Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy in American Memory

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This article offers a guided investigation into Thomas Jefferson’s legacy in American memory by focusing on Jefferson’s libertarian articulations and his involvement in slavery, which are contradictory when viewed together (Bickford & Hendrickson, 2020). The investigation is founded on secondary sources and evocative primary sources. For example, the stages of inquiry are guided by discipline-specific strategies where historical thinking, literacy, and argumentation are intertwined with informed action, close reading, and text-based writing. The source is scholarly as Hendrickson is a professor at Eastern Illinois University and the text is peer-reviewed in Social Studies. The article is valuable because it provides Jefferson’s libertarian articulations and involvement in slavery. For example, Bickford and Hendrickson (2020) present that Jefferson proposed a federal law banning slavery in the New Territories of the North and South in 1784. I will use this source to validate my findings on the position held by Thomas Jefferson in stopping slavery in the United States.

Branch (2018) argues that even though the sums are large, the economics of freeing slaves with funds derived from the Louisiana Purchase would have been feasible and that the country would have been much better off if this path had been taken. The source is scholarly, written by an expert in bankruptcy management, bankruptcy investing, and valuing distressed assets and a university faculty. Furthermore, the text is peer-reviewed in An Economic Analysis. This text is valuable because it offers details on the economics behind freeing slaves accounting for the feasibility of the approach suggested by Jefferson. For example, Branch provides the feasibility of the proposal by Jefferson to use the western lands, purchased at a steep discount, to bring about an end to slavery (Branch, 2018). Throughout my paper, I will cite this source to support Jefferson’s role in stopping slavery and his political views expressed in the Declaration of Independence of 1776.

Dubois (2020) argues that the abolition of the slave trade is so inextricably linked to questions about its origins, the system of American slavery, and the entire eighteenth-century colonial policy that it is hard to isolate it. According to abolitionists at the Constitutional Convention, the end of the foreign slave trade was a necessary first step toward abolishing slavery in America. The book is academic as it got published by Oxford University Press, which is reputable for producing scholarly work. The text is helpful for my research as it validates my research on the role played by Thomas Jefferson in stopping slavery in America. For instance, Du Bois presents that President Thomas Jefferson advocated for the passage of anti-slavery legislation in his 1806 State of the Union address. He had advocated for action on slavery since the 1770s. I will utilize the source in my research to support my standpoint that Thomas Jefferson considered slavery one of the major sins of society, and he attempted to eliminate it.

Gordon-Reed (2018) argues that the Declaration of Independence was written with the specific goal of severe ties between the American colonies and Great Britain and establishing a new country that would take its place among the world’s nations. Therefore, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution present the problem of reconciling the values espoused in those texts with the country’s original sin of slavery, the flaw that warped the country’s prospects, marred its creation, and eventually plunged it into civil war. The text is academic as it is a HeinOnline, a scholarly resource center article. Furthermore, the author is a Harvard University professor, and the text is peer-reviewed by Foreign Affairs. The source is valuable as it provides the moral sentiments depicted by Jefferson. For instance, according to Gordon-Reed (2018), the self-assured declaration that “all men are created equal,” with “unalienable Rights” to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” placed freedom and equality at the heart of the American experiment. I will use this source to outline the ideology presented by Thomas Jefferson as he addressed the issue of slavery.

Jefferson’s autobiography briefly mentions his early years before focusing on when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Besides Jefferson’s comments on the Articles of Confederation, this edition includes the first draft of the document. Furthermore, Jefferson (2018) presents his firsthand observations on the early stages of the French Revolution while serving as Minister to France and insights from his many other public roles, including wartime Governor of Virginia, Secretary of State under Washington, and Vice President under John Adams. This source is scholarly because it is published by Dover Publications, an academic organization, and has included detailed info on the author. The book is valuable as it validates the findings of my other sources by presenting Jefferson’s comments on the Articles of Confederation as depicted in the first draft of the document. I will cite the source in my text as supporting evidence that Thomas Jefferson considered slavery one of the major sins of society.

Kern (2020) argues that active interpretation of slavery has been a part of Virginia’s historical sites since 1979 when Colonial Williamsburg committed to a division of African American interpretation and the development of sites for telling those stories. As a result, Mount Vernon, Monticello, Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, Montpelier, and James Monroe’s Highland established robust agendas for archaeological and architectural research, oral history, site interpretation, and community engagement projects with descendant communities. For example, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) opened Monticello to the public with the restoration and tour storyline centered on Jefferson and his vision for building and altering his neoclassical home. The article is academic because the author is an architectural history expert. Furthermore, the University of Minnesota Press published the text in the peer-reviewed Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum. The source is useful as it presents data from the standpoint of Jefferson on slavery. For instance, it shows that Thomas considered the slavery society’s order unethical and strived to highlight the importance of racial equality. I will use this source to validate Jefferson’s stand on the slavery of African-Americans.

Pirzadeh (2017) holds that Jefferson truly meant that all people were human beings with God-given rights that could not be eliminated, whether or not the law recognized them, rights that slavery violated. Jefferson outlined principles to defend the abolition of slavery in the Declaration of Independence. Despite the prevalence of slavery in society and the world, Jefferson made it clear in hundreds of personal correspondences and public statements that he was opposed to the principle of slavery. The article is scholarly because the text has been peer-reviewed in the Undergraduate Research Journal at UCCS. The text is valuable as it validates my other sources and provides detailed accounts of Jefferson’s position on the issue of slavery. For instance, Pirzadeh (2017) states that Jefferson fought for the liberties of slaves throughout his political career through court cases, bills, and ordinances. I will use this source to support my other sources on Jefferson’s opposition to slavery.

References

Bickford, J., & Hendrickson, R. (2020). An inquiry into liberty, slavery, and Thomas Jefferson’s place in American memory. The Social Studies, 111(1), 1–10.

Branch, B. (2018). Could Thomas Jefferson have ended slavery: An economic analysis. Business Quest, 1, 1–25.

Du Bois, W. E. B. (2020). The suppression of the African slave trade to the United States of America 1638–1870. Oxford University Press.

Gordon-Reed, A. (2018). America’s original sin: Slavery and the legacy of white supremacy.Foreign Affairs, 97, 2–12.

Jefferson, T. (2018). The autobiography of Thomas Jefferson. Musaicum Books.

Kern, S. (2020). Restoration and slavery: Two new exhibits.Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum University of Minnesota Press, 27(2), 106–110.

Pirzadeh, H. B. (2017). Thomas Jefferson: The Fight Against Slavery. URJ-UCCS: Undergraduate Research Journal at UCCS, 11(1), 8-27.

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Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy in American Memory

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