosciuszko's letter rewritten by Jefferson before he released it to correct the General's poor English. While the original letter is replete with misspellings and bad grammar, it is far more interesting and gives one a much better insight into the character of the man and his deep feeling about slavery. The unedited version was published in the February 1995 edition of the Polish American Journal in an article by Alice Zagan, as follows:
"I beg Mr. Jefferson that in case I should die without will or testament he should bye out of my money so many Negroes and free them, that the restant sum should be sufficient to give them education and provide for their maintenence. That is to say each should know before, the duty of a cytyzen in the free Government, that he must defend his Country against foreign as well internal Enemis who would wish to change the Constitution for the vorst to inslave them by degree afterwards, to have good and human heart sensible for the sufferings of others, each must be married and have 100 ackres of land, wyth instruments, Cattle for tillage and know how sto manage and gouvern it as well to know how to behave to neybourghs, always with kindness and ready to help them - to them selves frugal, to their children give good education I mean as to the heart and the duty to the Country, in gratitude to me to make themselves happy as possible."Note that Kosciuszko not only asks for "Negroes" to be released but also calls for their education and providing them with the means to become productive members of society.
(Although Kosciuszko's Will directed that the 500 acres of land in Ohio granted him by the U.S. Congress in 1797 be sold and the money used to free slaves, the money was actually used to found the Colored School of Newark, N.J., one of the earliest schools for African Americans in the United States.)