my stance on that is what i did with thomas jefferson.just remind everybody you're referring to the fact there's a historical novel you wrote in 1979 about sally hemings, who was the enslaved woman in the united states who had a relationship and bore seven children to thomas jefferson, the third president of the united states. why was it important for you to tell that story? i didn't think that it was as important as it turned out to be. i had looked at, you know, the relationship of this invisible woman with the most powerful man in the world, really, in the western world, it's a sort of half love, half hate story to tell. i mean, it was... it's operatic in its, you know, in its stance. and it was only after all the hullabaloo and all, you know, the controversy, which lasted for 38 years. mm. 38 years- _ and it was finally solved by dna. some people didn't actually want to accept that the story was true, that thomas jefferson had this relationship with a black woman. the jeffersonians didn't. the jeffersonians didn't want to accept it— t

thomas jefferson actually invented several things. he just never patented them. so lincoln still the only president a with a patent, but jefferson invented things. but mostly there were things like a clock and a nice little turntable and and a portable desk. they were all things that made things easier for him. he also had several hundred people. he was enslaving to do all the labor. lincoln was like, i don't have that. i'm the one doing all the labor. i think that these things can benefit me and farmers and other people like like me. so he came to the conclusion that this science and technology, and education would allow all americans to better their condition and it would allow all americans to have an equal chance and the race of life. so this was basically the idea that the government should take an active role in facilitating these things to do for people what people could not do by themselves or could not do as well as the government could do for them to make it easier to give access to everyone. so that's kind of the big picture things that lincoln was look

thomas jefferson and, john marshall were cousins. they despised each other, which was what a lot of the supreme court animosities were about for the first decade, in particular. but they were able to draw a distinction partizan judges and super partizan judges. and so they knew the partizanship was there. they just were to sort of like accept it until they were so ridiculously partizan that tried to get them kicked off supreme court like savages. so i don't that the early republicans necessarily a good supreme court model for what we should aspire but i think that there is a space for partizanship that's accepted and acknowledged. and i actually wonder if our supreme court, our relationship with the supreme court would be better if we stopped pretending like they weren't partizan. it functioned, they weren't partizan and said like, yes, these are the spoils come from the presidency. like go and approach it that way. mm hmm. yeah. i saw a hand over on this side of the room earlier. yes, i think this is on. okay. and rob baker, i'm fro

. >> so the first chapter the book is about monticello which is the plantation of •-ellipsis thomas jeffersons interesting to be because i think that jefferson many ways the body the sort of dissonance had the contradictions of the bargain project and to say that america is a place the provided unparalleled unimaginable opportunities for millions of people across generations in their ancestors could ever imagine also that so at the of millions millions of o other people to intergenerational us - both of those things, the story of america, not want to regard mother, they're entangled in one another and so jefferson think similarly bodies the sort of contradiction of americans what he wrote when the most important document of the history of theth western world, and also someone consider the 600 people in the course of his lifetime including four of his own children's what you wrote the declaration of independence that all men c are created equal to be wrote, in virginia about people are likely inferiorr to whites and the government of body and mind. i love in the same way the white people what

thomas jefferson and, john marshall were cousins. they despised each other, which was what a lot of the supreme court animosities were about for the first decade, in particular. but they were able to draw a distinction partizan judges and super partizan judges. and so they knew the partizanship was there. they just were to sort of like accept it until they were so ridiculously partizan that tried to get them kicked off supreme court like savages. so i don't that the early republicans necessarily a good supreme court model for what we should aspire but i think that there is a space for partizanship that's accepted and acknowledged. and i actually wonder if our supreme court, our relationship with the supreme court would be better if we stopped pretending like they weren't partizan. it functioned, they weren't partizan and said like, yes, these are the spoils come from the presidency. like go and approach it that way. mm hmm. yeah. i saw a hand over on this side of the room earlier. yes, i think this is on. okay. and rob baker, i'm fro

that line and my said no, it should begin with thomas jefferson saying that he's the most active in the earliest and the most persevering man of the revolution. and i said, no, it's much more appealing to make clear that he was a complete failure until middle age. i've got the jefferson quote here to. you. you were right. thank you. thank you. i'm glad we're having this taped. and i hope he's watching the new vindication doesn't come that often. it's hard to say how he the moment so meat i mean obviously he makes moment to a great extent but bundle of political gifts that he brings that he exclusively brings to the table in boston in those years a town that is for various reasons more sensitive to british overreach than are other towns, a town where he is obviously able to make his mark more ably than he would elsewhere, a town that religiously is fairly united, that's extremely literate but has an idea already has already about an into mind independent minded nonhierarchical church and so takes very easily to embrace as republicans republican ism very easily. it's all very for him. wha

so the first chapter of the book is about monticello which is the plantation of thomas jefferson. monticello was interesting for me because jefferson in many ways embodies the cognitive dissonance and contradictions of the american project which is to say that america is a place that is provided unparalleled unimaginable opportunities for millions across generations in ways that ancestors could never imagine. it has also done so at the direct expense of millions and millions of other people who have been intergenerational subjugators and oppressed. both of those things of the story of america. not one of her and what over there. they are both deeply entangled with one another. jefferson similarly embodies that contradictions of america. he is someone who wrote one of the most important documents in history of the western world and also some of who enslaved over 600 people over the course of this type of trip lifetime. he wrote in the declaration of independence that all men are created equal and saluda road and is a clumsy that black people are likely very to white in both endowmen

thomas jefferson who wrote those phrases 169 years ago and who edge his life to give the meaning? was one of the founders of the library of congress he knew that democracy must eventually be based on the foundation of an enlightened people. that is why placing facts within reach of the citizen becomes the business of a government. and that is why the first tuesday in every month is so important to our young friend and the farmers in the hills of virginia. you know. good morning, everyone. i'm marc selverstone, associate professor in presidential studies and chair of the presidential program at the university of virginia's miller center. and i'd like to welcome you to this discussion of nuclear brinkmanship.

as these deliberations are taking place, john adams invited thomas jefferson to a dinner with the white house and it was deemed the white house at this point because he had just moved in. they committed teaer they would not meddle in the election they were the time to side who isn't going to be the next president. it must have been a spectacularly awkward dinner, because at this point they hated each other and had spent months criticizing one another and their supporters writing terrible things in the newspapers. analysts, they committed to this peaceful transfer of power and it was the first transfer from one party to another. a couple of takeaways from this to these two elections together. peaceful transfer the power don't happen. they require attention, care or, they require commitment to that principle and the participants in 1796 and 1800 understood that. they understood how fragile these institutions were and they did not take peacefulness for granted. i think one of the greatest gifts to the people that came after them where that we could take it for granted, at least until 2021.

thomas jefferson governed for all americans, not just those in his party, and he did that as well. again, that is a president -- precedent that was extremely important in order for our nation to remain viable in the democracy that we claim ourselves to be. host: here is a quote from george washington which you have. a two-party system kindles the animosity of the past against another. fuhrman's occasionally ride, and insurrection. guest: and that sounds awfully familiar today at a time and we've had a two-party system for over 200 years. that is fundamentally what it is to be american, to a certain degree. we are here because we can hold our own beliefs, express our own beliefs, vote for the candidate who is most attractive to us. that is what makes us different. naturally, we are defiant in many ways of our differences. this time is no different than other times we experienced in our history. that is what history tells us. harry truman used to say there is nothing new in the world, but the history you don't know. we seen it all before. that said, we are facing existential crisis t

most notably thomas jefferson, and he puts together this extensive report on american farming. he also tries very hard to get congress to endorse an institution like the british parliament had established a board of agriculture. he also recommended national legislation, so he begins to see more active role for government and the promotion of agriculture. congress does not pass that board of agriculture, to his great disappointment. let me see what else is here. a question, did enslaved labor's help manage mount vernon during the war? washington has to enslaved overseers who are managing the plantations and supervising the farming and the labor at this plantations. david gray, the man i had spoken about, had muddy a whole plantation. and they play a very important role in trying to find some way to increase revenue during the revolutionary war. he has them grow tobacco. he thinks maybe he could make some money from that, and he instructed both of the two overseers who are involved, they have been involved in tobacco before. it's not terribly successful this experiment, because o

i knew travel back in time ahoma little further and be like thomas jefferson.erson hey how my doing as president? you're doing great joe keep it up. the people of you. he goes lolovew but further whee meets abe lincoln's is how my doing is pressing its automotive try wow. wow. [applause] >> it took me a while to actually get get there. [laughter] thank god we do not have timewa ntmachine's. i do not want people acting on k that joke. [laughter] that was a joke about people nevermind anyway. [laughter] what becomes of kamala harris encoded cap in, and hang out as a girl's? with that be fun to see you in her pal around?n go to happtoy hours may be due i rollerskating, ice-skating, oh a pottery class? >> i've been wanting to go to ag repottery class. [laughter] i need a hobby. >> i do need a hobby. t i will be willing to do it, buto i don't think she woulu d like l very much progress i thinkon you guys to get along at what he think of it make of this theory? he says in biden could ask harris to resign. my issue with that is thati thiy code he means code? i don't t

and in a way that mirrored similar efforts in the caribbean and among other people including thomas jefferson who thought he could make slavery more rational and humane washington in some ways thought he could try to improve slavery like he was improving agriculture, but by making these resolutions and guaranteeing some minimal protections of sleep washington return increases his demand for labor, and he thinks that in return he that the enslaved people oh him what he calls there duty to work from sunup to sundown and to do all of the labor that it there capable of caring out. um, so i said, it's difficult to write about so great mount vernon because of the silences that are imposed on the enslaved the fact that they are not able to leave their own mark in the in the record. but as i worked on this project i came to recognition that washington created his own silences that make it further difficult to document his life as an in slaver and in his changing attitudes towards slavery. when lafayette first approached him about the experiment to prepare the enslaved for freedom washington replies t

, thomas jefferson, how am i doing as president?'re doing great joe, could keep it up people love you. then he goes further and meets abe lincoln, hey how am i doing as president? >> i don't know. try going to a play. >> harris: wow. >> that's funny. >> harris: it took me a while to actually get that. that's sad for me. >> greg: thank god we don't have time machines. i don't want people acting on that joke. that was a joke about people -- anyway. what becomes of kamala harris and could kat and kamala hang out together as girls. wouldn't be fun to pal around go roller skating ice-skating, a pottery class >> kat: i've been wanting to go to a pottery class. i need a hobby. >> greg: you do need a hobby >> kat: yeah. i would be willing to do it but i don't think she'd like me very much. >> greg: i don't know. i think you guys would get along. what do you make of this theory? >> he says biden could ask harris to resign. and my issue with that is i think that by could, he means could? i don't think biden could. i think he would be too afra

this thomas jefferson high school in fairfax county has been the best high school in the country fore that you got in because of one single exam, merit, race-blind. but in 2020 in the name of diversity and equity, the school board changed that. and lo and behold, all of a sudden a lot fewer asian-americans got in. it's really unfair, and these people, you know, want to preserve their school and the excellence that it has, and they don't believe that america should be counting people by race, divvying up the spoils. ashley: right. right. yeah, they should be, you know, judged on their performance academically. we're going to have to leave it right there, bill, but i'm glad we got that in and to make your case. happy thanksgiving -- >> oh, okay. happy thanksgiving, ash. ashley: thanks, bill. talking about thanksgiving, the dinner, of course, is going to cost about 20% more this year than it did last year. the usda blaming russia, of course, for the price hikes. we'll explain. it's russia for everything, right? police are cracking down on people driving under the influence of marijuana.

that they don't want anything taught about thomas jefferson that doesn't make him into some sort of saint, but no one is a saint. i wonder what you would say to some of these governors in a lot of these red states who are saying, well, we can't teach anything about the founders, for instance, that isn't absolute virtue because it's going to make white children feel badly or it's going to -- if you teach about slavery it's going to make white kids feel guilty or anything about the founders that isn't that they were perfect, it's going to make people hate america. what would you say to those people? >> it's just so simple, joy. in most of those states, the state religion is not christianity or whatever. it's football. and if you had a football coach who in high school on a friday night or in college on a saturday didn't tell it like it was, oh, we really stunk on defense, the offense was good, special teams were this. if you're not telling the unvarnished truth, you don't get better and you don't get a new contract. in fact, you get fired midseason. why wouldn't we if we assume we're the mo

i think i would say tell me what you really think about thomas jefferson jefferson. i. on that note. what a great concluding question. questions. thank you all for being here. thank you to katie and to flora and a round of applause to you. thank you. our conversation. our conversation can continue out in the reception area. i'm going to ask that for a phrase. you'll be allowed to walk up to the stairs because we do want to get her at a signing table before the crowd fills in for if you could start moving. thank you so much, professor and katie guerin. thank you for frasier. so wonderful that you could all be here

president starting with thomas jefferson called slavers that were caught red-handed bringing captainsnto the country. abraham lincoln was the first person to execute to someone and the man he executed was a captain who arrived with a bunch of slaves into the country three weeks before while it was in route so timothy mayer and his brothers very nearly would have met the news. so this is a dirty open american secret these ships coming in. involved in illegal slaving and the pirate that is how he generated most of his money coming in so there's this interesting, he cared nothing about breaking the law. it was all about making a point and that's why he bragged about it so much and got arrested a week after the ship returned but they were unable to find the ship because they burned the night that he came into the country and it remained hidden for 160 years. federal troops started looking for it the day after it arrived and it was in the newspapers around the country after it returned. they wrote it has returned to the cargo and it was all over the country and peoplech were cheering. so a

james i'm sorry, thomas jefferson. who thought we should get rid of the constitution every 20 years. so i think he would certainly be surprised that we have the same. can you share what you talked about it a little bit in your in your view, but can you share a little bit more about your argument that amendments come in cyclical ways? yeah, it would almost be nice to have a chart to show this, because if you look at the actual pictorially, you'd see a bunch of clusters at certain periods. and so the idea here is that, you know, we amend the constitution often before we do so, we think it's impossible to do it. but it takes a lot to get us to this point where we want to amend the constitution. you shouldn't amend the constitution for just any thing, right? we want it to be for the most fundamental values and principles and things to structure our government. but often we get to a period after a long, long period time, decades, almost half a century, often where it looks like the nation is about to collapse, you know, and

thomas jefferson also burned on his correspondence with his wife. these big public figures in the 1800s, they knew their papers were going to be important to people. people would want to read them. and for a side of their life that was so deeply personal and private, letters between a husband and wife, they wanted to keep them for themselves. martha took that route. decided to keep ospapers private. now, the quote that i have up hereaythat two letters seem to have escaped by aidt. they were found in a drawer, a desk, we are actuay le to publh r letters between martha and george washington. one is quite short, a brief and note. in all of the surprise not very much they refer to one another as, my dearest, or my love. what do we publish if she burned of her letters th george washington? she wrote other people to! martha washington had a large extended family. laura brought up she had a close relationship with her 60, nancy. after nancy's death, martha picks up rig aw with her daughter, france it basset washington. martha washington's knee. we have a n

every single us president starting with thomas jefferson, hardened convicted slavers who were boughtt red handed bringing captives into nethe country in ships, abraham lincoln was the first person to actually execute someone and the many executed was a captain who arrived with a bunch of enslaves into the s country, three weeks before the clotilda returned while the clotilda was in route so timothy mayer and his what should we call them? his brothers, very nearly were meant to do this so this is a dirty open american secret that these ships are coming in and you know, like the jim bowie, the bowie lv knife guy was involved in illegal slaving . john lafitte pirate, that was s how he generated most of his money coming in so there is this interesting mayer care nothing about breaking the law. it was all about making a point and that's why he bragged about it so much. that's why he got arrested a week after the ship rereturned but they were unable to find the ship they had burned the night and came into the country and it remained hidden for 160years . federal troops are looking for it t

i have the issue of slavery, and we talk about thomas jefferson and his dominance of the african people the dominance of universities. -- the endowments of universities. these endowments support scholarships, fellowships, professorships, and then we talk about the issue of slavery. the pilgrims came over on ships. the matilda was a slave ship. the issue of transcontinental slave trade and the issue of ships -- host: i apologize. we are getting tight on time. what is your question? caller: my question is, when we talk about these presidents and statues, the statues of these white supremacists and the statutes, the laws there representing. virginia has had eight presidents out of 46 and they are the leader of the enslavement of african people. host: we are going to leave it there. clint, anything you want to respond to? mr. smith: i think part of what exists is a fundamental understanding from the larger american public. not even a misunderstanding but lack of understanding of the origins of the african slave trade. i think part of the way we are taught about slavery has historically been

as thomas jefferson said, even though he had slaves, knowing that when they signed the constitution, he said slavery is like a fire bell in the night. you suddenly have this terrible problem. he also said slavery was like holding a wolf bite the years. you cannot let it go because it would eat you but you do not want to keep holding on to it. even he, the master of enslaved people, new it would eventually break up the union. host: on compromise, the great compromise or was it that henry cliff? guest: yes. a kentuckian. host: why was he the great compromiser? guest: he was the man who said i would rather be right than president. but that was probably because he kept losing in his attempts to become president, that he fashioned a compromise that made andrew jackson very upset the first time he ran in 1824. clay split the vote among john quincy adams, andrew jackson and henry clay. and had to go to the house of representatives because none of those men have a majority in -- had a majority in the electoral college. the deal was done, a compromise between client and john quincy adams that

will visit us to research about subjects you're interested in to experience the beauty of the thomas jefferson building or attend one of our library events most thursday nights we keep the jefferson building and all exhibits open until 8 p.m. and host dynamicam free events for e visitors. september 15th, academy award-winning actress francis mcdormand and radio and podcast producers will join for conversation. there's an upcoming series of plays the novelist will be talking about the new lessons. the first event of today today featuresthe undersecretars and culture the smithsonian institution in conversation with the two-time pulitzer prize winner david marinus about his new biography of jim thorpe half lit by lightning. sit back, enjoy and have a wonderful day of the library of congress national book festival. thank you. [applause] david, let's get right to it jim thorpe has done biography before. why did you choose him as a subject related to your book? >> i think of this as the third book in the trilogy. first also represented the mythology of competition in excess of american life and what

and here comes thomas jefferson, he's going to replace him as president, and america held its front. can we really do this? will and incumbent president step aside and let this person who has said everything about him ever, can he really do it? and we did. in 1864 in the middle of a civil war when abraham lincoln could have, and the radical republicans who told him he was well within his rights to do it, this is no time to have an election, we are in a civil war, we can be doing this, and abraham lincoln not only stood for reelection, but it was the votes of truce, ultimately. he was running against the general who he had fired. we have had some amazing elections in the past. but the most important election in american history is always the next election. because if you don't like what happens, if you are a republican and don't like what happened this week, two years from now you get to do it again. that's the beauty of this system. and that's what we forgot. that is what we are tending to forget right now. which is, what are you supposed to say when the other side wins? you say you