Summary Of The Notes On The State Of Virginia

The Notes on the State of Virginia is a book written by Thomas Jefferson in 1781 in which he discusses the resources, landscape, and overall quality of the state. Through this book, Jefferson reveals almost as much information about himself as he does about Virginia. He discusses his opinions on controversial issues such as true freedom, slavery, and race.

Jefferson was strongly opposed the centralization of power in government. He believed that for citizens to be truly free they needed individual liberties. In query seventeen, Jefferson expresses his concerns on the freedom of religion in Virginia. The Anglicans controlled Virginia’s government for such a long time it allowed the Anglican office holders to pass laws oppressing and condemning

He acknowledges the affects slavery has had on citizens when he says, “There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us.” Jefferson is pointing out that slavery has caused and will continue to cause society to be miserable and could even possibly lead to the downfall of our society. He justifies the continuation later, in query eighteen, by explaining that humans are an imitative by nature and this hatred is passed down from the masters of the slaves to their children when the child sees the horrid act. This allows the cycle of racism to be passed down from generation to generation. He declares this quality to be the downfall of man and that as long as this oppression is allowed, man will continue to enslave human beings unless forced not to. He also states that he is scared for his country because God is just and justice will rein true in the end. On the other hand, Jefferson was an active slave holder while he was writing this book so many view him as a hypocrite on this

Even as Jefferson talked about Virginia’s lack of gold or pure iron, he would justify the shortcoming and counter it with a strength. This could possibly be seen as an attempt to try and get the capital to be moved somewhere within the state. In query six, Jefferson compares animals found in Europe and America by their size and points out very directly the fact that many animals found in both the new and old worlds are bigger in America. He said “There are particular instances, well attested, where individuals of this country have imported good breeders from England, and have improved their size by care in the course of some years” validating the claim that Jefferson viewed the amount and size of these resources as a competition between nations. This proves Jefferson’s defensiveness in regards to America and the need to establish its legitimacy as a free nation. Jefferson points out that Europe had been established long before it started producing scholars such as Homer and Shakespeare, but even in America’s short life we are already responsible for geniuses like Benjamin Franklin and war heroes like George Washington. He does this in an attempt to validate America to Europe and the world as a great, prosperous land that may have few shortcomings but undoubtedly compensates for