Q Thomas Jefferson often serves as the personification of a contradiction between the ideal of equality, on the one hand, and the reality of inequality, at the core of the American nation. After reading Chapter 7, and the excerpt from Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia in the Yawp reader (titled “Thomas Jefferson’s Racism”) answer the following questions: how did Jefferson’s election to the presidency promise a future of equality for all Americans? What do his comments in his Notes on the State of Virginia about Native Americans and black people suggest about who Jefferson considered to be “American”? How did Native Americans, black Americans, and women challenge prejudices against them by their actions during Jefferson’s presidency, and during the War of 1812?
View Related Questions