Notes on the State of Virginia (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press) by Thomas Jefferson

Notes on the State of Virginia (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press) Reviews

• 
  Kelly

  A deeply disturbing book that illuminates the dark vision of a founder. Sadly, a somewhat White Nationalist manifesto by the man who penned the DOI. Generations of revisionist history have turned a kind eye towards a man that laid the groundwork for some of the cultural pathology we suffer through today.
• 
  Mohammad Ali Shamekhi

  نمره ی واقعی: دو و نیم
  
  جفرسون در این نوشتار کوتاه به آزادی مذهبی اشاره می کند. او معتقد است فعالیت های ذهنی و رفتارهای بدنی اولا و بالذات تحت سلطه ی قوانین قرار ندارند، بلکه دولت ثانیا و با هدف حفظ حقوق دیگران اموری را که به آزادی دیگران لطمه می زند، محدود می سازد. تازه این محدودیت هم برآمده از خواست افراد است برای حفظ حقوقشان. بر اساس این مقدمات جفرسون معتقد است تبعیض مذهبی در قانون به دو دلیل اشتباه است: اول اینکه مردم خواست محدودیت باورها و فعالیت های ذهنی خود را به دولت محول نکرده اند و ثانیا اینکه اصولا این فعالیت های ذهنی و باورها به محدودیت حقوق دیگران لطمه ای نمی زند - یعنی حتی اگر حق محدودیتش هم به دولت داده شده بود، دولت باز دلیلی برای محدود کردن آن نداشت
  
  از سوی دیگر جفرسون معتقد است که محدودیت مذهبی از نظر مضراتش نیز کار نادرستی است: اولا به این دلیل که فرد محدود شده و گمراه نه تنها از این راه هدایت نمی شود بلکه جری تر نیز می گردد؛ و ثانیا به این دلیل که تنوع دینی نه امری منفی بلکه برعکس امری پر از فایده برای دینداران است. این فرقه های دینی هستند که یکدیگر را نقد و تعدیل می کنند. اصولا دخالت دولت در اموری که به دانش و مباحثه و خردورزی مربوط است نتیجه ی عکس می دهد. از این مطلب هم نباید گذشت که کسانی که قرار است محدودیت ها را اعمال کنند خود انسان اند و قضاوتشان بهتر از بقیه نیست
  
  به نظرم مهمترین جمله ی جفرسون در این نوشتار اینه
  

  
  تنها خطا است که به حمایت دولت نیاز دارد؛ زیرا حقیقت خود از پس مشکلاتش بر می آید
  
• 
  Caroline

  Read for class. Parts interesting, parts insanely dull. And ridiculously hypocritical.
• 
  Robin

  Wow the man was racist. Holy yikes y'all.
• 
  Dora Smith

  One of those shocking books I'll always be glad I read
  
  This key historical document was required for a class on southern slavery but until now I never saw a reason to actually read the dry old 18th century document.
  
  Let me begin by stating the book beats Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Catcher in the Rye for how is it anyone is ALLOWED to read this book. It is one of the more shocking things I've ever read in my life. Some things were required just so we could see what thoroughly sick and disgusting people the southern planter elite were.
  
  One does get a clear understanding of what DID go on in Jefferson's mind. He was well educated and a good writer, and liberal by the standards of his time, but- ooh, la, la.
  
  I did not read every word. Some things that stoox out: He wrote in detail about Indians without knowing a thing about them and didn't think they were fully human though they did hsve some basic rights. Black people innately have no emotions. He wrote pages about two Albino women. When they had children with Black men their offspring had odd white spots in various places. He essentially thought Black people are a curiosity. (He wrote at great length about every aspect of the natural world so just couldn't leave out the subhuman people.) White European craftsmen need to be kept in Europe and our colonies just import the finished goods, on account we don't need the effects of their coarse ways!
  
  The general tone and content of the book reveal Jefferson to be as foggy headed and generally sick as many a liberal upper middle class American. Not only is it no surprise he slept with Sally Hemmings, I'd expect him to have slept with his children as well! Yick in capital letters!
• 
  Saul

  Let's start on a positive note with my favorite zinger:
  

  In Great Britain it is said their Constitution relies on the House of Commons for honesty and the Lords for wisdom... which would be a rational reliance if honesty were to be bought with money and if wisdom were hereditary.

  
  
  Jefferson has a lot to say about Virginia. Some of it is really interesting, like his discussion of the rivers and passes in the mountains. Some of it is dull, like his list of every Act of Parliament that impacted the borders of the state. Some of it is inspired, like his analysis of the moral corruption of slavery or comparison of fauna in the two hemispheres. I was interested in his agricultural analysis, where he thought tobacco farming would die out in favor of wheat farming; that didn't happen at all. He also thought Virginia (and Kentucky, which was part of it) would make good horse-raising country, which did happen.
  
  Unfortunately, there's also a lot of racist rubbish. Jefferson should really know better; in fact, he does know better. He analyzes the great scholars and artists produced by white Americans, black Americans and native Americans, noting that perhaps we don't expect black Americans to be doing so well, what with the centuries of grinding oppression. But he shrugs off this better judgment in favor of familiar racism. Too bad.
• 
  Tiffany

  A resource to understand life in early virginia
  
  Compuled as a series of queries and answers, this resource is best used to get a feel for early Virginia - the thinking of its leaders, the nature of civil and common life. I came to this resource because it was a source for another book I was read on American slavery. In thid book, slaves are just a piece of property handled as casually as you would land and animals. And dissected and evaluated as you would an interesting specimen in a laboratory. It's clear through these notes and other material that we have glamorized the founding fathers of this nation, and have whitewashed our early history to make it more pleasant.
  
  Because this resource is in a journal style, you do need to have a general understanding of colonial America and bring a researcher mindset. You do not just read this pamphlet as one would a novel. If you have the patience and can weed through the more mundane material (like detailed decription of waterways and animal life), you can glean some nuggets that will challenge your thinking about racism and its roots.
  
  
• 
  Andrew Noselli

  This was more of a geographic survey and demographic history than a literary or philosophical work which would have allowed Jefferson's personality and cultural background to be fully in evidence. Although I have yet to familiarize myself with his voluminous epistolary correspondence regarding administrative, business and military matters, it seems from this work, together with his autobiography, that Jefferson was as much of a learned gentleman as any of the founding fathers, although he was probably outshone as a writer by John Adams, and was indubitably less of a social visionary than Abraham Lincoln in regard to black emancipation; however, I still think he was a true American and a great leader. It's a shame we don't have the privilege of reading more books by him. I'm sure he could have written an 18th-century version of "The Art of the Deal."
• 
  Pamela

  This book was "homework" for an anti-racism class that I took online with The Rev. Dr. Jackie Lewis. It was eye-opening, heart-breaking, and so sad to see that one of our founding fathers had such disregard for both the Native Americans and the African Americans with whom he dealt. In this time of such civil unrest, it was humbling reading to raise my awareness - once again - of the premises on which our country was built...
  ...all (white) men (who own land taken from the Native Americans) are created equal.
  
• 
  Steven Maikoski

  For the true history buff
  
  In this book Thomas Jefferson repeats questions given to him from different sources and answers each in good order. He covers a lot of details concerning the state of Virginia, including the many tribes of American aborigines, the construction of various buildings, the proposal for an educational system within the state, and remarks about slavery. It was very interesting.
• 
  Lee Murray

  An odd little book, consisting of replies to 23 queries concerning the state of Virginia.
  
  Simultaneously interesting and tedious, it covers everything a citizen of 1781 could possibly want to know from currency, political structure, opinions on education, employment, workforce, the financial impact of slavery—it’s all here.
  
  Not an easy read. Sometimes very tedious. Worth the time.
  
  Recommended.
• 
  Valerie

  Although I don't agree with everything Jefferson wrote here, I appreciated the insight this work gives into the third president's mind as well more generally for the people of this time period.
• 
  Dave Benner

  Perhaps the most important book of the 18th century.
• 
  Abigail Douglas

  Disturbing but historically speaking, very interesting
• 
  Lukas Evan

  White guys, am I right?
• 
  iman!

  i hate this man and his stupid school
• 
  Elize

  Fuck jefferson all my homies hate jefferson
• 
  Bodea

  I read this for a class recently. It was a chore to get through. The writing was dull, hypocritical, and, of course, racist. If you want an idea of what he was truly like/about, read it.
• 
  Jessica

  Thomas Jefferson likes nothing more than a nice, scientific approach to life. Confused as to how to name all those plants and animals in North America? Don't be - old T.J.'s got a few charts up his sleeve. Minerals? Named! Form of government? Outlined! Rivers of North America? Listed! Church and State? Separated!
  All of this is very well, if somewhat dull. The juicy bits happen, of course, when he applies that excel-spreadsheet brain of his to that most irrational of subjects: race. At first, he seems to approach the differences between Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans as he does everything else: as a removed scientific observer taking lab notes on skin color, hair, body types etc. But then, the rational side of his brain takes a vacation and he produces perhaps the most disturbingly racist diatribe in a long tradition of disturbingly racist diatribes from Euro-Americans. It is jolting to picture Jefferson putting down his quill after a long day of penning lines that describe the emotional inferiority of African slaves. Perhaps he pulls up a bottle of wine on the dumb waiter or plays his violin. One thing this "emotionally superior" white man does not do? Recognize his own African-American children who live in his house as slaves. This is not only morally reprehensible, but plain awkward.
• 
  Linda Munro

  This is a difficult book to rate; the grammar, the spelling, the tone are so different from what I am use to. So, why did I read it? I am taking a free online course through coursera.org, called History of the Slave South; Queries XIV and XVIII of this book were required reading.
  
  I began scanning through the book, and found myself rather engrossed by the book; that is after I made it through the introduction by William Peden. This book is a true early history of Virginia, although I am not positive that this was Jefferson’s original intention, nor is it like any other history book I have ever read. Jefferson seems to have wanted to put together a simple statement on what constituted the state of Virginia. He began by listing the state’s and proceeded by covering everything from the Native American, to animals, climate and laws. There was so much of interest within this book that I found myself reading the entire book rather than simply the required sections.
  
  When all is said and done I believe that this book deserves a 5 star rating. Being involved with the newly created local historical society, I understand the importance of this document, it gives us a look at not only the original history of the state of Virginia, but a look at an era that otherwise would have dissolved with time.
  
  
• 
  Phillip

  There is no doubt that the Notes is an extremely important work of (comparatively) early American political, philosophical, and natural theory, and there definitely are some fascinating parts. But there are also parts that simply dragged, or were so intensely based on numbers or exacting descriptions that they are of almost no interest to modern (or casual) readers.
  What are most interesting are Jefferson's seemingly conflicted ideas about the unethical/impractical condition of slavery but also the inherent inferiority of African Americans, and Jefferson's musings on the proper role of government and religion.
• 
  Christian

  Though I am a bit of a history buff, I was especially caught up by Jefferson's careful use of logic to deduce the existence of the woolly mammoth as a likely defunct and separate species from the elephant.
  
  I yawned my way through his accounts of rivers and minerals, though. Get to the politics, buddy!
• 
  Whitney Borup

  If this guy weren't so boring I wouldn't mind that he is so racist! Just kidding...because he's really racist. Plus, his reasoning falls apart when he valorizes Native Americans and criticizes African Americans. In this scenario, whites are more like blacks than whites are like Indians! We're not native to the land either! Weirdo.
• 
  Hannah Withers

  This book is a testament to my own personal strength... goodness, Tom, you had a lot of words. The beginning of this was very technical, but to be fair - this was pretty much a textbook. I can't complain.
  
  [unfortunately I'm not done with this, I still have to read it, more thoroughly now, and pray for well wishes on my essay Monday! ah, my.]
• 
  Cheryl

  This is an informative, interesting study of Virgina in the late 18th-early 19th century. Jefferson's interests in anthropology, linguistics, geography, geology, and many other social and natural sciences are clearly evident in this work.
• 
  Ke

  Given that I only read a free online version of this book, I may have missed some maps and diagrams. Still, from what I read, this work provided relevant information on the ideology and leadership of Jefferson's time.