Person

Thomas Jefferson

Related Excerpts

Signing of the Declaration of Independence

Prior Convictions

Did the Founders want us to be faithful to their faith?

Phillis Wheatley: an Eighteenth-Century Genius in Bondage

Vincent Carretta takes a look at the remarkable life of the first ever African-American woman to be published.
Trumbull painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Dusting Off the Declaration

The Declaration of Independence seems to Pauline Maier to be "peculiarly unsuited" for the role that it eventually came to play in America.
An abolitionist lithograph depicting enslaved people celebrating the Fourth of July while a white judge sits on bales of cotton with his feet on the Constitution, 1840

The Contradictory Revolution

Historians have long grappled with “the American Paradox” of Revolutionary leaders who fought for their own liberty while denying it to enslaved Black people.
Donald Trump; Alexander Hamilton.

Trump Is Hamiltonian, Not Jacksonian

He believes in Federalist 70’s “Energy in the Executive.”
A protestor holds up a sign which reads "tax the rich."
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The Founders Knew Great Wealth Inequality Could Destroy Us

At the founding of America, leaders predicted that a concentration of wealth would weaken the republic.
A throng of Trump supporters, some in colonial garb, march through Washington D.C.

The 19th-Century Precursors to the Crises of Trump’s America

Revisiting history shows that violence and constitutional disputes are nothing new in US politics.
Declaration of Independence marked up with red marker.

Here Are the Declaration of Independence’s Grievances Against King George III. Many Apply to Trump.

It’s uncanny.
Engraving of Founding Fathers reading the Declaration of Independence while onlookers rally.

Does America Have a Founding Philosophy?

It depends on how you read the Declaration’s “self-evident” truths.
Collage of school children, church windows, and a map of Oklahoma territory.

Oklahoma Is Asking the Supreme Court to Ignore History

The Founders had disagreements about the role of religion in America’s public schools, but there was always one line they would not cross.
An eagle grabbing the earth, focused on Latin America, in its talons.

What America Means to Latin Americans

In a new book, the Pulitzer Prize winner Greg Grandin tells the history of the hemisphere from south of the border.
U.S Custom House.

Lessons from Early America’s Tariff Wars

The 1790s debate shows that, even when they aim at moral goods, tariffs abet cronyism and corruption.
Harvester on farmland.

America’s Pernicious Rural Myth

An interview with Steven Conn about his new book, “Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is—and Isn’t.”
The ruins of Ft. Ticonderoga, and a note left in a knapsack a soldier carried in battle there.

A Knapsack’s Worth of Courage

Now, and for some years to come, we will need a lot less Paul Weiss, and a lot more Benjamin Warner.
Patrick Henry

Did Patrick Henry Really Say ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’?

The Virginia delegate may have spoken those words on March 23, 1775, but some historians doubt it.
An 1851 painting of Patrick Henry speaking to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

Discover Patrick Henry’s Legacy, Beyond His Revolutionary ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’ Speech

Delivered 250 years ago, the famous oration marked the Henry’s influence. The politician also served in key roles in Virginia’s state government.
Eve Ewing, and the cover of her book "Original Sins."

How Do We Combat the Racist History of Public Education?

On the schoolhouse’s role in enforcing racial hierarchy.
Dark, distorted painting of the American Revolution.

Tracing America’s Obsession With Conspiracy Theories Back to Its Founding

The revolutionary roots of a corrosive national pastime.
A mustache and a monocle with the preamble to the Constitution in its sights.

The Other Fear of the Founders

America’s early leaders were worried not only about demagogues like Donald Trump, but about the rise of an antidemocratic, wealthy elite that goads such men on.
Painting imagining Washington shaking hands with Lincoln in front of liberty's flame.
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Praising Washington in Lincoln’s Day

At the time of the Civil War, many Americans revered the nation’s Founding Fathers, and both supporters and opponents of slavery recruited them to their sides.