“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
So said Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States of America. He was a spokesman for democracy, an American Founding Father and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence.
But who was he, as a man? He was a man of the times he lived in, as are we all.
Thomas Jefferson (referred to as Thomas) was born in Shadwell, Virginia, USA, on April 13, 1743 to Peter Jefferson and his wife Jane.
Peter was first a surveyor, and then a landholder and planter of tobacco using slave labor.
He was also a justice of the peace. Jane was born in England at Shadwell and was the oldest child of the Adjutant-General of Virginia. Peter named one of his estates Shadwell in recognition of Jane's birthplace.
Although not formally educated, Peter believed in the value of literature and mathematics. He took pains to ensure that Thomas commenced his education aged five, and when aged nine, Thomas attended a small boarding school where he became versed first in English and then attended another such school, where he learned rudimentary Latin, Greek, Italian, and French.
Peter was the father of eight children, of whom Thomas was the elder of two sons. Peter died in 1757 when Thomas was 14, and on his deathbed expressed the wishes that Thomas be educated in the classics and always continue his daily physical exercises. Peter bequeathed Shadwell, along with 30 slaves, to Thomas. Shadwell and other wealth devised by Peter to Thomas were to be held in trust for Thomas until he attained the age of 21.
In 1760, following two years of studying the classics with a renowned scholar and Anglican cleric, the Reverend Mr. Maury, Thomas commenced two years of study at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was there that the young Doctor William Small from Scotland, the Professor of Mathematics, introduced Thomas to the Enlightenment, which was the progressive doctrine introduced prior to the French Revolution, which replaced the archaic doctrines of the Middle Ages.
Unfortunately, the Enlightenment was the forerunner of Communism and the Fabians.
Before leaving the College to return to Europe in 1762, Dr. Small introduced Thomas to his friend, the eminent professor of law George Wythe, under whose tutelage and guidance Thomas studied law. He spent the winter months in Williamsburg learning from George and the summer months with his mother and siblings at Shadwell. George Wythe was to be Thomas's lifelong friend.
In 1767, Thomas was admitted to the Virginia bar and continued to practice there until 1774, when the American Revolution brought about its closure against the British Crown. His practice earned him much money, and he substantially increased the size of his estate at Shadwell—the estate at first cultivated tobacco and then wheat.
All along, Thomas had been studying architecture from books and became a skilled draftsman and designer without formal training. He commenced the design of his Monticello (Small Mountain in old Italian) home in 1767, modeling the structure from an image in a book by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.
In 1768 aged 25, Thomas commenced leveling the top of a 900-foot-high steep mountain overlooking Shadwell from across the Rivanna River that ran through the estate, using his slaves as manual laborers. The mountaintop was to be the location of Monticello, up among the clouds. The construction commenced in 1770 and, with re-modeling, lasted 40 years.
In 1769, Thomas was elected to the Virginia General Assembly and introduced a bill for the emancipation of slaves. That was surprising, as Thomas was himself a slave owner at that time, constructing Monticello with their labor alongside white artisans, all under white supervision. The bill was rejected, which was unsurprising as Virginia was a colony of Britain, whose principal source of export income was the transportation of slaves from West Africa to the Americas.
In 1772, Thomas married a young widow Martha Wayles Skelton. Martha would prove a loving wife to him and bore him six children. Only two of the children lived to adulthood, and Martha was to die in 1782 following the birth of the last child. In that year, Thomas’ first version of Monticello was substantially completed.
Following the death of Martha's father, John Wayles, in 1773, she, and through her, Thomas both inherited his estate, which included his plantation comprising 11,000 acres of land and 135 slaves. John had fathered six children with a mixed-race slave named Betty Hemings. The children were predominantly European in appearance and were brought to Monticello together with Betty, the youngest being Sally, who was born in 1773 and was then a small child. Despite their predominantly European ancestry, they were still slaves under the laws of Virginia. They were not sent to labor in the fields by Thomas but were given household and other non-laborious duties.
During the Revolutionary War, which lasted from 1775 until 1781, when the British surrendered at Yorktown, Thomas, a member of the Continental Congress, drafted the Declaration of Independence (Declaration) in 1776. It contained the famous line:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That reflected the writings of John Locke and other writers of the Enlightenment, with whom Thomas was familiar.
When writing the Declaration, Thomas was the owner of 180 slaves.
During his long and illustrious career, Thomas occupied the positions of Governor of Virginia (1779-1781), Commissioner and then US Minister to France (1784-1789), the first US Secretary of State (1790-1793), Vice-President of the US (1797-1801), and two terms as President of the US (1801-1809).
In 1803, during Thomas's presidency, the US purchased part of the Louisiana Territory from the French, which extended northwards from New Orleans as far as the border, of what is Canada today, and westwards from the Mississippi. The French had claimed the Territory, which was largely inhabited by Native Americans, under the Doctrine of Discovery. That Doctrine, which is still law in the US today, emanated from a Papal Bull Dum Diversas (Until Different) issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1452 which effectively gave any non-Christian country and its inhabitants in the entire world, to the first white Europeans to set foot on it.
The primary intention of the US was to have full access to the Mississippi River right down to the sea at New Orleans, whose purchase was also part of the transaction. The total area obtained was nearly the same as that of the entire US, as it then was.
Article III of the Treaty of Cession of 1803 between the US and France provided:
The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible according to the principles of the federal Constitution to the enjoyment of all these rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States, and in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and the Religion which they profess.
That was to be ignored in the Indian Removal Act of 1820, in which the Native American were driven from their lands along The Trail of Tears.
Immediately following the Louisiana Purchase, a military expedition of about 40 men arranged by Thomas and led by Captain Meriwether Lewis (Lewis) and Lieutenant William Clark (Clark) set out to cross the newly acquired territory and proceed further west to the Pacific Ocean. The primary purpose was to establish a US presence across the continent, coast to coast.
Thomas also wished to discover if there was a passage by river across the continent for the purpose of commerce. He further wanted to acquire data concerning the flora, fauna, and the inhabitants.
By the use of a purpose-built 55 feet long keelboat that could be propelled upstream by wind, if blowing in the right direction, or by poles used in pushing or towing, the party reached the upper reaches of the Missouri River after traveling at an average speed of about one mile per hour. The journey was interrupted at times because of inclement weather, which caused lengthy stops. The keelboat was then sent downstream with the collected data and samples for Thomas, and the main party proceeded westwards, using some small vessels equipped with sails known as pirogues, and dugout canoes fashioned from tree trunks.
When the party reached the Rocky Mountains (Rockies), it was discovered that there was no easy passage across to connect the waters feeding the Missouri River on the east and the Columbia River on the west. The party crossed the Rockies with the aid of the local Native Americans and then floated down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. They then journeyed back across the Rockies and down the Missouri River to St Louis, having traveled over 8,000 miles. There in 1806, they delivered their reports, journals, and collected artifacts to Thomas.
The Native Americans were generally helpful and cooperative during the journey. However, the intent of Thomas and his successors was either assimilation or dispossession. The country traversed by Lewis and Clark, referred to in the map below as Oregon Country, was ceded, below 49 degrees north latitude, by Britain to the US in the Oregon Treaty of 1846.
The Spanish Territory referred to also in the map below, was partly ceded by Mexico to the US in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, and now forms part of the present US.
During his time in France leading up to the French Revolution in 1789, Thomas resumed contact with the French nobleman and military officer Gilbert du Motier—the Marquis of Lafayette, (Lafayette), who had served with distinction as a member of the revolutionary forces during the American Revolution. Lafayette was one the leaders of those plotting the French Revolution, some of whom met clandestinely with him and Thomas in Thomas's Paris residence.
Lafayette and Thomas prepared the first draft of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, shortly before the storming of the Bastille, which marked the commencement of violence in the French Revolution. Article 10 of the final document provided:
No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.
That counted for nothing during the Terror that followed. Christianity was banned, all churches were closed, and thousands of Catholics, including priests and nuns, were guillotined, drowned, or otherwise killed. An intended Deist state religion named the Cult of the Supreme Being was introduced by Maximilien Robespierre, who was himself guillotined by the revolutionaries.
Thomas left Paris to return to the US in September 1789, following the storming of the Bastille on July 14. Thomas was appointed Secretary of State by George Washington and did not return to France. He supported the violence and loss of life that followed during the French Revolution and was fiercely anti-clerical, being a Deist. In supporting the slaughter by the Jacobins, Thomas wrote in a 1793 letter to William Short, who had been his private secretary during his time in France:
The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the issue of the contest, and was ever such a prize won with so little innocent blood? My own affections have been deeply wounded by some of the martyrs to this cause, but rather than it should have failed, I would have seen half the earth desolated. Were there but an Adam and Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it now is.
One of the most horrific events which occurred during the Terror was the drowning of about 4,000 supposed Royalist sympathizers in the Loire at Nantes during the period 1793-1794. Those killed included children, nuns, and priests. Some of the innocent blood spilled referred to was that of children, and all the while, Thomas owned slaves.
Despite his written aversion to the practice of slavery at the time of drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas had used his slaves intermittently over a period of 40 years, along with white overseers and artisans, to construct his palatial Monticello estate.
Thomas divided his Monticello estate of approximately 5,000 acres into four so-called quarter-farms: Monticello, Tufton, Lego, and Shadwell. The slaves provided labor in each under the control of a white overseer. Some of the quarter-farms were leased out, in which case Thomas leased out his slaves to the lessees. When Thomas switched mainly from growing tobacco to wheat, the labor became less onerous.
There was a long winding road leading up the mountain to the mansion, of which only the frontal view was visible. Hidden from view were the north and south wings, which were at right angles to the front facade, and were constructed down the slope of the mountain. The mansion above was of course level. The wings included a dairy, slave quarters, smokehouse, kitchen, ice-house, and stable. Both wings were connected to the mansion by tunnels so that slaves could deliver food, drink, and other items to the mansion, which served as a hotel, unseen. In the dining room was a dumbwaiter, which by pulling a rope over a pulley from down in the tunnel, the slaves could deliver food and drinks to the guests unseen.
About 300 feet south of the mansion, and parallel to the north and south wings, was a strip of land about 1000 feet long known as Mulberry Row (Row). Thomas planned to erect a 400 feet long building there, which would house all the woodworking, textile manufacturing, ironworking, and animal slaughter for what he planned to be an industrial complex. Thomas intended to use the building to supply the household with necessities and earn cash. However, because of a long delay of about 30 years in constructing the north and south wings, isolated buildings along the Row carried out activities planned for the north and south wings. The separate buildings included a dairy, a nail factory, a joinery shop, storehouses, and log cabins to serve as slave quarters. The continuous building was never built.
The activities in the Row were supervised by successive overseers, who were generally cruel to the slaves who worked alongside white artisans.
One such building was the nailery, in which young male slaves from ages 10 to 16 were employed from first light to dark, six days a week, in manufacturing nails at the forge. Sometimes, boys arriving late on cold winter mornings, or those not achieving their set quota of nails, were whipped. Thomas sold one boy for injuring another with a hammer.
Thomas was continually beset with crippling debts, and the nails were a good source of income. However, to raise money, he leased out, mortgaged, and sometimes sold slaves. They were his principal source of income. He wrote to George Washington, having calculated that the birth of slaves yielded himself an annual profit of four percent:
I allow nothing for losses by death, but, on the contrary, shall presently take credit four per cent per annum, for their increase over and above keeping up their own numbers.
To Thomas, his slaves were chattels, devoid of any rights.
During his sojourn in Paris as referred to above, Thomas had with him as his servant James Hemings, the half-brother of his dead wife, Martha. James was to study French cooking so that such meals could be prepared at Monticello on their return. Thomas also had with him his eldest daughter Martha, who was being educated in a Catholic convent.
After Thomas had spent two years in Paris, his daughter Mary aged 9, arrived in Paris along with James's sister Sarah (Sally) Hemings, then aged 14, who was to be Thomas's servant and maid. While in Paris and aged about 46, it is now the general consensus, based upon historical and genetic evidence, that Thomas commenced a sexual relationship with his young slave Sally, who became pregnant when aged 16. Female slaves in the US had no legal right to refuse any sexual advances of their owners, and at that time, slavery was also legal in France, although subject to restrictions concerning people of color entering the country, as set out in the Royal Decree of 1777: Déclaration du Roi sur la police des noirs amenésen France par leurs maîtres. Imprimé. (Declaration of the king on the policing of blacks brought to France by their masters. Printed.)
James and Sally were of three-quarters European extraction, so color presented no problem to Thomas.
Sally and James had the right under French law to petition for their freedom, which may or may not have been granted. Sally agreed to return to the US with Thomas on the condition that any of her children fathered by him would be manumitted (released from slavery), on reaching the age of 21. Thomas agreed.
Following his return to the US in 1789, Thomas freed Robert Hemings, the Brother of James, in 1794 and James himself in 1796, after James had trained his brother Peter for three years to act as his replacement chef for Thomas. James committed suicide in 1801, aged 36.
Thomas fathered six children with Sally, four of whom survived: Beverley Hemings (Male born 1798), Harriet Hemings (born 1801), Madison Hemings (born 1805), and Eston Hemings (born 1808). The four surviving children carried out light household duties at Monticello until each reached the age 14, following which the three boys were trained in carpentry and Harriet in spinning and weaving.
During his two terms of presidency, Thomas proved himself to be an able statesman and was highly regarded. However, Sally was not acknowledged by Thomas while president, and his long-dead wife Martha was thereafter referred to as the First Lady. Although seen about the mansion during the day engaging in her duties of general maid and seamstress, Sally spent her evenings and nights first in a log cabin on Mulberry Row and then in later years in a damp and windowless room located under the South Wing, with ready access to Thomas’s bedroom.
In his writings, Thomas expressed the view that African slaves had a strong and disagreeable odor and even inferred that African women had sexual relations with apes.
Thomas died in 1826, aged 83, bequeathing Monticello and its slaves to his eldest daughter Martha. Of the approximate 600 slaves he had owned on his various plantations during his life, he freed only ten. He manumitted Robert and James Hemings, freed five of the Hemings family in his will, and allowed three of the family to leave Monticello while still legally slaves. Being seven-eighths of European extraction, some of those freed were absorbed into the white community.
Because of Thomas's massive debt, all 130 slaves and most of the contents of Monticello were sold. Some of the male members of the Hemings family, whom Thomas freed in his will, were forced to stand by and watch as their wives and children were sold individually on the auction block to different bidders. Many were bound for the repressive cotton plantations of the Deep South.
The transatlantic slave trade from which Thomas had profited all of his life was one of appalling inhumanity, from the capture of the slaves in Africa, sale to the slave traders, transportation in irons in filthy and stinking ships, and resale in the Americas, all followed by a life of indignity, subjugation, and cruelty. All the while, Thomas lived a life of luxury in Monticello.
Thomas had condoned and profited from slavery all of his adult life and proposed that all slaves, when freed, should be deported. Like George Washington, he had never freed his slaves, but unlike George, his will did not provide for the emancipation of his slaves after his death. However, both Thomas and George had their slaves whipped. During their lives, Thomas and George owned in total over 1,000 slaves.
In the period 1927-1941, both Thomas and George were to have sixty-foot-high likenesses of their heads drilled and blasted into the granite of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which form part of the Louisiana Purchase.
The likenesses were an amazing achievement for the sculptor responsible, John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum, in the days before electronic calculators, computers, and laser-operated surveying instruments. Borglum initially made plaster images of the presidents, and then, using an ingenious measuring device known as a pointing machine, workers suspended on steel cables were able to reproduce the images in the granite face by drilling and blasting with dynamite, followed by trimming the profiles using jackhammers and chisels. It took about 400 workmen 14 years to complete. Over 450,000 tons of rock were removed, 90 percent of which was blasted using thousands of tons of dynamite.
Borglum had a previous association with the Ku Klux Klan during his involvement with the Stone Mountain Memorial in Georgia, from which he was dismissed before completion. It was there he taught himself the technique that he used on Mount Rushmore.
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