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If there was one sentence that Jefferson wrote that would come back to haunt him it would have to be "All Men Are Created Equal". The debate over this sentence has gone on since the sentence was constructed. Some say he was nothing more than a hypocrite, others feel he was confined to time in which he lived.  He was a man of the enlightenment, yet he owned slaves. How did he reconcile that with his enlightened beliefs? I think the easy answer is to label him as a hypocrite.  Jefferson was a complex individual, therefore I believe he understood the times he lived in.  He wrote of the horrors and abolition of slavery in The Declaration of Independence, however Mr. Franklin removed it for obvious reasons. 

I've struggled with this myself when thinking of Thomas Jefferson's legacy.  I think Jefferson struggled with slavery and probably lost much sleep over it.  The times they lived in obviously put great pressure on our founding fathers and their hopes and dreams for the country, and this affected what he wrote in the document.  Technically, he would have to be considered a hypocrite, in my opinion, but I really tend to view him as a man who was, as you said, "confined to the time in which he lived."