Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was an American founding father who made significant contributions to education. He wrote the Bill for More General Diffusion of Knowledge in 1779 to establish public schools in Virginia and promote universal education, though it did not pass. As president, he advocated for federal support of education. Jefferson also helped establish the Library of Congress after the original collection was destroyed, and founded the University of Virginia, where he was heavily involved in its design, curriculum, and administration. Jefferson's educational pursuits reflected his belief that an educated citizenry was essential to democracy.

1. Jefferson: The Educator
NEH Presentation Series at LSC-CyFair
April 17, 2012
Robert O’Brien
Professor of History

3. Jefferson (1743-1826) Overview
1743 – born in Albemarle County, at Shadwell, a
plantation in Virginia.
HMdb.org

4. Jefferson Overview (1748-1762)
• His Education
– 1748-1752, private tutors
– 1752-1757, boarding school
– 1760-1762, attended William & Mary
WM.edu

5. Jefferson Overview (1762-1776)
• 1762-67 – studied law under George Wythe.
• 1769-76 – member of House of Burgesses for
Albemarle County.
• 1772 – married Martha Wayles Skelton.

6. Jefferson Overview (1774-1779)
• 1774 – wrote A Summary View of the Rights
of British America.
• 1775 – elected as a delegate to second
Continental Congress.
• 1776 – wrote Declaration of Independence.
• 1776-79 – served in the Virginia House of
Delegates. Wrote important bills on public
education and religious freedom.
• 1779 – elected governor of Virginia and
served for two years.
LOC.gov

7. Jefferson Overview (1781-1789)
• 1781-1787 – wrote Notes on the State of
Virginia.
• 1782 – Martha Jefferson died.
• 1783-1784 – Virginia delegate to the Congress
under the Articles of Confederation.
• 1784-1789 – lived in Europe, serving as
minister to France.

8. Jefferson Overview (1789-1808)
• 1789 – French Revolution started. Jefferson returned
to U.S.
• 1790-1793 – served as Washington's Secretary of
State and rivalry with Alexander Hamilton started.
• 1796 – ran for president, but finished second so
became vice president to John Adams.
• 1800-1801 – Election of 1800 resulted in a tie
between Jefferson and Burr; House picked Jefferson.
• 1803 – Louisiana Purchase made.
• 1804-1806 – Lewis and Clark explored West.
• 1804 – reelected president.

9. Jefferson Overview (1809-1826)
• 1809 – Jefferson retired from political life.
• 1812 – Correspondence with John Adams
resumed.
• 1812-1814 – War of 1812 fought against
Great Britain.
• 1817-1825 – Jefferson created University of
Virginia.
• 1826 – Jefferson died on July 4.

10. Jefferson’s Legacy

11. Jefferson as the Educator
• Public Education
• Library of Congress
• University of Virginia

12. Jefferson and Public Education
• Who is influencing Jefferson and other founders?
• What was the mindset of upper class colonists?
• Increasing the stakeholders
• "Consent of the governed”
• Role of citizen and education
• How do you create schools?

13. Jefferson and Public Education
• Wrote Bill for More General Diffusion of
Knowledge in 1779:
At every of those schools shall be taught reading, writing, and
common arithmetick, and the books which shall be used therein
for instructing the children to read shall be such as will at the
same time make them acquainted with Græcian, Roman, English,
and American history. At these schools all the free children, male
and female, resident within the respective hundred, shall be
intitled to receive tuition gratis, for the term of three years, and
as much longer, at their private expence, as their parents,
guardians, or friends shall think proper.

14. Jefferson and Public Education
• Bill did not pass
• Reasons for opposition
• Scholarly analysis of bill

15. Jefferson and Public Education
• State of the Union in 1806:
Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of the
public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may be
thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of Federal powers. By these operations
new channels of communications will be opened between the States, the lines of separation will
disappear, their interests will be identified, and their union cemented by new and indissoluble ties.
Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take
its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the
concerns to which it is equal, but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which though
rarely called for are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the
improvement of the country and some of them to its preservation.
The subject is now proposed for the consideration of Congress, because if approved by the time the
State legislatures shall have deliberated on this extension of the Federal trusts, and the laws shall
be passed and other arrangements made for their execution, the necessary funds will be on hand
and without employment.
I suppose an amendment to the Constitution, by consent of the States, necessary, because the
objects now recommended are not among those enumerated in the Constitution, and to which it
permits the public moneys to be applied.

16. Jefferson and Public Education
• His children and grandchildren
• Letter to grandchildren:
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 37

17. Jefferson and Public Education
• Slaves
• Hemings family
• Native Americans
nyhistory.org

18. Jefferson and Library of Congress
• Jefferson and books
– Book shopping
– His libraries
• 1800 – LOC created
• 1802-1809 – Jefferson’s role with LOC
• Creating a national library
– Lists of books to order:

19. Jefferson and Library of Congress

24. Jefferson and Library of Congress
• 1814 – Capitol building burned by British
during War of 1812 with most of LOC books
destroyed in fire.
• 1815 – Jefferson to the rescue
• Congressional opposition
– Called “one of the most mean-spirited party
battles in Congressional annals.”

25. Jefferson and Library of Congress
• Reasons for opposition:
– Politics
– Financial
– Subject matter
– Foreign books
– Science books
– Locke and Voltaire

26. Jefferson and Library of Congress
• Jefferson’s response:
“I do not know that it contains any branch of science which
Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is,
in fact, no subject to which a member of Congress may not
have occasion to refer.”
• Final sale of 6,487 books for $23,950
• An empty Monticello meant …

27. Jefferson and Library of Congress
“I cannot live without books.”

35. Jefferson and UVa
• University of Virginia chartered in 1819
– Man with a vision or an agenda?
– No religious affiliation
• Jefferson’s role
– Administrator
– Curriculum Designer
– Architect

36. Jefferson and UVa
• Jefferson’s difficulties as administrator:
– Opposition
– Location
– Money
– Workers
• “I perceive that I am not to live to see it
opened.”

37. Jefferson and UVa
• Jefferson’s reasons for building new college:
– William & Mary
– Religion
– Need to "expound the principles and structure of
government, … and a sound spirit of legislation."
– Create Curriculum

38. Jefferson and UVa
• Architectural Influence:
– Andrea Palladio
– Freart de Chambray
– More Roman than Greek
– Benjamin Latrobe
• Rotunda
• Ten Pavilions
• Lawn
• Gardens

39. Jefferson and UVa

49. Jefferson and UVa
Links
Academical Village: Map
Academical Village: Video (empty)
Academical Village: Video (crowd)

55. Jefferson and UVa– Pavilion VII
UVA.edu

56. Jefferson and UVa– Pavilion VIII
UVA.edu

61. Jefferson and UVa
• “Is there a
dialogue between
the ‘ancients’ and
the ‘moderns’
going on back
and forth across
the Lawn? I don’t
know, but it’s a -Richard Guy Wilson
question we are
looking into.”

62. Jefferson and UVa
• “There is a definite hierarchy going on. That’s why he
put the rotunda, the library, at the top. It’s the mind of
the university.” - Wilson
• “Jefferson set out very consciously to create a design
that had a sense of grandeur, scale and hierarchy of
knowledge. But it was also meant to encourage
students and teachers to measure themselves with the
best of the past.” - Bruce Ambler Boucher, UVa Art
Museum director and architectural historian

63. Conclusion

64. Further Reading
• Gordon-Reed, Annette . The Hemingses of
Monticello
• Hayes, Kevin. The Road to Monticello: The Life
and Mind of Thomas Jefferson.
• Onuf, Peter. The Mind of Thomas Jefferson.
• Shuffleton, Frank (editor). The Cambridge
Companion to Thomas Jefferson.
• Wagoner, Jennings L. Jefferson and Education.
• Wills, Garry. Mr. Jefferson’s University.

65. Questions?