Editing Thomas Jefferson (section)

==Political, social, and religious views==
{{republicanism sidebar}}
Jefferson subscribed to the political ideals expounded by [[John Locke]], [[Francis Bacon]], and [[Isaac Newton]], whom he considered the three greatest men who ever lived.<ref name="Hayes, 2008, p. 10">[[#Kayes|Hayes, 2008]], p. 10.</ref><ref name="Cogliano p. 14">[[#Cogliano|Cogliano, 2008]], p. 14.</ref> He was also influenced by the writings of [[Edward Gibbon|Gibbon]], [[David Hume|Hume]], [[William Robertson (historian)|Robertson]], [[Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke|Bolingbroke]], [[Montesquieu]], and [[Voltaire]].<ref name="Cogliano p. 26">[[#Cogliano|Cogliano, 2008]], p. 26.</ref> Jefferson thought that the independent [[Yeoman#United States|yeoman]] and agrarian life were ideals of [[Republicanism in the United States|republican virtues]]. He distrusted cities and financiers, favored decentralized government power, and believed that the tyranny that had plagued the common man in Europe was due to corrupt political establishments and monarchies. He supported efforts to disestablish the [[Church of England]],<ref>[[#Ferling2000|Ferling, 2000]], p. 158.</ref> wrote the [[Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom]], and he pressed for a [[Separation of church and state in the United States|wall of separation]] between church and state.<ref>[[#Mayer2|Mayer, 1994]], p. 76.</ref> The Republicans under Jefferson were strongly influenced by the 18th-century British [[Whig (British political party)|Whig Party]], which believed in [[limited government]].<ref>[[#Wood2010|Wood, 2010]], p. 287.</ref> His [[Democratic-Republican Party]] became dominant in [[First Party System|early American politics]], and his views became known as [[Jeffersonian democracy]].<ref>[[#Tucker37|Tucker, 1837]], v. 2, pp. 559–567.</ref><ref name=Smith2003_p_314>[[#Smith2003|Smith, 2003]], p. 314.</ref>

===Philosophy, society, and government===
Jefferson wrote letters and speeches prolifically; these show him to be well-read in the philosophical literature of his day and of antiquity. Nevertheless, some scholars do not take Jefferson seriously as a philosopher mainly because he did not produce a formal work on philosophy. However, he has been described as one of the most outstanding philosophical figures of his time because his work provided the theoretical background to, and the substance of, the social and political events of the revolutionary years and the development of the [[American Constitution]] in the 1770s and 1780s.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Marsoobian |first1=Armen T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBUnSuDT9ccC&pg=PA4 |title=The Blackwell Guide to American Philosophy |last2=Ryder |first2=John |date=2008 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-4296-0 |pages=4 |language=en}}</ref> Jefferson continued to attend to more theoretical questions of [[natural philosophy]] and subsequently left behind a rich philosophical legacy in the form of presidential messages, letters, and public papers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Thomas Jefferson|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/jefferson/ |publisher=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|date=December 16, 2019|access-date=June 17, 2022}}</ref>

Jefferson described himself as an [[Epicureanism|Epicurean]] and, although he adopted the Stoic belief in [[intuition]] and found comfort in the Stoic emphasis on the patient endurance of misfortune, he rejected most aspects of [[Stoicism]] with the notable exception of [[Epictetus]]' works.{{Close paraphrasing inline|date=March 2024}}<ref>Letter: Thomas Jefferson to William Short, Monticello, October 31, 1819</ref><ref name="Richard">{{Cite book |last=Richard |first=Carl J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VV_caPJhT6AC&pg=PA94 |title=The Battle for the American Mind: A Brief History of a Nation's Thought |date=2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-3436-0 |pages=94 |language=en}}</ref> He rejected the Stoics' doctrine of a [[Soul#Philosophical views|separable soul]] and their [[fatalism]], and was angered by their misrepresentation of Epicureanism as mere hedonism.{{Close paraphrasing inline|date=March 2024}}<ref name="Richard" /> Jefferson knew Epicurean philosophy from original sources, but also mentioned [[Pierre Gassendi]]'s ''[[Pierre Gassendi#Syntagma philosophicum|Syntagma philosophicum]]'' as influencing his ideas on Epicureanism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sanford |first=Charles B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BMzIavSRNdEC&pg=PA39 |title=The Religious Life of Thomas Jefferson |date=1984 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-1131-1 |pages=39 |language=en}}</ref>

According to Jefferson's philosophy, citizens have "certain inalienable rights" and "rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others."<ref>[[#Bassani|Bassani, 2010]], p. 113.</ref><ref name="De Witte">[[#De Witte (2020)|De Witte, 2020]]</ref>  A staunch advocate of the jury system, he proclaimed in 1801, "I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."<ref>[[#Wilson2012|Wilson, 2012]], p. 584.</ref> Jeffersonian government not only prohibited individuals in society from infringing on the liberty of others, but also restrained itself from diminishing [[individual liberty]] as a protection against [[tyranny of the majority]].<ref>[[#Mayer2|Mayer, 1994]], p. 328.</ref> Initially, Jefferson favored restricted voting to those who could actually have the free exercise of their reason by escaping any corrupting dependence on others. He advocated enfranchising a majority of Virginians, seeking to expand suffrage to include "yeoman farmers" who owned their own land while excluding tenant farmers, city day laborers, vagrants, most American Indians, and women.<ref name=Wood220/>

He was convinced that individual liberties were the fruit of political equality, which was threatened by the arbitrary government.<ref>[[#Peterson60|Peterson, 1960]], p. 340.</ref> Excesses of democracy in his view were caused by institutional corruption rather than human nature. He was less suspicious of a working democracy than many contemporaries.<ref name=Wood220>[[#Wood2011|Wood, 2011]], pp. 220–227.</ref> As president, Jefferson feared that the [[Federalism in the United States|federal system]] enacted by Washington and Adams had encouraged corrupting patronage and dependence. He tried to restore a balance between the state and federal governments more nearly reflecting the [[Articles of Confederation]], seeking to reinforce state prerogatives where his party was in the majority.<ref name=Wood220/>

According to Stanford Scholar [[Jack N. Rakove|Jack Rakove]], "[w]hen Jefferson wrote 'all men are created equal' in the preamble to the Declaration, he was not talking about individual equality. What he really meant was that the American colonists, as a people, had the same rights of self-government as other peoples, and hence could declare independence, create new governments and assume their 'separate and equal station' among other nations."<ref name="De Witte"/> Jefferson's famous mantra later became a statement "of individual equality that everyone and every member of a deprived group could claim for himself or herself."<ref name="De Witte"/> Historian [[Henry Wiencek]] has noted Jefferson included slaves when he penned "''all men are created equal''" in the Declaration. As early as 1774, Jefferson had supported ending domestic slavery, and making slaves citizens.<ref>[[#Wiencek12|Wiencek, 2012]], pp. 25–27</ref> Later, writing in ''Notes'' (1781), Jefferson supported gradual emancipation of slaves, to be sent away from the U.S. to an unspecified place. The former slaves would be replaced by white immigrant workers.<ref>[[#Wiencek12|Wiencek, 2012]], pp. 53–54</ref> In 1792, Jefferson calculated that he was making a 4 percent profit every year on the birth of black children. After this he wrote that slavery presented an investment strategy for the future. Historian Brion Davis writes that Jefferson's emancipation efforts virtually ceased.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/|last=Wiencek|first=Henry|title=The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson|website=Smithsonian Magazine|date=October 2012}}</ref>

Jefferson was steeped in the [[Whiggism|Whig tradition]] of the oppressed majority set against a repeatedly unresponsive court party in the Parliament. He justified small outbreaks of rebellion as necessary to get monarchial regimes to amend oppressive measures compromising popular liberties. In a republican regime ruled by the majority, he acknowledged "it will often be exercised when wrong".<ref>[[#Golden|Golden & Golden, 2002]], p. 60.</ref> But "the remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them."<ref>[[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], p. 213. The full letter to [[William Stephens Smith|William S. Smith]] can be seen [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefffed.html at the Library of Congress]</ref> As Jefferson saw his party triumph in two terms of his presidency and launch into a third term under James Madison, his view of the U.S. as a continental republic and an "empire of liberty" grew more upbeat. On departing the presidency, he described America as "trusted with the destines of this solitary republic of the world, the only monument of human rights, and the sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and self-government".<ref>[[#Bober|Bober, 2008]], p. 264.</ref>

Jefferson was a supporter of [[American expansionism]], writing in 1801 that "it is impossible not to look forward to distant times when our rapid multiplication will expand itself beyond those limits, and cover the whole northern, if not the southern continent."<ref>{{cite book |title=Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History A Reinterpretation |date=1995 |publisher = Harvard University Press |page=9}}</ref>

===Democracy===
[[File:Jefferson Portrait West Point by Thomas Sully.jpg|thumb|alt=Elder Jefferson|Jefferson, at age 78, depicted in an 1821 [[Thomas Sully]] portrait]]

Jefferson considered democracy to be the expression of society and promoted national self-determination, cultural uniformity, and education of all males of the commonwealth.<ref>[[#Wood2010|Wood, 2010]], p. 277.</ref> He supported public education and a free press as essential components of a democratic nation.<ref>[[#Appleby|Appleby, 2003]], pp. 57–58, 84.</ref>

After resigning as [[United States Secretary of State|secretary of state]] in 1795, Jefferson focused on the electoral bases of the Republicans and Federalists. The "Republican" classification for which he advocated included "the entire body of landholders" everywhere and "the body of laborers" without land.<ref>[[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], p. 298.</ref> Republicans united behind Jefferson as vice president, with the election of 1796 expanding democracy nationwide at grassroots levels.<ref>[[#Wilentz|Wilentz, 2005]], p. 85.</ref> Jefferson promoted Republican candidates for local offices.<ref>[[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], p. 308.</ref>

Beginning with Jefferson's electioneering for the "revolution of 1800", his political efforts were based on egalitarian appeals.<ref>[[#Wilentz|Wilentz, 2005]], pp. 97–98.</ref> In his later years, he referred to the 1800 election "as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of '76 was in its form", one "not effected indeed by the sword&nbsp;... but by the&nbsp;... suffrage of the people".<ref>[[#Wilentz|Wilentz, 2005]], p. 97.</ref> Voter participation grew during Jefferson's presidency, increasing to "unimaginable levels" compared to the Federalist Era, with turnout of about 67,000 in [[1800 United States presidential election|1800]] rising to about 143,000 in [[1804 United States presidential election|1804]].<ref>[[#Wilentz|Wilentz, 2005]], p. 138.</ref>

At the onset of the [[American Revolution]], Jefferson accepted [[William Blackstone]]'s argument that property ownership would sufficiently empower voters' independent judgement, but he sought to further expand suffrage by land distribution to the poor.<ref>[[#Keyssar|Keyssar, 2009]], p. 10.</ref> In the heat of the Revolutionary Era and afterward, several states expanded voter eligibility from landed gentry to all propertied male, tax-paying citizens with Jefferson's support.<ref>[[#Ferling04|Ferling, 2004]], p. 286.</ref> In retirement, he gradually became critical of his home state for violating "the principle of equal political rights"—the social right of universal male suffrage.<ref>[[#Keyssar|Keyssar, 2009]], p. 37.</ref> He sought a "general suffrage" of all taxpayers and militia-men, and equal representation by population in the General Assembly to correct preferential treatment of the slave-holding regions.<ref>[[#Wilentz|Wilentz, 2005]], p. 200.</ref>

===Religion===
{{Main|Religious views of Thomas Jefferson}}
[[File:Thomas Jefferson Bible Lined Cover.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A leather-bound Bible|The ''[[Jefferson Bible]]'', which features only the words of [[Jesus]] from his disciples, written in parallel [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Latin]], [[French language|French]], and English]]

==== Christianity ====
Baptized in his youth, Jefferson became a governing member of his local [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]], which he later attended with his daughters.<ref>[[#Randall|Randall, 1994]], p. 203.</ref> Jefferson, however, spurned Biblical views of Christianity.<ref name="Cunningham 2020">[[#Cunningham (December 28, 2020)|Cunningham (December 28, 2020)]]</ref> Influenced by [[Deism|Deist]] authors during his college years, Jefferson abandoned orthodox Christianity after his review of [[New Testament]] teachings.<ref>[[#TJFReligion|TJF: "Jefferson's Religious Beliefs"]]</ref><ref>[[#Onuf07|Onuf, 2007]], pp. 139–168.</ref> Jefferson has sometimes been portrayed as a follower of the liberal religious strand of Deism that values reason over revelation.<ref name=":1a">{{Cite web |title=People and Ideas: Early America's Formation |url=http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/thomas-jefferson.html |access-date=April 30, 2022 |website=[[Public Broadcasting Service]] |language=en |quote=Like other Founding Fathers, Jefferson was considered a Deist, subscribing to the liberal religious strand of Deism that values reason over revelation and rejects traditional Christian doctrines, including the Virgin Birth, original sin and the resurrection of Jesus. While he rejected orthodoxy, Jefferson was nevertheless a religious man. [...] Influenced by the British Unitarian Joseph Priestley, Jefferson set his prodigious intellect and energy on the historical figure at the center of the Christian faith: Jesus of Nazareth. Jefferson became convinced that Jesus' message had been obscured and corrupted by the apostle Paul, the Gospel writers and Protestant reformers.}}</ref> Nonetheless, in 1803, Jefferson asserted, "I am Christian, in the only sense in which [Jesus] wished any one to be".<ref name="Randal583"/>

Jefferson later defined being a Christian as one who followed the simple teachings of Jesus. Influenced by [[Joseph Priestley]],<ref name=":1a" /> Jefferson selected New Testament passages of Jesus' teachings into a private work he called ''The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth'', known today as the ''[[Jefferson Bible]]'', which was never published during his lifetime.<ref name="Jefferson Bible, 1820">[[#Jesus|Jefferson Bible, 1820]]</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">[[#Religion|Thomas Jefferson's Religion]]</ref> Jefferson believed that Jesus' message had been obscured and corrupted by [[Paul the Apostle]], the [[Four Evangelists|Gospel writers]] and [[Protestant Reformers|Protestant reformers]].<ref name=":1a" /> Peterson states that Jefferson was a [[Theism|theist]] "whose God was the Creator of the universe&nbsp;... all the evidences of nature testified to His perfection; and man could rely on the harmony and beneficence of His work".<ref>[[#Peterson70|Peterson, 1970]], ch. 2 [e-book].</ref> In a letter to [[John Adams]], Jefferson wrote that what he believed was genuinely Christ's, found in the Gospels, was "as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill".<ref name="Cunningham 2020"/> By omitting miracles and the [[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrection]], Jefferson made the figure of Jesus more compatible with a worldview based on reason.<ref name="Cunningham 2020"/>

Jefferson was firmly [[Anti-clericalism|anticlerical]], writing in "every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty&nbsp;... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon."<ref>[[#Wood2010|Wood, 2010]], p. 577.</ref> The full letter to Horatio Spatford can be read at the National Archives.<ref>[[#archives|U.S. Gov: National Archives]]</ref> Jefferson once supported banning clergy from public office but later relented.<ref>[[#Finkelman2006|Finkelman, 2006]], p. 921.</ref> In 1777, he drafted the [[Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom]]. Ratified in 1786, it made compelling attendance or contributions to any state-sanctioned religious establishment illegal and declared that men "shall be free to profess&nbsp;... their opinions in matters of religion".<ref>[[#Yarbrough2006|Yarbrough, 2006]], p. 28.</ref> The Statute is one of only three accomplishments he chose for his epitaph.<ref>[[#Peterson|Peterson, 2003]], p. 315.</ref><ref>W. W. Hening, ed., Statutes at Large of Virginia, vol. 12 (1823): 84–86.</ref> Early in 1802, Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Connecticut Baptist Association that "religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God". He interpreted the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] as having built "a wall of [[Separation of church and state|separation between Church and State]]".<ref>[[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], pp. 369–370.</ref> The phrase 'Separation of Church and State' has been cited several times by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] in its interpretation of the [[Establishment Clause]].<ref>Neem, Johann N. "Beyond the Wall: Reinterpreting Jefferson’s Danbury Address." Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 27, no. 1, 2007, pp. 139–54. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/30043478 JSTOR website] Retrieved January 5, 2025.</ref>

Jefferson donated to the [[American Bible Society]], saying the [[Four Evangelists]] delivered a "pure and sublime system of morality" to humanity. He thought Americans would rationally create "[[Beekeeping|Apiarian]]" religion, extracting the best traditions of every denomination.<ref>[[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], pp. 472–473.</ref> He contributed generously to several local denominations near Monticello.<ref>[[#Randall|Randall, 1994]], p. 555.</ref> Acknowledging [[organized religion]] would always be factored into political life, he encouraged reason over supernatural revelation to make inquiries into religion. He believed in a [[Creator deity|creator god]], an [[afterlife]], and the sum of religion as loving God and neighbors. But he also controversially rejected fundamental Christian beliefs, denying the conventional Christian [[Trinity]], Jesus's divinity as the [[Son of God]] and miracles, the Resurrection of Christ, atonement from sin, and [[original sin]].<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref>[[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], pp. 471–473.</ref><ref>[[#CITEREFSanford1984|Sanford, 1984]], pp. 85–86.</ref> Jefferson believed that original sin was a gross injustice.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Jefferson's unorthodox religious beliefs became an important issue in the [[1800 United States presidential election|1800 presidential election]].<ref name=Wood586>[[#Wood2010|Wood, 2010]], p. 586.</ref> Federalists attacked him as an [[atheist]]. As president, Jefferson countered the accusations by praising religion in his inaugural address and attending services at the Capitol.<ref name=Wood586/>

==== Islam ====
In October 1765, while Jefferson was still a law student he bought a copy of the [[Quran]] from the year 1734.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Manseau |first1=Peter |title=Why Thomas Jefferson Owned a Qur'an |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-thomas-jefferson-owned-qur-1-180967997/ |access-date=December 21, 2024 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> He had the Quran shipped from England to Williamsburg, Virginia.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Surprising Story Of 'Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an' |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/10/12/230503444/the-surprising-story-of-thomas-jeffersons-quran}}</ref> He was interested in comparative religions. [[Keith Ellison]] was sworn in on Jefferson's copy of the Quran.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLRCk68BZ00 |title=How Muslims Influenced Thomas Jefferson and America's Founders {{!}} American Muslims |date=December 19, 2024 |last=PBS |access-date=December 21, 2024 |via=YouTube}}</ref>

===Banks===
[[File:Alexander Hamilton portrait by John Trumbull 1806.jpg|thumb|Jefferson opposed Treasury Secretary [[Alexander Hamilton]]'s proposal to establish a government bank, and the two emerged as political rivals during [[Presidency of George Washington|George Washington's presidency]].]]

Jefferson distrusted government banks and opposed public borrowing, which he thought created long-term debt, bred monopolies, and invited dangerous speculation as opposed to productive labor.<ref>[[#Malone81|Malone, 1981]], pp. 140–143.</ref> In one letter to Madison, he argued each generation should curtail all debt within 19 years, and not impose a long-term debt on subsequent generations.<ref>[[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], pp. 224–225.</ref>

In 1791, President Washington asked Jefferson, then secretary of state, and Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, if the Congress had the authority to create a [[First Bank of the United States|national bank]]. While Hamilton believed so, Jefferson and Madison thought a national bank would ignore the needs of individuals and farmers, and would violate the [[Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Tenth Amendment]] by assuming powers not granted to the federal government by the states.<ref>[[#Bailey2007|Bailey, 2007]], p. 82; [[#Wood2010|Wood, 2010]], p. 144; [[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], p. 249.</ref> Hamilton successfully argued that the [[implied powers]] given to the federal government in the Constitution supported the creation of a national bank, among other federal actions.

Jefferson used agrarian resistance to banks and speculators as the first defining principle of an opposition party, recruiting candidates for Congress on the issue as early as 1792.<ref>[[#Ferling13|Ferling, 2013]], pp. 221–222.</ref> As president, Jefferson was persuaded by Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin to leave the bank intact but sought to restrain its influence.<ref>[[#Wood2010|Wood, 2010]], pp. 293–295.</ref>{{efn|The First Bank of the U.S. was eventually abolished in 1811 by a heavily Republican Congress.<ref>[[#Wood2010|Wood, 2010]], pp. 295–296.</ref>}}

===Slavery===
{{Main|Thomas Jefferson and slavery}}
[[File:Jefferson slaves.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Farm Book page|Page 30 of Jefferson's 1795 Farm Book, which lists 163 slaves at Monticello]]

Scholars give radically differing interpretations on [[Thomas Jefferson and slavery|Jefferson's views and relationship with slavery]].<ref name="Cogliano-2008" /> Opinions range from "emancipationists" who view him as an early [[Abolitionism|proto-abolitionist]], who subsequently made pragmatic compromises with the [[Slave Power|slave power]] to [[Secession in the United States|preserve the union]]; to "[[Historical revisionism|revisionists]]", who argue that he in fact entrenched the institution in American society; with people also having more nuanced opinions, who either argue that Jefferson held inconsistent views on the institution throughout his lifetime or that both interpretations are too overly simplistic.<ref name="Cogliano-2008" />

Jefferson lived in a planter economy largely dependent upon slavery, and as a wealthy landholder, used slave labor for his household, plantation, and workshops. He first recorded his slaveholding in 1774, when he counted 41 enslaved people.<ref>[[#Cogliano|Cogliano, 2006]], p. 219; [[#Onuf07|Onuf, 2007]], p. 258.</ref> Over his lifetime he enslaved about 600 people; he inherited about 175 people while most of the remainder were people born on his plantations.<ref name="TJFSlaveryFAQ">[[#TJFSlaveryFAQ|TJF: Slavery at Monticello – Property]]</ref> Jefferson purchased some slaves in order to reunite their families. He sold approximately 110 people for economic reasons, primarily slaves from his outlying farms.<ref name="TJFSlaveryFAQ" /><ref>[[#Gordon08|Gordon-Reed, 2008]], p. 292.</ref> In 1784, when the number of people he enslaved likely was approximately 200, he began to divest himself of many slaves, and by 1794 he had divested himself of 161 individuals.<ref name="PBS Stanton">{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/slaves/stanton.html |title=The Slaves' Story – Jefferson's "family" – Jefferson's Blood – Frontline |last=Stanton |first=Lucia Cinder |website=PBS |access-date=December 30, 2019}}</ref>{{efn|The 135 slaves, which included Betty Hemings and her ten children, that Jefferson acquired from Wayles's estate made him the second-largest slave owner in Albemarle County with a total of 187 slaves. The number fluctuated from around 200 slaves until 1784 when he began to give away or sell slaves. By 1794 he had gotten rid of 161 individuals.<ref name="PBS Stanton" />}}

Approximately 100 slaves lived at Monticello at any given time. In 1817, the plantation recorded its largest slave population of 140 individuals.<ref>[[#Wiencek12|Wiencek, 2012]], p. 13</ref>

Jefferson once said, "My first wish is that the labourers may be well treated".<ref name=TJFSlaveryFAQ/> Jefferson did not work his slaves on Sundays and Christmas and he allowed them more personal time during the winter months.<ref>[[#TJFSlaveryWork|TJF: Slavery at Monticello – Work]]</ref> Some scholars doubt Jefferson's benevolence,<ref>[[#Wiencek12|Wiencek, 2012]], pp. 114, 122.</ref> noting cases of excessive slave whippings in his absence. His nail factory was staffed only by enslaved children. Many of the enslaved boys became tradesmen. Burwell Colbert, who started his working life as a child in Monticello's Nailery, was later promoted to the supervisory position of butler.<ref>[[#TJFNailery|TJF: Thomas Jefferson's Monticello – Nailery]],<br />[[#Wiencek12|Wiencek, 2012]], p. 93.</ref>

Jefferson felt slavery was harmful to both slave and master but had reservations about releasing slaves from captivity, and advocated for gradual emancipation.<ref name=TJFslavery>[[#TJFslavery|TJF: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery]]</ref><ref>[[#Ferling2000|Ferling, 2000]], p. 161.</ref><ref>[[#Howe09|Howe, 2009]], p. 74.</ref> In 1779, he proposed gradual voluntary training and resettlement to the Virginia legislature, and three years later drafted legislation allowing slaveholders to free their own slaves.<ref name="Meacham, 2012, p. 105"/> In his draft of the Declaration of Independence, he included a section, stricken by other Southern delegates, criticizing King George III for supposedly forcing slavery onto the colonies.<ref>[[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], p. 475.</ref> In 1784, Jefferson proposed the abolition of slavery in all western U.S. territories, limiting slave importation to 15 years.<ref name=Ferling_2000_p287>[[#Ferling2000|Ferling 2000]], p. 287.</ref> Congress, however, failed to pass his proposal by one vote.<ref name=Ferling_2000_p287/> In 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, a partial victory for Jefferson that terminated slavery in the Northwest Territory. Jefferson freed his slave Robert Hemings in 1794 and he freed his cook slave James Hemings in 1796.<ref>[[#Finkelman1994|Finkelman, 1994]], p. 215.</ref> Jefferson freed his runaway slave [[Harriet Hemings]] in 1822. Upon his death in 1826, Jefferson freed five male Hemings slaves in his will.<ref>[[#Finkelman1994|Finkelman, 1994]], pp. 220–221.</ref>

During his presidency, Jefferson allowed the diffusion of slavery into the [[Louisiana Territory]] hoping to prevent slave uprisings in Virginia and to prevent [[South Carolina]] secession.<ref>[[#Freehling05|Freehling, 2005]], p. 70.</ref> In 1804, in a compromise, Jefferson and Congress banned domestic slave trafficking for one year into the Louisiana Territory.<ref>[[#Wiencek12|Wiencek, 2012]], pp. 257–258.</ref> In 1806 he officially called for anti-slavery legislation terminating the import or export of slaves. Congress passed the law in 1807.<ref name=TJFslavery/><ref>[[#Du Bois|Du Bois, 1904]], pp. 95–96.</ref><ref name=Ferling_2000_p288>[[#Ferling2000|Ferling, 2000]], p. 288.</ref>

In 1819, Jefferson strongly opposed a Missouri statehood application amendment, which banned domestic slave importation and freed slaves at the age of 25 on grounds that it would destroy the union.<ref name=Ferling_2000_pp286_294>[[#Ferling2000|Ferling, 2000]], pp. 286, 294.</ref> In ''Notes on the State of Virginia'', he created controversy by calling slavery a moral evil for which the nation would ultimately have to account to God.<ref>[[#Ellis97|Ellis, 1997]], p. 87.</ref> Jefferson wrote of his "suspicion" that Black people were mentally and physically inferior to Whites, but argued that they nonetheless had innate human rights.<ref name="TJFslavery" /><ref>[[#Appleby|Appleby, 2003]], pp. 139–140.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Walker|first=Clarence E.|title=We Can't Go Home Again: An Argument About Afrocentrism|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=0195357302|pages=38|author-link=Clarence E. Walker}}</ref> He therefore supported colonization plans that would transport freed slaves to another country, such as [[Liberia]] or [[Sierra Leone]], though he recognized the impracticability of such proposals.<ref>[[#Peterson70|Peterson, 1970]], pp. 998–999; [[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], p. 478; [[#Helo|Helo, 2013]], p. 105.</ref> According to [[Eric Foner]], "In 1824 Jefferson proposed that the federal government purchase and deport 'the increase of each year' (that is, children), so that the slave population would age and eventually disappear."<ref>Foner, Eric, "Lincoln and Colonization", in Foner, Eric, ed., ''Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World'', New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008, p. 139.</ref>

During his presidency, Jefferson was for the most part publicly silent on the issue of slavery and emancipation,<ref name=TJFAntiSlaveryActions>[[#TJFAntiSlaveryActions|TJF:Jefferson's Antislavery Actions]]</ref> as the Congressional debate over slavery and its extension caused a dangerous north–south rift among the states, with talk of a northern confederacy in New England.<ref>[[#DiLo|DiLorenzo, 1998, Yankee Confederates]]</ref>{{efn|[[Aaron Burr]] was offered help in obtaining the governorship of New York by [[Timothy Pickering]] if he could persuade New York to go along, but the secession effort failed when Burr lost the election.}} The violent attacks on white slave owners during the [[Haitian Revolution]] due to injustices under slavery supported Jefferson's fears of a race war, increasing his reservations about promoting emancipation.<ref name=TJFslavery/><ref>[[#Meacham|Meacham, 2012]], pp. 255, 275–278.</ref> After numerous attempts and failures to bring about emancipation,<ref>[[#Ferling|Ferling, 2000]], p. 287.</ref> Jefferson wrote privately in an 1805 letter to [[William A. Burwell]], "I have long since given up the expectation of any early provision for the extinguishment of slavery among us." That same year he also related this idea to [[George Logan (Pennsylvania politician)|George Logan]], writing, "I have most carefully avoided every public act or manifestation on that subject."<ref>[[#TJFSlaveryQuotes|TJF: Quotations on slavery (May 11, 1805)]]</ref>

====Jefferson–Hemings controversy====
{{Main|Jefferson–Hemings controversy}}
{{See also|Sally Hemings}}
[[File:Cock ca1804 attrib to JamesAkin AmericanAntiquarianSociety.png|thumb|An 1804 cartoon depicting Jefferson as a rooster and [[Sally Hemings]] as a hen]]

Claims that Jefferson fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings after his wife's death have been debated since 1802. In that year [[James T. Callender]], after being denied a position as [[postmaster]], alleged Jefferson had taken Hemings as a concubine and fathered several children with her.<ref>In 1853, [[William Wells Brown]] published a novel called ''[[Clotel; or, The President's Daughter]]'' alluding to Jefferson. This is the first novel in America published by anyone of African descent.[[#Hyland2009|Hyland, 2009]], pp. ix, 2–3.</ref> In 1998, a panel of researchers conducted a [[Y-DNA]] study of living descendants of Jefferson's uncle, Field, and of a descendant of Hemings's son, [[Eston Hemings]]. The results showed a match with the male Jefferson line.<ref>[[#Foster|Foster et al., 1998]]</ref>{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}} Subsequently, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) formed a nine-member research team of historians to assess the matter.{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}} The TJF report concluded that "the DNA study&nbsp;... indicates a high probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered Eston Hemings".{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}}<ref>[[#TJFConclusions|TJF: Report of the Research Committee on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings – Conclusions]]</ref>{{efn|The minority report authored by White Wallenborn concluded "the historical evidence is not substantial enough to confirm nor for that matter to refute his paternity of any of the children of Sally Hemings. The DNA studies certainly enhance the possibility but&nbsp;... do not prove Thomas Jefferson's paternity".<ref>[[#TJFMinority|TJF: Minority Report of the Monticello Research Committee on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings]]</ref>}} The TJF also concluded that Jefferson likely fathered all of Hemings's children listed at Monticello.{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}}{{efn|Sally Heming's children recorded at Monticello included: "Harriet (born 1795; died in infancy); Beverly (born 1798); an unnamed daughter (born 1799; died in infancy); Harriet (born 1801); Madison (born 1805); and Eston (born 1808)".{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}}}}

In July 2017, the TJF announced that archeological excavations at Monticello had revealed what they believe to have been Sally Hemings's quarters, adjacent to Jefferson's bedroom.<ref name="nbc">{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/thomas-jefferson-sally-hemings-living-quarters-found-n771261 |first=Michael |last=Cottman |title=Historians Uncover Slave Quarters of Sally Hemings at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello |work=NBC News |date=July 3, 2017 |access-date=February 4, 2018 }}</ref><ref name="wapost">{{cite news |first=Krissah |last=Thompson |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/for-decades-they-hid-jeffersons-mistress-now-monticello-is-making-room-for-sally-hemings/2017/02/18/d410d660-f222-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html |url-access=subscription |title=For decades they hid Jefferson's relationship with her. Now Monticello is making room for Sally Hemings |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 18, 2017 |access-date=February 4, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227035553/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/for-decades-they-hid-jeffersons-mistress-now-monticello-is-making-room-for-sally-hemings/2017/02/18/d410d660-f222-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html |archive-date= February 27, 2018 }}</ref> Since the results of the DNA tests were made public, the consensus among most historians has been that Jefferson had a sexual relationship with Sally Hemings and that he was the father of her son Eston Hemings.<ref>
* {{cite journal |doi=10.1353/aq.2019.0017 |quote=The general consensus among historians now agrees with Madison Hemings's version of the relationship between his mother and father ... |title=Slave Life at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello |journal=American Quarterly |volume=71 |pages=247–264 |year=2019 |last1=Wilkinson |first1=A. B. |s2cid=150519408 }}
* {{cite magazine |last=Lepore |first=Jill |date=September 22, 2008 |title=President Tom's Cabin: Jefferson, Hemings, and a Disclaimed Lineage. |magazine=The New Yorker |quote=[T]oday most historians agree with the conclusion of a research committee convened by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, at Monticello: Jefferson "most likely was the father of all six of Sally Hemings’s children." |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/09/22/president-toms-cabin |url-access=limited |access-date=November 21, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180620124734/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/09/22/president-toms-cabin |archive-date= June 20, 2018 }}
* {{cite journal |quote=[T]he new scholarly consensus is that Jefferson and Hemings were sexual partners ... Whether Jefferson fathered all of Hemings's children is still unclear. |jstor = 2674361|title = Jefferson: Post-DNA|journal = The William and Mary Quarterly|volume = 57|issue = 1|pages = 125–138|last1 = Ellis|first1 = Joseph J.|year = 2000|doi = 10.2307/2674361|pmid = 18271151}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/819-updating-a-life-the-case-of-thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings |title=Updating a Life: The Case of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings |date=December 9, 2011 |work=[[Library of America]] |quote=Most historians now agree that a preponderance of evidence—genetic, circumstantial, and oral historical—suggests that Jefferson was the father of all of Sally Hemings's children.}}
</ref>

A minority of scholars maintain the evidence is insufficient to prove Jefferson's paternity conclusively. Based on DNA and other evidence, they note the possibility that additional Jefferson males, including his brother Randolph Jefferson and any one of Randolph's four sons, or his cousin, could have fathered Sally Hemings's children.<ref>[[#Hyland2009|Hyland, 2009]], pp. 30–31, 79; [[#TJHS|Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society]]</ref> In 2002, historian [[Merrill Peterson]] said: "in the absence of direct documentary evidence either proving or refuting the allegation, nothing conclusive can be said about Jefferson's relations with Sally Hemings."<ref name="Peterson 2002 p. 43">[[#Peterson2002|Peterson (2002), p. 43]]</ref> Concerning the 1998 DNA study, Peterson said that "the results of the DNA testing of Jefferson and Hemings descendants provided support for the idea that Jefferson was the father of at least one of Sally Hemings's children".<ref name="Peterson 2002 p. 43"/>

After Jefferson's death in 1826, although not formally [[manumission#United States|manumitted]], Sally Hemings was allowed by Jefferson's daughter Martha to live in [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]] as a [[free negro|free woman]] with her two sons until her death in 1835.<ref>[[#Reed97|Gordon-Reed, 1997]], pp. 657–660.</ref>{{efn|[[Annette Gordon-Reed]] notes that it would have been legally challenging to free Sally Hemings, due to Virginia laws mandating the support of older slaves and requiring special permission for freed slaves to remain within the state.<ref>[[#Reed97|Gordon-Reed, 1997]], pp. 658–659.</ref>}} The [[Monticello Association]] refused to allow Sally Hemings' descendants the right of burial at Monticello.{{sfn|CBSNews2019}}