Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves (35 page)

4.
Ibid., p. 7. “Your republic has instructed us,” wrote another Frenchman to TJ, “and your institutions will perhaps one day establish in our country that which English and American philosophers have thus far only led us to hope for.” Pulley, “Thomas Jefferson at the Court of Versailles,” p. 27.

5.
Adams,
Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson
, p. 150.

6.
Pulley, “Thomas Jefferson at the Court of Versailles,” p. 69.

7.
TJ to Brissot de Warville, Aug. 16, 1786, in
Papers
, vol. 10.

8.
Quoted in Adams,
Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson
, pp. 134–35.

9.
Ibid., pp. 136–37.

10.
“Jefferson's Notes from Condorcet on Slavery,” n.d., in
Papers
, vol. 22.

11.
Popkin,
Third Force in Seventeenth-Century Thought
, pp. 51, 52.

12.
Quoted in Adams,
Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson
, p. 139.

13.
TJ to Démeunier [June 26, 1786], in
Papers
, vol. 10. Adams,
Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson
, pp. 137, 147.

14.
“A Bill Concerning Slaves,” in Ford,
Works of Thomas Jefferson
, vol. 2.

15.
Pulley, “Thomas Jefferson at the Court of Versailles,” p. 49.

16.
TJ to Brissot de Warville, Feb. 11, 1788, in
Papers
, vol. 12.

17.
Waldstreicher,
Runaway America
, p. 219.

18.
Adams,
Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson
, pp. 11–12, 187.

19.
Pulley, “Thomas Jefferson at the Court of Versailles,” p. 40.

20.
D'Souza,
What's So Great About America
, p. 113.

21.
Bancroft to TJ, Sept. 16, 1788, in
Papers
, vol. 14.

22.
Ibid.

23.
Wolf,
Race and Liberty in the New Nation
, p. 54.

24.
McColley,
Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia
, pp. 158–59.

25.
Wolf,
Race and Liberty in the New Nation
, pp. 31–33.

26.
Thomas Jefferson, “Notes of a Tour Through Holland and the Rhine Valley,” March 3, 1788, in
Papers
, vol. 13.

27.
TJ to Short, April 9, 1788, in
Papers
, vol. 13.

28.
TJ to Edward Coles, Aug. 25, 1814, in
Papers
, Retirement Series, vol. 7.

29.
TJ to Jean Nicolas Démeunier [June 26, 1786].

30.
Short to TJ, Oct. 7, 1793, in
Papers
, vol. 27.

31.
“Jefferson's Notes from Condorcet on Slavery,” n.d., in
Papers
, vol. 14.

6. “To Have Good and Human Heart”

1.
TJ to Lewis, July 11, 1788, in
Papers
, vol. 13.

2.
Sarah N. Randolph,
Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson
, pp. 152–53; Randall,
Life of Thomas Jefferson
, vol. 1, pp. 552–53, cites the recollections of the enslaved gardener Wormley Hughes. TJ's daughter Martha, who was in the carriage, described the event; Hughes corroborated most of the details in a conversation with Randall, though Hughes said nothing about devotion.

3.
Malone,
Jefferson and the Rights of Man
, p. 246.

4.
TJ to Mary Jefferson Eppes, Jan. 17, 1800, in
Papers
, vol. 31. In the ensuing decades TJ made numerous arrivals at Monticello, and there is no record of the slaves repeating this emotional welcome.

5.
Martha Jefferson to TJ, May 3, 1787, in
Papers
, vol. 11.

6.
TJ was prescient: ten years later he had to put up money to save the plantation from creditors. Thomas Mann Randolph could never get out from under the mortgage, and eventually his son Thomas Jefferson Randolph sold the property. Wayson, “Martha Jefferson Randolph,” p. 276.

7.
Ibid., pp. 201–202, 206, 209.

8.
Martha Jefferson Randolph to TJ, June 23, 1798, in
Papers
, vol. 30.

9.
TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph Sr., Feb. 4, 1790, in
Papers
, vol. 16. TJ had inherited the property from John Wayles through his late wife. Marriage Settlement for Martha Jefferson, Feb. 21, 1790, in
Papers
, vol. 16. Gaines,
Thomas Mann Randolph
, p. 29.

10.
TJ to James Monroe, deleted portion, May 20, 1782, in
Papers
, vol. 6.

11.
TJ to Lewis, Dec. 19, 1786, in
Papers
, vol. 10.

12.
TJ to Randolph Jefferson, Sept. 25, 1792, in
Papers
, vol. 24.

13.
Jefferson Encyclopedia
, s.v. “Moldboard Plow,”
Monticello.org
.

14.
TJ to Charles Willson Peale, April 17, 1813, in
Farm Book
, p. 47.

15.
Notes on the State of Virginia.

16.
Jefferson Encyclopedia
, s.v. “Threshing Machine,”
Monticello.org
.

17.
Farm Book
, plate 77.

18.
Ibid.

19.
Senile corps: TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jan. 29, 1801, in
Papers
, vol. 32; Lucia Stanton, “Those Who Labor for My Happiness,” in Onuf,
Jeffersonian Legacies
, p. 155.

20.
TJ to Jean Nicolas Démeunier, April 29, 1795, in
Papers
, vol. 28.

21.
TJ to William Short, April 13, 1800, in
Papers
, vol. 31.

22.
Stanton, “Those Who Labor for My Happiness,” pp. 154–55.

23.
Martin, “Mr. Jefferson's Business,” p. lix.

24.
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello
, pp. 85–86.

25.
TJ to Démeunier, April 29, 1795.

26.
TJ to James Lyle, July 10, 1795, in
Papers
, vol. 28.

27.
TJ to William Temple, April 26, 1795, in
Papers
, vol. 28.

28.
Farm Book
, plate 46.

29.
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,
Travels Through the United States of North America
, vol. 2, p. 157.

30.
Stanton, “Those Who Labor for My Happiness,” p. 174n24.

31.
Ibid., p. 152.

32.
TJ to Banneker, Aug. 30, 1791, in
Papers
, vol. 22.

33.
Deed of Mortgage of Slaves to Van Staphorst & Hubbard, May 12, 1796, in
Papers
, vol. 29.

34.
TJ to Van Staphorst and Hubbard, Feb. 28, 1796, in
Papers
, vol. 28.

35.
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,
Travels Through the United States of North America
, vol. 2, p. 138.

36.
Malone,
Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty
, p. 179.

37.
Christopher Morris offers a fascinating analysis in “Articulation of Two Worlds.”

38.
Aside from being expensive, skilled white workers were not always reliable (many of them drank), and there were few of them; TJ told La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt that “there were not four stone masons in the whole county of Albemarle.” McLaughlin,
Jefferson and Monticello
, p. 70.

39.
Weld,
Travels Through the States of North America
, vol. 1, p. 147.

40.
George Washington described the Revolution as a struggle “for the purpose of rescuing America from impending Slavery.” Washington to Chastellux, May 7, 1781, in Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, vol. 22.

41.
Edmund S. Morgan, “Heart of Jefferson.”

42.
Preliminary Will of Tadeusz Kosciuszko [before May 5, 1798], in
Papers
, vol. 30.

7. What the Blacksmith Saw

1.
Randolph to Nicholas Trist, Nov. 2, 1818, Papers of the Trist, Randolph, and Burke families, accession no. 10487. The incident took place at Morven, owned by David Higginbotham.

2.
TJ to Jeremiah Goodman, March 5, 1813, in
Papers
, Retirement Series, vol. 5.

3.
TJ to Jeremiah Goodman, Jan. 6, 1815, in
Papers
, Retirement Series, vol. 8.

4.
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello
, p. 23.

5.
TJ to Lewis, July 11, 1788, in
Papers
, vol. 13.

6.
Memorandum for Nicholas Lewis, ca. Nov. 7, 1790, in
Papers
, vol. 18.

7.
TJ to Randolph, Feb. 3, 1793, in
Papers
, vol. 25.

8.
Bear and Stanton,
Jefferson's Memorandum Books
, vol. 1, p. 334; Stanton,
Free Some Day,
pp. 33, 36; Hochman, “Thomas Jefferson,” p. 72; TJ to Archibald Thweatt, May 29, 1810, in
Papers
, Retirement Series, vol. 2; McLaughlin,
Jefferson and Monticello
, pp. 103–104; William Page's salary, Bear and Stanton,
Jefferson's Memorandum Books
, vol. 2, p. 934.

9.
TJ to Randolph, Feb. 3, 1793, in
Papers
, vol. 26.

10.
During the Revolution, TJ brought in a British deserter, an alcoholic who lasted two years in the job.

11.
Randolph to TJ, April 22, 1798, in
Papers
, vol. 30. When Smith George was ill in 1798 and 1799, the nail boys' productivity plummeted. TJ to John McDowell, Oct. 22, 1798, in
Papers
, vol. 30; TJ to McDowell, March 21, 1799, in
Papers
, vol. 31.

12.
Stanton,
Free Some Day
, pp. 45–46, 48, 51, 170n73; Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello,
pp. 23–24. Campbell did not prepare the 1847 interview for publication until 1871.

13.
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello
, p. 6.

14.
Ibid.

15.
Ibid., p. 4.

16.
Ibid., p. 18.

17.
Ibid., p. 12.

18.
Gaye Wilson, lecture, Jefferson Library, International Center for Jefferson Studies, Sept. 2006.

19.
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello
, pp. 19, 23, 18, 19.

20.
Ibid., p. 19.

21.
Ibid., p. 13.

22.
Ibid., p. 17. In 1797, Polly married her cousin John Wayles Eppes.

23.
Ibid., pp. 15–16.

24.
Stanton,
Free Some Day
, pp. 33–34; Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello
, pp. 3, 18–19.

25.
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello
, pp. 14–15.

26.
Statement of Nailery Profits, Sept. 30, 1797, in
Papers
, vol. 29. McLaughlin,
Jefferson and Monticello
, p. 112; Stanton,
Free Some Day
, p. 34.

27.
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello
, p. 23.

28.
Randolph to TJ, Jan. 13, 1798, in
Papers
, vol. 30.

29.
Randolph to TJ, Feb. 26, 1798, in
Papers
, vol. 30.