1. Who Was Thomas Jefferson?
A Virginian who went to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg
(next door to Jamestown), the 18th century center of Virginia’s political
world.
He was tutored by William Small at the otherwise raucous institution (about 100
students). Small briefly taught at the school, and then returned to England. His circle of
English Enlightenment friends included James Watt, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley and
Josiah Wedgwood (Randall 38). Under him, Jefferson read the most influential
Enlightenment thinkers (ibid. 40).
In his youth, befriended Patrick Henry.
His famous home was Monticello near Charlottesville, VA. He owned other
property as well.
He was incredibly inquisitive and inventive. He owned a large library that
became the foundation of the Library of Congress. He once said, “I cannot
live without books” (“Jefferson’s Library”).
A prolific letter-writer, he wrote about 28,000 (Randall 24). The Library of
Congress’ collection of Jefferson’s writings numbers c. 27,000 pieces:
http://goo.gl/jY3qz
He founded the University of Virginia, and designed its famous rotunda.
He was a statesman, not a soldier. He was also a Governor of Virginia.
2. Jefferson, Books and the Library of Congress
“By 1814 when the British burned the nation's Capitol
and the Library of Congress, Jefferson had acquired the
largest personal collection of books in the United States.
Jefferson offered to sell his library to Congress as a
replacement for the collection destroyed by the British
during the War of 1812. Congress purchased Jefferson's
library for $23,950 in 1815. A second fire on Christmas
Eve of 1851, destroyed nearly two thirds of the 6,487
volumes Congress had purchased from Jefferson”
(“Jefferson’s Library”).
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefflib.html
3. Jefferson and the gentry lifestyle
“As a gentleman, he was supposed to eschew working for a
living: he had read Daniel Defoe’s definition of ‘the gentry,’ the
class to which he belonged, as ‘such who live on estates and
without the mechanism of employment, including the men of
letters, such as clergy, lawyers, and physicians.’ In modern
terms, Jefferson was supposed to live on the unearned income
of his estates; managing his lands was a permissible way of
exercising his authority. And like the ancient Roman landed
aristocrats whom he was educated to emulate, he was
expected to be active in all sorts of what historian Gordon S.
Wood categorizes as ‘commercial and entrepreneurial
activities – breeding their cattle, upgrading their soil, . . .”
(Randall 46).
4. Jefferson and slavery
He authored the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Yet, he owned about 600 slaves over the course of his life, and
owned 200 slaves at any one time, on average (American History
TV video, below).
He is singled out as one of the most prominent cases of liberty-espousing
contradiction (or hypocrisy).
It is now nearly certain (using DNA and itinerary records) that he fathered a
number of children by Sally Hemings, a slave woman he owned and to
whom he was close. This took place after Jefferson’s wife had passed away.
The following links have important recent material on Jefferson, Hemings,
and slavery:
American History TV video: Chttp://goo.gl/rrxOr
“Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account”: http://goo.gl/soore
Sally Hemings bio: http://goo.gl/2Lwh2
5. “‘Now, with impeccable timing,’ the historian Joseph Ellis and
the geneticist Eric Lander write in a joint commentary on the
new report, ‘Jefferson reappears to remind us of a truth that
should be self-evident. Our heroes -- and especially presidents
-- are not gods or saints, but flesh-and-blood humans’” (ibid.).
Smith, Dinitia, and Nicholas Wade. “DNA Test Finds Evidence of Jefferson Child by
Slave.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 1 Nov. 1998. Web. 22
Sept. 2012.
6. One historian’s opinion
“The key explanation *for why so many were unable to
give up slavery] is that they had no concept of sin and no
scriptural belief in humans’ spiritual equality before the
Creator God. . . . ‘It was that sense of the very reality of
sin that is lacking in Jefferson’s religion’” (Keillor 94-5,
emphasis added).
However, “equality before the Creator God” is what is
expressed in the Declaration of Independence. One
wonders if the general population was encouraged to
support the fight for independence based on such
rhetoric, all the while others had their fingers crossed
behind their backs. The issue of slavery, especially, often
leaves me cynical. – BP
7. One of America’s notable historians on Jefferson
"Jefferson was a complex person who must be measured in whole,
not in part, in action as well as thought. There were deep
ambiguities in his thinking, which made any effort at consistency
impossible. Although Federalist historians have cited these
ambiguities as evidence of a moral taint, a constitutional shiftiness of
mind, they may in fact be traced to a continuously ambivalent
personal and political history. . . . [F]rom the beginning he was aware
of both the assurance of the aristocracy and the real merits and
talents of men who came from unknown families" (Hofstadter 32).
8. Works Cited
Hofstadter, Richard. The American Political Tradition and the Men Who
Made It. 1948. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.
“Jefferson’s Library.” Thomas Jefferson. Library of Congress, 8 Aug. 2010.
Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
Keillor, Steven J. This Rebellious House: American History & the Truth of
Christianity. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1996. Print.
Randall, Willard Sterne. Thomas Jefferson: A Life. New York: Henry Holt
and Company, 1993. Print.
Smith, Dinitia, and Nicholas Wade. “DNA Test Finds Evidence of Jefferson
Child by Slave.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company,
1 Nov. 1998. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
Stanton, Lucia, and Dianne Swann-Wright. “Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s
Monticello.” American History TV. National Cable Satellite
Corporation, 2012. Web. 22 Sept. 2012. <http://www.c-
span.org/History/Events/Slavery-at-Thomas-Jeffersons-
Monticello/10737432187/>.