This week we will be reading a number of items authored by and written about Thomas Jefferson.  If you are unfamiliar with his many roles and accomplishments, look at his name in the index of A People and a Nation (page I-15) and read the listed pages so you are educated about the basics.

Thomas Jefferson is one of the most revered "founding fathers," and with good reason.  This reading assignment, however, is designed to "complicate" your understanding of Jefferson and to provoke discussion about Jefferson and his legacy.  Four different numbered items.

1.  Read "Thomas Jefferson" *This is an article that is located on D2L (Materials --> Content)  This reading will help to familiarize you with some of Jefferson's writings and thoughts about slavery and Native Americans. 
**Please note: the pages skip around.  This is on purpose; it is not an accident or mistake due to copying.  I did not include all the pages when I scanned this selection, so you are only required to read the pages that are there.

2.  Read "The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson."  (be sure to page through the entire article.)

3.  Next we will take up the controversial topic that Jefferson fathered a number of children with his slave Sally Hemings. 

Interviews with historians.  These interviews were conducted for the making of Ken Burns's PBS series "Thomas Jefferson."  Many of these historians addressed the Sally Hemings issue.  Their names are listed in the panel along the left.  Choose THREE different names, click on their interview, and search for their discussion of Hemings.  You do not need to read the entire interview; only the selections that concern Hemings.  To  more easily find her name, do a FIND (ctrl-F) for "Sally" and read the results.  Not every historian mentions her, so you will be choosing from the following names.  Some students should start at the bottom of the list so that we don't have everyone reading the first three.

**Take note that they discussed this issue BEFORE the DNA results were completed.  What did they have to say about the Hemings issue before we had blood evidence?  What does this say about their opinions of Jefferson?

Names/Historians to choose from:

Natalie Bober

 Julian Bond

Andy Burstein

Robert H. Cooley

James Cox

Joe Ellis

Paul Finkelman

John Hope Franklin

James Horton

Clay Jenkinson

Dan Jordon

Stephen Mitchell

Lewis Simpson

Gary Wills

4. Scholars examine the issue of Sally Hemings before and after DNA studies were completed.  Read this summary of the issue, prepared by scholars who operate the museum at Monticello, Jefferson's home: "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account." [You do not need to read anything in the "Related Resources" section and below, which means you are not required to read the comments in the Discussion section.]

OPTIONAL READING:

If you are interested in a critique of the historical profession (and one Jefferson-defender in particular), check out this article at Salon: "Historiographic Revisionism."  This might be of particular interest to those of you who read Joe Ellis above.