What We’re Still Getting Wrong About Thomas Jefferson
What We’re Still Getting Wrong About Thomas Jefferson
4 minute read
An etching of a bust of Thomas Jefferson, his face depicted with a slight smile, 1800. From the New York Public Library.Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
When Annette Gordon-Reed went to see the musical Hamilton, her friends all turned to look at her when Thomas Jefferson appeared on stage. The group she’d gone with was made up of historians, after all, and Gordon-Reed is an expert on that particular Founding Father. She is the author of The Hemingses of Monticello—a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner—and co-author, with fellow Jeffersonian Peter S. Onuf, of the new book Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination.
All these centuries after his birth—he would have been 273 on Wednesday—there’s still no shortage of work to be done on the subject of Jefferson. For one thing, the project of editing his papers is still ongoing. For another, our attitudes about the topics he discusses in those letters have changed so, as Gordon-Reed puts it, we ask different questions today than scholars did in the past, and thus get different answers.
Even so, Gordon-Reed says that there are at least two myths about Jefferson that endure to this day.
“I encounter sometimes people who think he was an atheist, that he was hostile to all religion, and that’s not true,” she says. “And that he really loved farming. People think that he wanted Americans to be farmers forever, but people at that time believed that civilization went through stages.”
But those subjects, however important they were to American history, are not why Jefferson’s legacy has proved controversial in recent years. His standing as a great man of early American history has been questioned due to the conflict between his stated ideals—not least the words he wrote in the Declaration of Independence—and the fact that he owned slaves. (One formerly pervasive Jefferson myth was that the rumors of his relationship with his slave Sally Hemings were false; Gordon-Reed’s own work has been instrumental in helping clear that one up. Today, few argue that Jefferson was not the father of Hemings’ children.) Though other Founding Fathers, like Washington and Madison, owned slaves, Jefferson is a particular disappointment because he left behind plenty of evidence that—though he didn’t necessarily believe that full racial harmony was possible in America—he did know slavery to be wrong, and yet continued to profit from the system.
Bringing Color to Presidents Past
Col. Theodore Roosevelt with a dead elephant at Meru, Kenya.
The Siena Research Institute (SRI) at Siena College often releases complex expert rankings of all U.S. Presidents. In 2010, the SRI Survey Ranked Roosevelt the #2 President of All Time. Roosevelt took top marks in the survey's categories for 'Imagination,' 'Willingness to Take Risks', 'Court Appointments' and 'Intelligence.'Library of CongressCol. Theodore Roosevelt with a dead elephant at Meru, Kenya.Original Image by Kermit Roosevelt / Library of Congressc. 1908. Grover Cleveland, half-length portrait, seated at desk.
Ranked #20 in SRI Survey of U.S. Presidents.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image (c) The New York Herald Company / Library of Congressc. 1908. Grover Cleveland, half-length portrait, seated at desk.Original Image (c) The New York Herald Company / Library of CongressMarch 5, 1917. Woodrow Wilson and his wife Edith Bolling Wilson riding in the backseat of a carriage on their way to his second inauguration.
Ranked #8 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image National Photo Company Collection / Library of CongressMarch 5, 1917. Woodrow Wilson and his wife Edith Bolling Wilson riding in the backseat of a carriage on their way to his second inauguration. Original Image National Photo Company Collection / Library of CongressJune 5, 1944. General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the day, "Full victory--nothing else" to paratroopers somewhere in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe.
Ranked #10 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Library of CongressJune 5, 1944. General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the day, "Full victory--nothing else" to paratroopers somewhere in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe.Original Image by Library of Congressc. April 19, 1945. Harry Truman, half-length portrait, seated at desk, facing front, holding pencil.
Ranked #9 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image (c) Chase-Statler, Washington / Library of Congressc. April 19, 1945. Harry Truman, half-length portrait, seated at desk, facing front, holding pencil. Original Image (c) Chase-Statler, Washington / Library of Congressc. June 7, 1898. William McKinley, full length portrait, seated at desk, facing right.
Ranked #21 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image (c) Frances Benjamin Johnston / Library of Congressc. June 7, 1898. William McKinley, full length portrait, seated at desk, facing right.Original Image (c) Frances Benjamin Johnston / Library of CongressJune 12, 1971. President Richard Nixon standing in a crowd of people at daughter Tricia Nixon's wedding at the White House.
Ranked #30 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Warren K. Leffler / Library of CongressJune 12, 1971. President Richard Nixon standing in a crowd of people at daughter Tricia Nixon's wedding at the White House. Original Image by Warren K. Leffler / Library of CongressNov. 8, 1863. Formal portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
Ranked #3 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents, Lincoln received highest marks in the 'Ability to Compromise' and 'Domestic Accomplishments' categories.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original image by Alexander Gardner / Library of CongressNov. 8, 1863. Formal portrait of Abraham Lincoln.Original image by Alexander Gardner / Library of CongressSeptember, 1955. Lyndon B. Johnson, half length portrait, left profile, looking out a window.
Ranked #16 in SRI Survey of U.S. Presidents, Johnson is rated #1 for his 'Relationship with Congress' but falls in last place for his 'Foreign Policy Accomplishments.'Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Thomas J. O'Halloran / Library of CongressSeptember, 1955. Lyndon B. Johnson, half length portrait, left profile, looking out a window.Original Image by Thomas J. O'Halloran / Library of CongressSeptember 12, 1953. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier on their wedding day.
Ranked #11 in SRI Survey of American Presidents, Kennedy is ranked 4th in 'Communication', 6th in 'Ability to Compromise', 6th in 'Executive Appointments' and 7th in 'Imagination'.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Toni Frissell / Library of CongressSeptember 12, 1953. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier on their wedding day. Original Image by Toni Frissell / Library of CongressMarch 4, 1933. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover in a convertible automobile on their way to the U.S. Capitol for Roosevelt's inauguration.
FDR was ranked #1 on SRI's Survey of U.S. Presidents, holding the top spot in categories like 'Handling of the U.S. Economy,' 'Foreign Policy Accomplishments' and 'Party Leadership.'Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Library of CongressMarch 4, 1933. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover in a convertible automobile on their way to the U.S. Capitol for Roosevelt's inauguration.
Library of CongressJune 11 or 12, 1864. General Ulysses S. Grant at City Point.
Ranked #26 in SRI Survey of American Presidents, Grant remained in the bottom five Presidents of the survey through the 1980s and 1990s before being bumped up the list.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Library of CongressJune 11 or 12, 1864. General Ulysses S. Grant at City Point.
Library of Congress
But, Gordon-Reed points out, there’s a difference between being a role model and being a historically important figure. And that’s ultimately where she finds the explanation for the chasm between Jefferson’s words and his deeds. To her, the idea that Jefferson was anything other than a fallible man is another myth that it’s time to put to rest.
“Because he wrote the Declaration and because he wrote other indictments of slavery, people say, ‘Why didn’t you take the extra step and free your slaves?’ But one of the things that we talk about the book is that people aren’t always able to live up what they believe,” she says. “This is your way of life and he did not have the strength to move beyond that. That shouldn’t be a surprise. You can express disappointment, but it’s not a shocking thing.”
And as for Hamilton? Thumbs up. “I think what the portrayal captures is the mischievous nature of politics,” she says. “The show’s energy level goes up when [Jefferson] is there.”