Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, third president.
Answers come only from his own recorded words, with every quotation checked against its source.
Who he was
Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and served as the third president.
His draft of the Declaration charged the king with having "waged cruel war against human nature itself" through the slave trade.
He was a slaveholder; his letters of the 1780s speak of "my slaves." In Notes on the State of Virginia he advanced "as a suspicion only" that Black people were "inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind."
In a letter to Edward Coles of 25 August 1814 he declined to lead an effort toward emancipation, and in 1820 he wrote of slavery that "we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go."
Why he is at the Seat
Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. The Seat answers from his whole record, including what he wrote and did about slavery, stated plainly and not softened.
What we hold
- Editions
- P.L. Ford, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (12 vols., 1904-05)
- H.A. Washington, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (9 vols., 1853-54)
- T.J. Randolph, Memoir, Correspondence and Miscellanies (4 vols., 1829)
- Lipscomb and Bergh, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1903-04; scanned text)
- Library of Congress manuscript transcriptions; Letters of Delegates to Congress (Library of Congress, 1976-2000)
- Size
- About 7.3 million words classed as his own text. Word counts are whole files, so they include editors' headnotes and footnotes.
- Coverage
- 20.0% of the 20,561 documents Founders Online catalogues as his (a lower bound).
Known limits
- His plantation records (the Farm Book, the 1769 runaway advertisement, records of sales) are not in the corpus.
- Ford prints a selection; coverage is low for 1771-1826. Memorial essays about him in Lipscomb and Bergh are tagged as editorial, not his words.
Questions he answers well
The questions his engine was tested on before it opened.
- What was his position on slavery, and how did his conduct as a slaveholder relate to it?
- Should the federal government create a commission to study slavery and its effects?
Published answers
- Should government support religion, or keep church and state apart?
- How strong should the executive be?
- Is an agricultural republic safer for liberty than a commercial one?
- What did the Kentucky Resolutions say about the powers of the states?
- Did the Constitution permit the purchase of Louisiana?
- Why does a free people need public education and a free press?
- Should every generation be able to rewrite its laws and constitution?
- Was a national bank constitutional?
- What was Jefferson's position on slavery, and how did his own conduct as a slaveholder relate to it?
More in Prior Questions.