Thomas Jefferson, the brilliant but conflicted (some might say hypocritical) man. This was the subject of our outing today. Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, located on a hilltop just south of Charlottesville, encompassing 5,000 acres.
Above: from the pond at the visitors center
The epitaph on the obelisk marking Jefferson’s grave and etched as dictated by Jefferson himself stated his three most prized accomplishments: authorship of the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and his founding of the University of Virginia. That’s it and no more Jefferson wrote.
No mention of his two terms as President or his roles as Secretary of State, Vice President, or the Louisiana Purchase. The three he chose were all about ideas and institutions that would outlast him: the rights of man, freedom of conscience, and education.
Given that Jefferson was an advocate for abolishing the enslavement of people one wonders why he never freed his own. It turns out that he amassed quite a debt during his life and his enslaved people served as collateral for that debt. But that doesn’t completely explain his hypocritical behavior as he continued his lavish spending never trying to rein it in order to reduce his debt and free his enslaved people.
