Thomas Jefferson Summary

Trevon Williams

7 October 2014

History Zelden

Thomas Jefferson by R.B. Bernstein

In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, the generation of our founder fathers faced internal and external problems during the fight for American freedom and the creation of the Constitution. These problems were either the result of the colonists and their fight for liberty and ideology between themselves or the British trying to evoke their power onto the colonists. Both conflicts go hand in hand with each other, but present different forms of problems. While reading the Bernstein’s “Thomas Jefferson” it was easy to see the internal conflict that the colonist would face after gaining there freedom from the British simply because they didn’t have a background in

creating a nation.
Early on in the book, it goes into detail about Thomas Jefferson’s education. We see that the Lawyers and people of political importance’s had to study directly the political process from previous cases to get an idea of how they might act when placed in court. This supports the idea of the colonist’s unpreparedness for creating a new nation because the framework of the nation had to be discussed between very intelligent individuals who interpreted the means of American liberty differently. This is the main problem that the continental congress faces because it divides them in ideology against themselves and against the British. This leads those who fear change to side with appeasing the British and those who want freedom from the British to fight for liberty.
When the book went into detail about how planters go into debt because they attempted to make themselves look well off, I instantly thought of the parallel between the planters and the newly born nation of America.

Like the planters America was raised in debt which only seems to accumulate over time. An idea like this presents the second problem the colonist of the new country faced, debt. Recently coming out of the American Revolution, the young American Government owed overseas countries money for their involvement and support. America’s leader choose to sell bonds in attempts reallocate their debt. Even though Thomas Jefferson was against the idea of the America supporting the “elites” in arguments against Hamilton, American modeled after some of Hamilton’s ideas that Jefferson repeatedly countered and caused American to continually go into debt, just as the planters did years before. This shaped the lives of the new capitalistic country because it basically established the idea that debt is fine as long as it “eventually” gets paid

back.
Marriage also presented a strong social force in the times of our Founding Fathers especially if you look at the life of Thomas Jefferson who was infatuated with the idea of love.

Jefferson sought to find a wife who fit his social standards as well as ability to fill his heart. Jefferson gained more than love from his wife Martha. Like most prestigious men during his time who were fortunate enough to marry a women like from an honorable family, Martha come with an enormous inheritance. This not only propelled Jefferson in social status, but also helped him in politics given that he was already exceptionally influential. However, Jefferson’s marriage to Martha also brought him turmoil. Jefferson not only received one of the largest slave holdings in Virginia, but took on the enormous debt of his late father in law. Passing debt through your inheritance was a normal thing of that

time.
Even though he owned many slaves, Jefferson was a strong believer that as a nation American would have to get rid of slavery, or at least address the issue. But being a Virginian man, Jefferson was raised with slaves. Jefferson’s earliest memory was even of a slave caring for him. I believe that it is possible for Jefferson to have these views and be a slave owner because as R.B. Bernstein puts it, “He is a man of his time” a product of his era. This presents an inner conflict within Jefferson because he was one of the biggest slave owners in Virginia yet he supported the opposing side.
Slavery was a huge problem in America which conflicted the founder fathers, as we can easily see within Jefferson. This problem not only fueled the economy of the South but provides a cheap means of exploitable labor that both the North and South could use. This idea of slavery contradicted what the colonists were fighting for, because instead of creating a nation of free individuals, the colonists were freeing who they saw fit and categorized the slaves as property. Thomas Jefferson saw the contradiction of wanting a free nation while slavery lived on and felt that it had to be discussed if the country were to be a free and sovereign nation.
R.B Bernstein’s “Thomas Jefferson” helps readers see how the colonist lived in times of fear of a big government after their successful succession from British rule. Bernstein shows how the fear of having a big government and a strong executive shaped the decisions of the members in congress, and how the people supported their Governors rule. The people that Jefferson had to convince had rigid ideals of how much power they should give the executive branch, because they didn’t want to create another Britain in the New World. It took bold men to step forth and create the framework for the system we have today, and to make a decision against the popular vote.