It is from there great lives lecture series. Announce apleased to special miniseries of six lectures every 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 esteemed professor of history, who has just completed 50 years on the faculty of the university of mary washington. Hasng that halfcentury, he contributed in numerous and significant ways, 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 to thousands of our students that 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. Dr. Crawley has become a true icon of this community. So it is with great pleasure that i introduce Professor William 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. Moderndayny president s, none is so straightforward as the story may recall or the history may have told us. Dr. Crawley, would you please share with us now . Crawley focusing on one of the truly iconic, if not controversial president s. Thomas jefferson. Let me begin with a disclaimer, whenever i have spoken on jefferson, im 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. I have to plead guilty on that score, having spent four years in graduate school at mr. Jeffersons academic village. Certainly jefferson himself was quite proud of that institution. Specifically directing the words beher of the university of only three a, schmitz be one of only three accomplishments that should constitute his epitaph. The other being the father of the declaration of independence and religious freedoms. The university has historically been very proud of its founder. Treating his memory with such reverence that president howard taft once said after delivering a lecture there that people still talk about mr. Jefferson as though he was in the next room and he might overhear them. I trust that my association does not render me incompetent to assess his career. Im not much given to hero worship and professionally, ive always believed that michael should not be to indoctrinate but to enlighten, and not to deify or demonize the subjects. With that said, the truth is that Thomas Jefferson long held a place, and to many, the highest place within the pantheon of our political heroes. Among the nations founders, he possessed the widest range of talents and produced the most diverse accomplishments. He has generally been regarded as the most intellectual of them, recalling that often quoted comment from president kennedy, when offering a toast to a group of Nobel Laureates at the white house, said he said they constituted 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 alone. It was of course the eloquent voice that jefferson gave to democracy modern democracy, including most notice notably his declaration that we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are endowed by their creator and among these of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The very core of the american creed. Accordingly, one historian has figure in ourno past has embodied so much of our heritage and our hopes, and it is for that reason near the end of the 20th century and the end of the millennium that a columnist went so far as to suggest that Thomas Jefferson was indeed the most significant person on the planet for the last 1000 years. That sounds pretty extravagant. But we will make but but he makes a plausible case. The argument for jefferson is that history is essentially the history of the human mind of ideas. Jefferson was predominantly the mind of the revolution. It resulted in the birth of the first modern nation and the 20th century saved the world from tyranny. Jefferson expressed the american ideals. With his powers, he expressed elegant phrases, but also the way he lived, as a statesman , scientist, architect and educator. Regarding his own legacy, employed himself once his friend and president ial successor James Madison to take care of me when i am dead. He did not have to worry because for the most part, after the six decades of the 20th century, the historian shared that jefferson was beyond reproach. His extraordinary career would seem to have justified that reputation. Lets take a quick look at jeffersons career. Very briefly. He was born april 13, 1743 near charlottesville. His father was a yeoman farmer who became a successful planter. He joined the upper class by marrying jane randolph. He was educated at william and mary and studied under a noted attorney and became a successful and wellknown lawyer in virginia. He was imposing an appearance, standing over six foot tall, rare for that day, and with red hair. For a public figure he was shy, and avoided public appearances whenever possible. He was elected to state legislature 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 deep depression by the death of his wife in 1782. He never remarried. He became known as a supporter of independence from britain and coauthor of the declaration of independence along with regimen franklin and john adams. He served in congress in the federation period in 1780s, and in 1785, he replaced the aging Benjamin Ficklin 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. He returned to america in 1789, and was appointed to secretary of state by George Washington. He became Vice President , having finished close behind his rival john adams in the 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. He was easily elected to a second term but that term proved to be troubled, particularly development in europe as napoleon rose to power. After leaving the presidency, he andred to monticello concerned himself mainly with establishing the university of virginia, which was founded in 1819. Finally, by strange quirk of fate, and i think this must be the most extraordinary coincidence, well certainly the most extraordinary coincidence i about,r recall reading both jefferson and john adams died on july 4, 1826, during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence. You have probably heard of this, allegedly adamss last words were jefferson lives. But he did not. He had died earlier that day. Well, as this very brief biological sketch indicates, these were great compliments, no doubt. Great accomplishments, no doubt. But, as i alluded to earlier , they have been recently overshadowed by a different and negative interpretation that has risen in the latest generation of jefferson scholars. The reason for this decline in his reputation is not hard to find. That is, these writers have focused on that era in jeffersons life, and certainly the least attractive, and most vulnerable, and that is his views on slavery and race. Perhaps it was predictable because what happened in an america in the wake of the civil rights movement, that we became much more keenly aware of racial injustice. When that happened, it damage to jeffersons unblemished stature was inevitable. Largely ignoring his extorting her positive accomplishments they have struck at his achilles heel, which to them which was the heel of oppression that he ground into the backs of his slaves. So weve reached the point of the debate where one of his most prominent biographers have declared jefferson will not be revered and his laws his flaws are beyond redemption. Well, how about this . Thats the basic question i want to address during the remainder of my comments today. And 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 about public and private regarding slavery. And finally, in light of recent criticism, to suggest a summary hisuation of jefferson and proper place in history with particular regard to slavery in and race. Lets look first then at jeffersons thoughts concerning race and slavery and look at what he actually had to say on those subjects. Its somewhat surprising how little jefferson actually wrote on anything given his highly intellectual nature. Much of what we know of his thoughts comes mainly from his letters, and from the longest of his publish works. The aforementioned notes on the state of virginia, which was published in france in 1785. Even the notes are far from a polish systematic statement of the views, and he didnt actually intend for it to be published at all. He literally spawns to a request from a french official when he was in paris and he did so with the intention of being of it being read by a select group. Basically french intellectuals, for who he was trying to explain the government, the economy, and social structure of his native virginia. It was pirated and became public. So eventually jefferson owned up to it, and with some embarrassment. As one of his biographers puts it, jefferson, if he had his way the only book he ever wrote and in this case hadnt been published his opinions on slavery would not have been published. For purposes of our top today, topic today, and unfortunately for his place in history, jefferson did leave a fairly quite a bit of information on African American views in general, and on slavery in particular. So, what do these reveal about his thinking . We may do well to begin with what they call his central dilemma. That was that he hated slavery, but thought negroes inferior to whites. This was a serious dichotomy in jeffersons thought. And its caused him a lot of intellectual suffering, his essential dilemma. He hated slavery but thought blacks inferior to whites. Now, this is a difficult intellectual position. On one hand, he conservatively said there is no indication in any of his works that jefferson felt slavery to be right. And yet at the same time, on the other hand, theres every reason to believe that jefferson did not indeed believe that blacks were equal to whites, and that goes against his words of all men were created equal. What is the effort in evidence in his writing that says he didnt agree with slavery . Well, its evident that he took no pride in owning slaves. In fact, he intended he tended to regard them as a burden rather than a blessing. It seems that he didnt like the word slave itself and often used the word servants, in lieu of slaves. And he acknowledged, on various occasions, that he felt that the slaves must have been, in his words, miserable, and he referred to slavery as a hideous evil. Yet, even though its clear that jefferson didnt believe the condition of the slave was desirable, it wasnt the primary reason why he didnt like slavery. In fact, 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. Now how can that be . This is the way he explained it, in his notes on this. This is a quote now. There was doubtless and influence on our people, produced by the existence of slavery. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise and the most and rim missing despotism, that children see this, and learn to imitate. And man is an imitative animal. With the morals of the people, their industry also destroyed, or in a warm climate, no man will labor for himself when he could make another labor for him. End quote. In other words, slavery was bad training for democracy. Now opponents of slavery had traditionally been concerned the fact that the institution upon slave owners. Jefferson wasnt the first or the last to express such a view. But with jefferson, it seemed to be almost his only concern. As one expert puts it, he said jefferson went to his grave thinking that slavery was detrimental to white people. So, jefferson was concerned with what we might call the corrosive internal effect on society. At the same time, however, as i noted earlier, jefferson believed that the black race was inferior. Theres nothing on this and there could be little doubt on this point. Its precisely on this point that most colors today criticize him. In his notes, jefferson addresses himself to what he calls a real distinction that nature has made. End quote. Between the races. In doing so, he considers not only physical but, the mental and moral differences. As to the physical, jefferson was predisposed against blacks. Even their color seem to offend him. He wrote at one point for example, disparaging quote that eternal, not need the immovable veil of black which covers all their emotions. As to the mental abilities of africanamericans, hes quite clear. He unquestionably believe that believed them to be inferior to whites. He said, comparing them by their faculties of memory reason and intonation, appears to me that in memory they are equal to in mental, but capacity, inferior. Whenever he was confronted with claims by black authors and poets, he said that the works weather can be and jefferson remained skeptical of this. Remain highly skeptical, to put it mildly. Might be assumed that he attributed some of these perceived lack of opportunity, that is to the environment in which africanamericans were forced to live. But that was not apparently the case. Said he, quote, its not the recognition, but nature which has produced this distinction between the two races. In short, jeffersons fundamental attitude in the issue of rate seems to be summed up, as he quoted passage in which he said quote, i advance it as a suspicion only, but the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, made its distinct by time and circumstance are inferior to whites in body and mind. As i noted earlier, jefferson also addressed himself to the physical and mental attributes, but also to what he called moral sense of the African Americans. And 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 the environment. He said if a slave stole chickens from the barnyard, such an act he said, quote, must be ascribed to the situation. If such theory occurred, he claimed it was fully understandable. Quote, the man, in whose favor no loss of property exist. Hardly feels himself less bound to respect those laws made in favor of others. And therefore he asked, rhetorically, might not the quote, justifiably take little from one who has taken everything from him . So much for jeffersons theories, but what were his actions regarding slavery . Lets look first his public actions and then well get to his private behavior. Such as we know of it. At the risk of oversimplification, it might be said that jefferson publicly involved, and had spoken opposition and acquired opposition, to that of despair , acquiescence, resignation to the end of his life. Earlier in his career, for example, there were indications, that he certainly had qualms about slavery, and in particular, slave trade. Blamedy as 1774, he had the British Government for slave trade. Two years later, in 1776 he drafted the virginia constitution, which stated flatly that no persons after come to virginia will be hailed will be held in slavery. Though unfortunately, that draft was not adopted. With regard to outright abolition, in 1784, he moved to what was his most important antislavery action of his career. It was in that year that he sponsored a bill, before the virginia legislature, which would have granted freedom to all slaves. Obviously, could have made a dramatic difference. But when the bill went before the legislature the following year, jefferson withdrew his support for it because he that thee had found public mind would not yet there the proposition. He found out it was unpopular with the voters. Highlytion shows us two attitudes towards emancipation. First, it was if he withdrew his proposal for the reason he did. Thats because the public would not yet barrett. He was a politician and he had to be concerned with Public Opinion. The second revelation for this episode is that jeffersons proposal for gradual emancipation which would have emancipation included a provision, which would have acquired the removal of all freed slaves. That in his words, is that they should be colonized to such places where circumstances at the time. And this demand for deportation, of colonization was one of the real constance in jeffersons actions in regards to slavery. He simply wanted all freed blacks to be sent to the west indies, africa, or anywhere outside the United States. Why was this . The answer is that he simply seemed not to believe that the races could live together side by side in harmonious equality. And in his notes in virginia, he explained why he felt this way , as follows. Deeprooted prejudices by the whites, 10,000 recollections by the blacks about the injuries that they have sustained. Real distinction, as nature has made, and in many other circumstances, they produced convulsions that would never end but in the extermination of the one race or the other. Pretty strong words. Again, at the end of his life, in 1777, in his unfinished autobiography, he reiterated this. He concluded that it was in his words, that was certain the two races, equally free, could not live under the same government. In view of such statements, he stated flatly, that the entire body of jefferson writings, he never even seriously considered the coexistence of the quality death. Quality until his or as another more critical historian put it, nothing is more certain than the Thomas Jefferson didnt attend intend that black people would be free in america. And that fre