Special many series of six lectures lectures entitled great president ial lives. This series is particularly attractive for two main reasons. The first being its timeliness. As we face a president ial Election Year and prepare for it, it will be an insight that all of us can benefit from. The second is the speaker himself. Our esteemed un w. Professor of americas of history, william crawley, who has just completed 50 years on the faculty of the university of mary washington. During that half century, doctor crawley has contributed in innumerable and significant ways. Certainly not least of all, the creation of our renowned Historic Preservation program and the creation of this amazing great lives series. But it is for his excellence in teaching that he is perhaps best known, and certainly to literally thousands of our students who have come through our halls. He has received our institutions highest honors in teaching, both from his colleagues and from his students. Many of whom, through the years, have voted him as the faculty member who has made the greatest impact upon their lives. Doctor crawley through these years has become a true icon of this community. And so, it is with great pleasure, that i introduce Professor William b crawley who, drawing upon his 50 years of teaching political history, has truly learned and shared so much of his knowledge and will be sharing it again with us today as he looks at the life of one of six highly interesting and sometimes controversial president s. And like many modernday president s, none are so straightforward as the story may recall or the history may have told us. Doctor crawley, would you please share with us now . Folks, today i want a truly iconic, if one of the more increasingly controversial president s, Thomas Jefferson. Let me begin with something of a disclaimer. Whenever i have spoken on jefferson, i am reminded of a prominent historian i once heard who said that he never fully trusted anyones views on jefferson, who had attended the university of virginia. Well, i have to plead guilty on that score, having spent four years in graduate school at mr. Jeffersons academical village as he called it in charlottesville. Certainly, jefferson himself was quite proud of that institution, specifically directing with the words, father of the university, one of only three accomplishments that should constitute his epitaph. The other two being the author of the declaration of the declaration of independence in the virginia statute of religious freedom. Treating his memory with such reverence that president William Howard taft once said, after delivering a lecture that, quote, people still talk of mr. Jefferson as though he was in the next room and might overhear them. Well, i trust my association with uva does not render me incompetent to assess jeffersons career. For one thing, im personally not much given to hear a warship. And professionally, ive always believed that michael should not be to indoctrinate but to enlighten and thus not either to defy or demonize a subject. With that said, the truth is that Thomas Jefferson has long held a place, and it too many, the highest place within the pantheon of american political heroes. Among the nations founders, he possesses the widest range of talents and produced the most diverse accomplishments. He is generally been regarded as the most intellectual of them, recalling that oft quoted comment by president john f. Kennedy, who went offered a dinner toast to a group of Nobel Laureates assembled at the white house, said that they constituted, quote, the most extraordinary collection of talent and Human Knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the white house. With the possible exception of when jefferson dined. It was of course the eloquent voice that jefferson gave to american democracy which made him so revered, including most notably his proposition in the declaration of independence that, we consider these truths to be self evident, that all men are equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights including the pursuit of life, liberty unhappiness. The core of the american creed. Accordingly, one historian has claimed that, quote, no figure in our past has embodied so much of our heritage in so many of our hopes, and it is for that reason that some years ago, near the end of the 20th century, and of course the end of the millennium, that columnist george will went so far as to suggest that Thomas Jefferson was indeed the most significant person on the planet for the last 1000 years. Well, it sounds pretty driving it, but he makes a possible case. This is how he explains it. Im quoting, the argument for jefferson is that history is essentially the history of the human mind, of ideas. Jefferson was predominantly a mind of the revolution. It resulted in the birth of the first modern nation that had a 20th century save the world from that helped save the world from journey. He expressed it eloquent phrases, but also in the way he lived. A statesman, scientist, architect, educator. Regarding his own legacy, jefferson himself once employed his friend and president ial successor james mattis and to quote take care of anyone dead. He need not have worried because for the most part, certainly after the first five or six decades of the 20th century, historians share the popular view of jefferson with jefferson being virtually beyond reproach. And clearly, his extraordinary career would seem to have justified that reputation. So lets take a very quick look at jeffersons career, very briefly. He was born april 13th, 1743 near charlottesville. His father, peter jefferson, was a young farmer who became a successful planter. He joined the upper class by marrying jane rand off. Through his parents, Thomas Jefferson accrued wealth, status and a traditional public service. He was educated and studied law. He was imposing in appearance, standing over six feet tall, unusual for that day, and with red hair. , all before a public figure, he was shy and avoided public appearances whenever possible. He was elected to the state legislature, which was the house of purchases in 1769, by which time he owned more than 2500 acres of land and a substantial number of slaves. In 1772, he married a young widow through whom he doubled his property and increased his number of slaves. He was cast into a deep depression by the death of his wife in 1782. He never remarried. You became known as a supporter of independence from britain and the coauthor of the declaration of independence along with Benjamin Franklin and john adams. He served in congress during the Confederation Period in the mid 17 eighties and in 1785 he replaced the aging Benjamin Franklin as minister to france and spent five years in europe. That was significant because during that time, he became Close Friends with lafayette and wrote the notes on the state of virginia about which we will talk more later. He will he returned to america at the end of 1789 and was appointed secretary of state by george washington. In 1797, he became Vice President , having finished a close second behind his rival john adams in contest for the presidency. He was elected president in 1800. The greatest accomplishment of his administration was perhaps the acquisition of louisiana from france in 1803 1803. He was reelected to a second term in 1800 for, but that proved to be trouble particularly with developments in europe as napoleon rose to power. After leaving the presidency, he retired to want to cello and concern himself mainly with establishing the university of virginia, which was founded in 1819. And finally, by a strange quirk of fate, and i think this must be the most extraordinary coincidence, well certainly the most extraordinary coincidence that i could ever recall reading about, both jefferson and john adams died on july 4th, 1826 during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence. Youve probably heard this, allegedly adams last words were, jefferson lives. But he did not, he had died earlier that day. As this brief biological sketch indicates, these were great accomplishments, no doubt. But, as i alluded to earlier, they have been recently overshadowed by a very different interpretation, a negative interpretation that has risen among the latest generation of jefferson scholars. The reason for this decline in his reputation is not hard to find. That is these riders had focused major tension on that area of jeffersons life, by any standards is certainly the least attractive and most vulnerable, that is his views on slavery and race. Perhaps it was predictable that this would happen in in america that, in the wake of the civil rights movement, became much more keenly aware of racial injustice. And, when that happened, it damaged jeffersons hitherto unblemished to rock stature was notable. Largely ignoring his positive accomplishments, they strike at his achilles heel, which the metaphorically, was the heel of oppression that he grounded to the backs of his slaves. And so, weve reached the point of the debate where one of his most prime prominent biographers has declared that, quote, in the multiracial american future, jefferson will not be revered. His flaws are beyond redemption. The sound you hear, he says, is the crashing of a reputation. Well, how about it in such a position . Thats the basic question i want to address here in the remainder of my comments today. I want to do it in the following way. First, to examine briefly jeffersons theories on race and slavery. Second, to look at his actions both public and private regarding slavery. And finally, in light of recent criticism, to suggest a summary evaluation of jefferson and his proper place in history with particular regard to slavery and race. Lets look first than out jeffersons fault concerning slavery and look at what he actually had to say on those subjects. Its somewhat surprising to how little jefferson actually wrote on anything. Given his highly intellectual nature. Much of what we know of his thought comes mainly from his lettuce and, for the longest of his published works, the f or mentioned notes on the state of virginia which was published in france in 1785. Even the notes are far from a polished systematic statement of his years. In fact, it is clear that he did not actually intended to be published at all. You wrote in response to a request of a french official while he was in paris as the american minister. He did so with the intention of it being read by only a select group. Basically, french intellectuals, for whom he was trying to explain the government, the economy and the social structure of his native virginia. The book, however, was pirated and became public. So eventually, jefferson owned up to it, albeit without enthusiasm and evidently with some embarrassment. As one of his biography fired first put it, if jefferson had his way, the only bookie everett would not have been published and his opinions on slavery would not have become Public Knowledge during his time time. Lifetime. The point is jefferson did not write extensively on many subjects. But for the purposes of our top today, maybe unfortunately for his place in history, jefferson did leave a fairly large amount of information regarding his views on African Americans in general and on slavery in particular. So what did these writings reveal about his thinking . It might be well to begin with a wet one historian has called his central dilemma. That was that he, quote, hated slavery, but thought, im quoting, thought need grows inferior to whites, and quote. This was a very serious dichotomy interference thought. Its one that crossed him all great deal of intellectual suffering, just as it has caused modern scholars to puzzle over the to jefferson. His central dilemma, he hated slavery, but that blacks inferior to whites. This was a difficult intellectual position. On the one hand, it can certainly be said that there is no indication in any of his work that jefferson felt slavery to be right. And yet, at the same time, on the other hand, there is every reason to believe that jefferson did not indeed believe blacks to be equal to whites, notwithstanding his famous words about all men are created equal. What is the evidence in jeffersons writings to indicate that he did not approve of slavery . Several things may be noted. For one thing, its evident that he took no pride in owning slaves. In fact, he tended to regard them as a burden rather than a blessing. He seems to not even have liked the word slave itself and often used the word servants in lieu of slaves. And he acknowledge, on various occasions, that he felt that the slaves must have been, in his words, miserable and he referred to slavery as, quote, a hideous evil. And yet, even though its clear that jefferson does not believe the condition of the slave to be in any way desirable, it was not the primary reason why he doesnt like slavery. Instead, the main reason, which he expressed to opposing slavery, was the harmful effect that it had on white society. In other words, his main attack was not against the cruelty of the system to blacks, but against what he believed to be the injustice of the system to whites. How can i be . This is the way he explained it in his nose on virginia. This is a quote now. There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on our people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and the degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this and learn to imitate it. Four man is in imitative animal. With the morals of the people, their industry also is destroyed, for in our warm climate, no man labour for himself who can make another labor for him. And quote. In other words, slavery was bad training for democracy. Now, opponents of slavery had traditionally been concerned with the effect of institution upon the slaveowners. Jefferson was not the first nor the last to express such a view. But with jefferson, it seemed to be almost his only concern, as one of his biographers puts it, quote, jefferson went to his grave convinced that slavery was detrimental to the white community. Slaverys effect on blacks, he simply was not overly concerned. And so, jefferson was concerned with what we might call the corrosive internal effect on society. At the same time, however, as i noted earlier, its clear that jefferson believe the black race to beat inferior. From his notes on virginia, there can be little doubt from this point. It is precisely on this point that most scholars today and criticized him. In his notes, jefferson addresses him self to what he called quote, the real distinction nature is made, unquote, between the races. In doing so, he considers not only physical but the mental and even moral differences as well. As to the physical, its clear the jefferson was predisposed against blacks. Even there very color seem to offend him. He wrote at one point, for example, disparaging quote that eternal monotony which rains in the countless is that immovable veil of black which covers all of their emotions. As to the mental abilities of African Americans, he is quite clear, he unquestionably believe them to be inferior to whites. Comparing them by their faculties a memory, reason and imagination, it appears to me that in memory, they are equal to the whites, but in reason, much inferior. Nor did he believed they had any talent. Whenever he was confronted with claims of superior work by a black authors and poets such as the African American mathematician is donnamarie, the engine ban occur regiment panic or, or fullest weekly, jefferson remained highly skeptical to put it mildly. It might be assumed that he would have attributed some of these perceived shortcomings to lack of opportunity. That is to the environment in which African Americans were forced to live. But that was not apparent the case. Said he, quote, it is not their condition, but nature which has produced this distinction. Between the two races. And short, jeffersons fundamental attitude on the issue of race seems to be summed up in the frequently quoted passage and his notes on virginia in which he said, quote, i advance it as a suspicion only that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race or made buy time and circumstance, are inferior to the whites in body and mind. As i noted earlier, jefferson also addressed himself, took not only to the physical and mental attributes, but also to what he called moral sense. The moral sense of the African Americans. Interestingly in this respect, he argued that blacks were equal to whites. Moreover, he argued that if there were any shortcomings on the part of blacks in this regard, such a deficiency should be attributed to environment. He put it this way. He gave an example. He said, if a slave stole chickens from the barnyard, such an act must be ascribed to their situation. If such theory occurred, he claimed it was fully understandable. Quote, the man, he said, in whose favor no laws of property exist, probably feels himself less bound to respect those laws made in favor of others, and quote. Therefore he asked rhetorically, might not the slave, quote, justifiably take a little from one who has taken everything from him. So much for jefferson theories. What were his actions regarding slavery . Lets look first at his public actions, then we will get to his private behavior. Such as we know it. At the risk of oversimplification it might be said the jeffersons public when that of outspoken opposition to that of quite opposition to that of despair, acquiescence, resignation, near the end of his life. Earlier in his career, for example, there were indications that he certainly had qualms about slavery, in particular the slave trade. As early as 1774, he blamed the british government, george the third in particular, for refusing to accept a virginia colonial law designed to prohibit the slave trade. Two years later, in 1776, we drafted a virginia constitution which stated flatly, quote, no person hereafter coming to virginia will be held in slavery under any pretext whatsoever. Unfortunately, that draft of the state constitution was not adopted. In regard to outright abolition, jefferson is much more cautious. He moved to whats potentially would be the most important anti slavery action of his career. It was in that year that he sponsored a bill before the Virginia Legislature