Jefferson's Agrarianism

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Jefferson’s main ideas of agrarianism had a huge influence upon American society. Jefferson believed “agrarianism promoted individualism and self-interest”. Agrarians looked at America as a garden of God and the farmers were chosen by God. In Jefferson’s “Query XIX: Manufactures” from Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson specifically states, “Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people.” Agrarianism gave economic independence and freedom to farmer and industrialism and urbanization would take that away. Jefferson believed that “America’s happiness and morality depends upon its recognition of agrarianism as the foundation of economic prosperity”. His ideas led to the Louisiana Purchase in