Thomas Jefferson

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• 6/6/2021
  

  America's First Peaceful (Just Barely!) Transfer of Power

  by Akhil Reed Amar

  While the selection of Thomas Jefferson as the third president in 1801 (after an electoral college deadlock) is touted as a crucial peaceful transfer of presidential power from one party to another, the transition was far more fraught with peril than most realize. 

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• SOURCE: UVA Today
  4/7/2021
  

  A Closer Look at the Design and Details of the New Memorial to Enslaved Laborers

  "We know so much about Jefferson – we even know what he ate on July 3, 1803 – but he and all those at UVA were surrounded for over 65 years by a community of more than 4,000 people that we know little about."

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• 1/10/2020
  

  Jefferson's Other Legacy: Religious Liberty

  by Cameron Addis

  Thomas Jefferson's critics have pointed out his ownership of slaves as reason to question his continued relevance as a symbol of freedom. But his commitment to religious liberty helped to prevent violent sectarian conflict and should be honored. 

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• SOURCE: Christianity Today
  12/4/2020
  

  Thomas Jefferson Tried to ‘Fix’ the Bible. He Only Succeeded in Making It Sad (Review)

  A reviewer of Peter Manseau's new book "The Jefferson Bible" finds it a valuable account of Jefferson's position in the conflict between religious orthodoxy and freedom of conscience and belief, but was less impressed with TJ's editing job, which produced a joyless text.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  11/11/2020
  

  A Diverse Cabinet will Make Joe Biden a Better President and Unify the Country

  by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

  "Over the past 230 years, presidents have followed Washington’s lead, making increased diversity and representation of religions, backgrounds, genders and races a central part of the cabinet story."

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• SOURCE: Heather Cox Richardson
  11/4/2020
  

  Letters From an American: November 3, 2020

  by Heather Cox Richardson

  These injuries to our system have saddled us with an Electoral College that permits a minority to tyrannize over the majority. That systemic advantage is unsustainable in a democracy. One or the other will have to give.

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  9/8/2020
  

  Why Thomas Jefferson Created His Own Bible

  by Peter Manseau

  The "Jefferson Bible," representing Thomas Jefferson's efforts to excise the supernatural and miraculous from the New Testament, is an important document of American religious culture. The story of its preservation by Cyrus Adler and John Fletcher Lacey is a remarkable tale as well that reflects changes in the political nature of American religion.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/13/2020
  

  A Powerful New Memorial To UVA’s Enslaved Workers Reclaims Lost Lives And Forgotten Narratives

  The memorial's design uses "memory marks" to stand in for the names of enslaved people whose labors built the university.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/13/2020
  

  We Can Tear Down False Idols of History. Thomas Jefferson Did it to Jesus Christ

  by Peter Manseau

  "Considering “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” anew today, we might begin by asking whether Jefferson’s willingness to challenge convention gives the lie to a justification of his many failings as unavoidable for a man of his time."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/6/2020
  

  I’m a Direct Descendant of Thomas Jefferson. Take Down His Memorial.

  by Lucian K. Truscott IV

  it’s time to honor one of our founding mothers, a woman who fought as an escaped slave to free those still enslaved, who fought as an armed scout for the Union Army against the Confederacy — a woman who helped to bring into being a more perfect union after slavery, a process that continues to this day. In Jefferson’s place, there should be another statue. It should be of Harriet Tubman.

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• SOURCE: History.com
  6/29/2020
  

  Why Thomas Jefferson's Anti-Slavery Passage Was Removed from the Declaration of Independence

  To call slavery a “cruel war against human nature itself” may have accurately reflected the values of many of the founders, but it also underscored the paradox between what they said and what they did.

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• 6/14/2020
  

  Tear Down that Statue, Mr. Macron!

  by Marlene L. Daut

  Four figures from French history whose statues could replace that of Jefferson in Paris.

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• SOURCE: Paris Review
  5/21/2020
  

  America’s First Connoisseur

  James Hemings, one of Thomas Jefferson's slaves, taught his fellow slaves at Monticello everything he knew about food, transmitting his influence down the generations, onto the tables of Virginia’s social elite.

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• 4/26/2020
  

  Historic Houses Turn to Technology Amid COVID-19 Closures

  by Hana Hancock

  Historic home sites have responded to the COVID crisis by developing online exhibits. More work remains to be done, and many cultural and historical institutions are in financial peril from the crisis, reports HNN's Social Media Editor. 

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• 4/19/2020
  

  Thomas Jefferson, Yellow Fever, and Land Planning for Public Health

  by M. Andrew Holowchak

  Although Thomas Jefferson was generally an anti-urbanist, he did offer insight into the role of land use in helping towns and cities control epidemics and promote public health.

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• 2/23/20
  

  The Myth of Thomas Jefferson’s Inscrutability

  by M. Andrew Holowchak

  Political discrepancies between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton centered on contradictory interpretations of the U.S. Constitution.

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• 2/2/20
  

  Why Thomas Jefferson Was Really No Friend of Religious Freedom

  by M. Andrew Holowchak

  Thomas Jefferson, because of the passage of his Bill for the Establishment of Religious Freedom, is customarily viewed by scholars as a paladin of religious freedom. Yet there is reason to question that view.

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• 12/29/19
  

  What a Line Deleted from the Declaration of Independence Teaches Us About Thomas Jefferson

  by M. Andrew Holowchak

  Congress deleted the line to avoid tackling issue of slavery. 

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• 12/1/2019
  

  Losing Sight of Jefferson and Falling into Plato

  by M. Andrew Holowchak

  Socratic Styled Teaching in Twenty-First Century American Classrooms

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  November 1, 2019
  

  Alan Taylor's Book Reviewed in the Washington Post: Thomas Jefferson’s Education

  by Drew Faust

  How slavery warped Jefferson’s vision for the University of Virginia.