Slavery-At- Monticello



Slavery-At- Monticello

Introduction

Born in Albemarle County, Virginia, on April 13, 1743, and educated by private tutors (Anglican clergymen) and at William and Mary College, American statesman and political philosopher Thomas Jefferson completed his studies by reading law under George Wythe. He served as a lawyer for only a few years before devoting his life to maintaining a large Virginia plantation and to public service. As a delegate to the first Continental Congress he drafted the Declaration of Independence (establishing separate nationhood for the North American colonies formerly under the British Empire) before serving a term as governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War and as minister to France thereafter. On returning to the United States Jefferson served as secretary of state under President George Washington, vice president, and finally as the third president of the United States. Near the end of his life he founded the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and served as its first rector. In 1815 Jefferson sold his private six-thousand-volume library to form the new Library of Congress. Jefferson died at his home, Monticello, on July 4, 1826.

Discussion

Jefferson's conception of humans as “free, equal, and independent” (derived from Locke's Second Treatise of Government) enjoins individual liberty and limited consensual government. This applies, for Jefferson, primarily to the national or central government, whose purpose is foreign relations. But for local and state government, he conceives of people as naturally social, requiring political participation for human fulfillment and maintenance of a just social order. Along the lines of the classical Republican Greek polis, as described by Aristotle, Jefferson wished to divide Virginia into ward districts of four to five square miles (10 to 13 sq km) and a few hundred citizens, which would be self-governing in many local concerns (police, welfare, roads, and so on). This “small republic,” as he called it, would allow every citizen to participate in some area of rule, encouraging public competence and confidence. From these smallest political communities would be elected representatives at the larger governmental levels (county, state, and nation) (Ferling, 2005). This Jeffersonian conception of American federalism with its faith in the common citizen and reasoned democracy contrasts with the more cautious Madisonian model based on checks and balances thwarting personal ambition and group tyranny. In this and other areas (notably religion), Jefferson's view provides the archetypical American “optimism,” which sees human beings as basically good (rather than essentially sinful and ...