Thomas Jefferson & His Democracy: Crash Course US History #10

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In which John Green teaches you about founding father and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson is a somewhat controversial figure in American history, largely because he, like pretty much all humans, was a big bundle of contradictions. Jefferson was a slave-owner who couldn’t decide if he liked slavery. He advocated for small government but expanded federal power more than either of his presidential predecessor. He also idealized the independent farmer and demonized manufacturing, but put policies in place that would expand industrial production in the US. Controversy may ensue as we try to deviate a bit from the standard hagiography/slander story that is usually told about old TJ. John explores Jefferson’s election, his policies, and some of the new nation’s (literally and figuratively) formative events that took place during Jefferson’s presidency. In addition to all this, Napoleon drops in to sell Louisiana, John Marshall sets the course of the Supreme Court, and John Adams gets called a tiny tyrant.

Hey teachers and students – Check out CommonLit’s free collection of reading passages and curriculum resources to learn more about the events of this episode. Thomas Jefferson is remembered as the Founding Father responsible for saying all men are created equal in The Declaration of Independence: https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-declaration-of-independence
Jefferson didn’t always practice what he preached though, as seen in his mixed views on American Indians: https://www.commonlit.org/texts/excerpts-from-thomas-jefferson-s-writings-on-american-indians

Chapters:
Introduction: Thomas Jefferson 00:00
The Election of 1800 0:42
Jefferson’s Attitudes Towards Slavery 2:34
Gabriel’s Rebellion and Other Slave Uprisings 3:47
Mystery Document 4:28
Jefferson’s America 6:02
John Marshall, Judicial Review, and Marbury v. Madison 7:07
The Louisiana Purchase 8:32
Jefferson’s Embargo 10:16
Jefferson’s Complicated Legacy 12:03
Credits 12:46

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44 Comments

  1. Thomas Jefferson was not pro-slavery he owned slaves because it was in his interests which makes him a hypocrite and arguably selfish but NOT intellectually or ideologically pro-slavery.
    Which means his ideas were mostly intellectually consistent.

  2. @3:52 at least you are skewing Jefferson’s history with slavery and I don’t appreciate it, seeing in how many of these Gen. Zer’s are learning from people like you because they are lazy you gotta come correct. And just
    Saying Jefferson was a piece of trash slave owner and therefore the phrase “all men are created equal” just simply confuses you is not good enough, there is long complicated story behind it, and sweeping it all under the rug is not a good practice

  3. Who made up the slave owners and who made up the slaves. Well that depends, because indentured servants were classified under slave labor. In 1840, for example, nearly 500,000 poor white European immigrants were indentured and sent to the Caribbean. Indentured servitude often required harsh or unsafe conditions. Indentured servants worked alongside slaves on plantations. According to the Georgia slave laws from 1755-1860, slave status applied to Blacks, Indians, Mulatoes and Mestizos (Spanish/Native American lineage). The slave owners were White, Black, Mulatoe, Brazilian and from the five Native American tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole).

  4. I agree with you. Jefferson is ambivalent yet contradictory. The ideal of autonomy can be misunderstood. In philosophical terms full autonomy is not possible. Still the rights of declaration of independence are god's-given. I believe that the main concept of América is not locke's life, liberty and property (no mention of property in the declaration but pursuit of happiness). I think that the main concept of american is the please "all men are create equal", and the contradiction of this with slavery LED to the civil war

  5. The one thing we cannot do is judge him by the ethical standards of today or use the 20-20 vision of being able to see into the past and decide if something was a mistake by seeing it's outcome. They did not have that ability. They could only look forward and use the facts of the time and not the facts of the future. Nobody of today could have done any better if transported back in time with no knowledge of modern times. We are in many ways much worse off politically today then we were back then. I would trade the political climate of today for the political climate of that time in an instant. Democrats of today have destroyed so much of the liberty we were intended to have that we scarcely resemble a free country anymore.

  6. This idiot says Thomas Jefferson is a racist! Nothing could be further from the truth! Thomas Jefferson said about slavery "We have the wolf by the ears and we can neither capture it nor let it go." What Jefferson meant was that they couldnt end slavery and unite the colonies against the British at the same time. I learned this is my high school literature class, so why doesn't this idiot know this? He clearly has no knowledge about the politics of the time and what the founding fathers had to overcome to create a new country. I really hope people read some books and dont get deceived by this ignorant buffoon.

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