Speaker: John Ragosta, Faculty Director, Lifetime Learning’s Summer Jefferson Symposium, University of Virginia; Fellow, Virginia Humanities, University of Virginia
Why Jefferson?
In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old and a relatively new member of the Continental Congress (elected in the spring of 1775). Yet, he was tasked with preparing the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Of course, at the time, the patriots did not understand the enormous role that the Declaration would assume both in the Revolution and in the new nation’s public memory, but Jefferson, as the choice for this task, was still a bit curious. The other delegates, though, had been very impressed by his Summary View of the Rights of British America in 1775. That earlier document, seen as too radical when it was written, would play an important role not only in Jefferson’s selection but in the content of the Declaration.
The Principles
The Declaration is primarily a list of particulars against the king and Parliament, crafted so that Americans across the colonies would recognize the necessity of separation. Today, that long list is often ignored or not fully understood as our contemporary focus is on the first two short paragraphs of the Declaration and the list of remarkable principles for which it (and Jefferson) have become famous: Americans were one people, dedicated to equality, and demanding a government that derived its powers from the consent of the governed. In this talk, Ragosta will look at those fundamental principles, discussing briefly where they might have come from and what role they played in bringing the colonies together, as well as their foundational role today.
Speaker: Robert Parkinson, Professor of History, Binghamton University; 2024-2025 Fritz and Claudine Kundrun Fellow, International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello
The Long Odds Against American Unity in the 1770s
Conditions in the 1770s were driving the English colonies in North America away from one another, not together. A host of deep and severe problems – disagreements over how to protest imperial reforms, intercolonial disputes and unrest, civil disturbances, and slavery – all threatened any concept of unity or union in the 1770s. Setting the stage for the symposium, Parkinson will discuss the difficult circumstances that faced patriots in the several years before the Declaration.
To a Candid World: The 27 Reasons Why America Declared Independence
In his official response to the American Declaration of Independence, British publicist John Lind dismissed the opening paragraphs with a wave of his hand. "Of the preamble," Lind sniffed about the words and phrases the world has come to revere about Jefferson's Declaration, "I take no notice, for none does it deserve." Rather, he dedicated 130 pages to refuting every one of the 27 grievances lodged against King George. Today, the reverse is true: we pay no attention to the body of the Declaration but instead focus on statements about pursuing happiness and all men being created equal. This talk reflects on the list of grievances, why they were essential, and why, like Lind, Congress focused so much attention on getting them right rather than the soaring words of the preamble.
Making Copies, Making a Nation: Selling the Declaration to the Public after the War of 1812
The University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library’s Declaration of Independence permanent exhibit is one of the most important of its kind. In 2003, UVA Library accepted the gracious donation of the Albert H. Small’s collection and worked to build a permanent exhibition space to display the collection in the new Small Special Collections Library. Robert Parkinson, at the time a UVA graduate student, helped to organize and structure the exhibit. In this talk, Parkinson will discuss the multiple artifacts in the Collection showing how entrepreneurs after the War of 1812 spun up schemes to make copies of the Declaration to sell to the public. The result turned the Declaration into a consumer good, a home decor/education item hung up in houses all over Jacksonian America. The artifacts, and their history, is not to be missed.
Speakers:
Auriana Woods, Director of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project, Monticello
Andrew M. Davenport, Vice President for Research and Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation
Seeing the Declaration through the Lens of the Monticello Families
How did the various free and enslaved families of Monticello respond to the natural rights rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence across time? From the presence of enslaved valet Robert Hemmings in the same home as Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia during the summer of 1776 to revolutionary stirrings in both the United States and France and all the way to and beyond the American Civil War, white and black families who originated at Monticello were on the frontlines of the age of revolutions as they debated how and if the Declaration’s egalitarian principles should be extended to all. Join Monticello historians Andrew M. Davenport and Auriana Woods for a discussion of how the legacies of Jefferson’s—and America’s—most revolutionary document may be glimpsed through the lens of families from Monticello.