All language subtitles for Thomas.Jefferson.2025.S01E01.A.Revolutionary.is.Born.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb

We hold these truths
to be self-evident,

that all men
are created equal.

Jefferson wrote the
Declaration of Independence.

That they are endowed
by their creator

with certain
unalienable rights.

That's so powerful
that it keeps reconstructing

the country down the line.

That among these
are life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness.

Jefferson is the
very icon of democracy.

Over two centuries later,
people are quoting

what Thomas Jefferson wrote
in that room.

That's power.

Jefferson also
served as a diplomat.

He was the third president.

He was interested
in religion

and the separation
of church and state.

He loves luxury, food, wine.

But this is why he gets
accusations of hypocrisy.

When it comes for his romantic
ideals of liberty and freedom,

they are authentic,
but they are at great odds

with how he lives his life.

Jefferson owned close
to 700 people in his lifetime.

And there's Sally Hemings.

An enslaved woman--

she was involved
with Thomas Jefferson sexually

at a very young age.

And so, we have to reckon

the apostle
of liberty, Jefferson,

with the Jefferson...

whose legacy makes us
uncomfortable.

We worry
that if Jefferson was impure,

then our ideals are impure.

We worry that
if Jefferson was wrong,

our nation is wrong.

But if the founding fathers

are the standard
by which we judge leadership,

then we need to understand
who they really were,

the good and the bad.

Self-righteousness
in retrospect is easy,

also cheap.

The moral utility of history

is not to look down
on the past condescendingly

or look up at it adoringly but
to try to look it in the eye.

If we want to understand
who we've been

and who we are
and who we want to be,

it begins
with an honest conversation

about Thomas Jefferson.

All that stuff
that really infuriates you

is inextricably entangled,

even worse, it is the same
stuff as the good stuff!

We have to teach him
as a full story.

We have to teach
the duality of his legacy

in ways that would help us
envision a better future.

In 1743,

the United States
does not exist.

For more than 100 years,

settlers have forged
new ways of life

in 13 separate colonies
under British rule.

Colonists trade and farm
in service of the crown...

As they navigate
the challenges of living

in uncharted terrain.

Jefferson's born in 1743.

He was born into a world

that would be completely
unrecognizable to us.

There are these
13 British colonies.

But the rest of the continent,
it's Indigenous.

There are cities--

Boston, Charleston,
Philadelphia, New York.

But the vast majority
of Americans

are living in more rural,
agrarian communities.

It is a farming-based society.

All of the colonies only
has two million people.

These 13 British colonies

don't interact that much
with each other.

They're all oriented

back across the water
towards Britain.

It's a bit like all the buses
run into the center of town.

They don't run from
neighborhood to neighborhood.

Well, all the buses
are running to London.

By the 18th century,
when Jefferson comes along,

Virginia is

a tobacco-growing province.

Tobacco is very lucrative.

And so, of these
13 British colonies,

the largest, most populous,
wealthiest is Virginia.

There are great families,
particularly in Virginia,

and these families are famous,

and they have land,
and they have power.

And even Washington

is not considered from a first
family of Virginia,

but Jefferson is.

Thomas Jefferson is born
at Shadwell plantation

on April 13, 1743

to Peter and Jane Jefferson...

Two of
the most prominent names

in the most prominent
British colony.

His father was surveyor
and a plantation owner.

Surveying
in colonial Virginia

meant access to land,

which meant potential income

as that land was developed.

And Peter Jefferson

holds almost
the highest government office

that anyone in Virginia
can hold.

He's well connected
in terms of business,

in terms
of social affiliations,

and he marries into one

of the most powerful families
in Virginia--

the Randolph family--

a household of wealth,
of privilege.

Thomas Jefferson
spends his childhood

exploring the vast grounds
of the Shadwell plantation.

He develops a great love for
literature, music, and nature.

He liked to be outside.

He talked romantically about
his best friend, Dabney Carr.

They would hike on the hills
around Shadwell,

sit under trees.

They had a deal with each other
that whoever died first

would bury the other one
under their favorite oak tree

on what becomes
Monticello Mountain.

Jefferson almost never talks
about his feelings.

There's something cool,
even cold, about Jefferson.

You can't really get
that close to him.

But friendship was a very
important thing to Jefferson

throughout his life.

He is clearly
extremely smart.

He gets a great
education growing up.

He reads everything.

He can read or write a number
of different languages.

He can speak French fluently.

They ordered the finest
clothing from England.

He played the violin.

It was a very genteel
kind of situation for him.

Shadwell, it is a house
that is set up

to enable this elite family

to perform in the way
that an elite family performs.

The Jeffersons had
a dining room

that could seat 20 people
for dinner.

So there's potential
there for entertaining.

As the oldest son,

Thomas carries
a lot of responsibility

in the Jefferson household.

Despite his shy nature,
he is often thrust

into conversations
about philosophy and politics

with his father's
influential friends.

But Shadwell is also
the plantation

that housed the largest number
of enslaved African Americans

in colonial Albemarle County.

The white people on
the plantation are outnumbered

by about six to one
by enslaved African Americans.

His first memory is of being
held by a slave on horseback

on a pillow.

Each of the Jefferson
children,

one brother and six sisters,

were assigned at birth
an enslaved person

who was their same sex
and roughly their same age

who was going to live
with them their entire lives,

which means
in the Jefferson household,

two-year-olds own
other two-year-olds.

A man named Jupiter Evans is
born in 1743,

the same year
as Thomas Jefferson.

And Jupiter's mother,
Sal, was the wet nurse

to the Jefferson children.

So they have this
intimate relationship

from the moment they're born,
and they grow up together.

All of the things that come
along with figuring out

who you are as a person
are wrapped up

in learning to be either
the master of enslaved people

or someone who serves them.

He had all of the things
that would have given him

an advantage
during that time period.

He was literally the person
who was the master,

and that's the term
they would have used.

I know we use "enslaver" now.

But I think this conveys
his sense of himself,

the master of people,
of human beings.

And so there you get
the seeds of the contradictions

of Thomas Jefferson.

He is a wealthy populist.

He becomes passionate
about freedom,

but slavery, it's what
he's always known.

Jefferson is raised
in a society

built on enslaved labor.

However, he will spend
the next decade of his life

constructing radical views
about liberty

and stoking
the flames of revolution.

Growing up, Thomas Jefferson
is taught

by the finest tutors
in Virginia.

But despite the experts
at his disposal,

there is no greater
influence on young Thomas

than his father, Peter.

There is a story

that when Thomas Jefferson
was a young boy,

three enslaved individuals
at Shadwell plantation

were instructed to go out
and pull down a wooden shed.

And try as they might,
they were unable to do that.

And Peter Jefferson,
in this somewhat mythical idea

of the great Sansom,

single-handedly
pulls the shed down and away.

He tells his grandchildren
that his father

would go off for weeks
in the back woods

and fend off wild animals.

So Peter Jefferson is
painted by Jefferson

as this great explorer
that has superhuman

or hyper-masculine strength.

I believe that
Thomas Jefferson's admiration

for his father was amplified

because Jefferson only knew his
father for a very short time.

He passes away
when Thomas Jefferson

is only 14 years old.

It's a momentous
event in his life.

Many years later, of the
death of his father, he says,

"The whole care
and direction of myself

"was thrown on myself entirely

"without relative or friend

qualified to advise
or guide me."

Jefferson inherits
his father's estate

at the age of 14.

For the next two years,
Jefferson works

with his father's executors
on the farm ledgers

and becomes the patriarch
to his mother,

sisters, and younger brother.

But at 16, he persuades
the executors

to grant him a look at life
beyond the hills of Shadwell.

So, in the winter of 1760,

young Thomas Jefferson,
only 16 years old,

travels 120 miles to the east
to Williamsburg.

He enrolls in the College
of William & Mary.

William & Mary is
the second-oldest institution

of higher education
in the colonies.

Harvard was first.

And Jefferson's friends say

that he was hard to tear
from his studies.

But he does take part
in the social landscape

of Williamsburg.

There was drink.

There were dances

with music and conversations
about books,

taverns and pubs
and libraries.

Williamsburg is a cultural
mecca for him in these years.

He has access to some
of the most well connected

and brightest minds
available in the colonies.

Williamsburg was also
the colonial capital.

You have professors
and lawyers

and judges and legislators

who were cultured people.

And for a young man of great
appetite and great ambition,

it was exactly
the right place to be.

And in Williamsburg,

Jefferson has the good fortune
to fall under the tutelage

of Dr. William Small.

There's the man.

Though Jefferson is quiet
and rarely speaks up

in classroom debates,

his eloquent writing
catches Small's attention.

Jefferson writes
of William Small

that he had gentlemanly
and correct manners,

an enlarged and liberal mind,

and a happy talent
of communication.

"Perhaps more than any other,

he fixed my destinies."

William Small is a proponent
of the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment is
an intellectual movement

that took hold in Europe
in the late 17th century.

Scientists and philosophers
spread ideas about freedom,

equality, and the pursuit
of knowledge

through reason and logic
instead of religion.

William Small teaches him
how to make observations

and make hypotheses
about the world.

William Small is the one
who introduces Jefferson

to the writings of John Locke

and Francis Bacon
and Isaac Newton.

These are people whose
writings shaped cultures

and shaped world empires.

And Jefferson gets
not only a reverence

for the Enlightenment

and for a kind of rationalistic
approach to the world,

but he also gets a taste
of their style.

The people that he reads
when he's a very young man

really change the course
of everything in his life.

If he has a Holy Trinity,

it's not Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost.

It's Locke, Newton, Bacon.

The Enlightenment
is his gospel.

William Small
gave him those tools

for thinking about the place
of man in society.

And because he impressed
his professor so much

and also because
of his family connections,

he is invited
to attend dinners

at the governor's palace
with William Small,

Governor Francis Fauquier,
and George Wythe,

who will later be
Jefferson's mentor in law.

And Jefferson
described these dinners

as a little piece of paradise.

A small table of people
sharing good food and big ideas

is happiness to him.

The room was warmed
with one fireplace crackling

through the evening, with the
table set by candlelight.

Wine is flowing.

They're eating oysters
and ham

and some of the best foods
available in Virginia.

They ate French cuisine
and French wine.

Remember, everything had
to come through England.

So to be able to sample
an elegant bottle of Bordeaux

was quite the privilege
and opportunity.

20 years old, he's a kid,
whose abilities

have been recognized
by these older men

who bring him
into their world.

And he talks about that kind
of school of sociability

that he went through.

And this will serve him
very well decades later.

And over dinner,
people debated freedom

and enlightenment thinkers
and American identity.

Everybody's talking
about liberty and freedom.

But one doesn't discuss
Jefferson

if one doesn't have
an appetite

for a certain level of irony.

Let's not forget, of course,

enslaved people will be
in the room serving them.

White Virginians start
questioning and debating

freedom as it
applied to tyranny.

But the economy
and the culture

has been created
around slavery.

It is a society rife
with contradictions,

and Jefferson
embodies all of that.

In 1769, Jefferson's
political life

begins when he is elected

to the Virginia House
of Burgesses.

He is just 26.

The House of Burgesses

is the state legislature
of the time.

Being elected to the
House of Burgesses has as much

a sense of obligation
as opportunity to it.

It's what you did if you owned
land and you were of society.

It's almost an entitlement
that Jefferson and his friends

are going to step
into these roles.

It's like, if you
are wealthy today,

you're on the boards
of museums

and of arts organizations.

That's how you have
political and social power.

The Virginia of this period

was being reshaped
in many ways.

The Seven Years' War,
the French and Indian War

had ended, but British
troops were staying.

Royal authority,

which had ceded the power

to pursue land titles,

had taken that power back.

And the kinds of men that
Jefferson would have been with

would have been affected
by that.

And so there's
an entire redefinition,

an entire reordering

of what it meant to be
a colonist

in exactly the years that
Jefferson is in Williamsburg.

And Jefferson
distinguishes himself

in the House of Burgesses
by being a radical,

rejecting the idea
of British authority

and passionately railing
against the British Empire,

because to Jefferson,

given the distance
of the Atlantic Ocean,

the distance of the king,
inevitably, at this point,

the British Crown seems
incredibly out of touch

in the colonies.

And the sentimental
attachments that some

of the older generation had
begin to wipe away.

You start to get that
resentment start to itch,

start to eat in those debates.

He was experiencing
the debates

as they unfolded,

beginning to be devoted to the ideal

of liberty in that argument.

But he wasn't
a leading indicator

of revolutionary sentiment
until a little bit later.

He's enormously
intellectually confident,

very passionate, but insecure

when it comes to actually
speaking in public.

He is a weak speaker.

He is shy.
He is soft-spoken.

Some people say
he has a nasal voice.

He'd been quiet,
but Jefferson made it clear

that he believed in progress.

He's very much interested
in Enlightenment values

and thinking that he could
bring those to Virginia.

He is motivated by the desire
to want to shape his society.

In a part
of Jefferson's biography,

he even mentions that when he
was in the House of Burgesses,

he and another member

wanted to have a plan
of emancipation.

In his autobiography,

which he wrote 52 years later,

Jefferson states that in 1769,
he and his cousin

proposed a bill that would
shift control of emancipation

from the general court over
to slave owners themselves.

But he says
the House of Burgesses

kills the bill immediately.

He says once he saw
how people responded

to plans for emancipation,
basically shut them down...

he left it alone.

The weird thing is,

there is no other evidence

other than Jefferson
saying this,

that such a bill
was ever proposed.

The records
of the House of Burgesses

don't reflect this.

Now, it could be that the
records are simply incomplete.

Having said that,
other historians

have made a pretty strong case
that this didn't happen

and that he's making it up
in his autobiography.

So then we have
to ask ourselves,

why is he saying this
when he's compiling

his autobiography
50 years later?

When we think
about autobiographies,

people are constructing
a version of their past.

And he wants to create
a narrative to show

that both he
and the United States

were troubled by slavery

and sought to do
something about slavery

as a problem
from the very beginning...

True or not.

While the truth
of these statements

will never be known,

it is clear that young
Jefferson embraces his role

in the House of Burgesses.

As he learns to navigate

the politics
of Virginia government,

he takes on the social aspects
of the job as well.

When the House of Burgesses
is in session,

the city of Williamsburg
becomes a social event.

It's the beginning
of his engagement with

and entrée to that kind of
world of urban sophistication,

which he claimed
throughout his life to disdain,

but he actually liked.

The balls
around political programs

are part of how elite
Virginians reinforce

their bonds with each other.

But when Jefferson is young,
he is anxious.

And he's just uncomfortable
around women.

We are able to read
in letters of his early loves

and, in particular,
one Rebecca Burwell.

She evidently has quite
a number of suitors.

Jefferson thinks,
quite proudly,

that he's prominent
in that lineup.

So Thomas Jefferson decides
that it is time

that he will formally propose.

Remember, it was
a different kind of world.

They didn't date in the way
we think of dating people.

If you are involved
with people,

at some point you expected to
be married to them.

He stayed up
the entire night composing

and memorizing this proposal.

The next evening, he would find
himself in a holiday soiree

and dance.

On the floor
with his fair Rebecca,

he begins his proposal.

And he says...

the words fall out
in a great disarray.

He can remember one or two
sentences that he memorized.

And then, suddenly, not only
had everyone left the floor,

but so had his fair Rebecca.

And he said, the day never
saw a more miserable creature

when the sun rose
that next morning.

So, evidently, he blew it.

I mean, he's not good
with women,

at least in his early days.

I mean, he's awkward.

But he's in his early 20s.

And I don't know how
many heterosexual men

in their early 20s are
necessarily smooth with women.

Slowly, Jefferson
becomes more comfortable

in the ways of romance,

just in time
to meet a young woman

from a wealthier family
than his own.

Now at 27 years old,
Jefferson believes the future

he yearns for is possible.

By 1770, Thomas Jefferson
has established himself

as a respected lawmaker

in the Virginia
House of Burgesses.

He has also begun
to clear land

and develop his own estate
on Monticello Mountain,

about five miles
from the Shadwell plantation

where he grew up.

His plans for Monticello
are grand.

And Jefferson is eager
for someone to share it with.

But at 27 years old,
he has gained a reputation

as a consummate bachelor,

having spent most of his 20s

pursuing unavailable women,
including the daughter

of a powerful colleague.

John Wayles,
an English immigrant,

who has done very
well for himself

and amassed quite an acreage.

He's a planter and a lawyer

and a slave trader.

Jefferson was a lawyer,
and John Wayles was a lawyer.

There's references to him
going to John Wayles's home.

So it was from their
business associations

that Jefferson met Martha.

Martha Wayles is the eldest
of the four daughters.

She's sought after by many
a male in Williamsburg.

But in 1766, Jefferson
loses out

to a man
named Bathurst Skelton.

Great names
in the 18th century.

But Skelton dies in 1768.

And in 1770, Jefferson
takes a second shot.

Martha Wayles-Skelton
was a very attractive widow

because she was young
and she was wealthy.

Jefferson is riding down
the Duke of Gloucester Street

in Williamsburg when he
hears the melody of a spinet

coming out of a parlor window.

Jefferson runs up
onto the porch,

and there through the window,

he sees the form
of the Widow Skelton

seated at the spinet.

Well, he quickly goes
to his horse satchel

and gets his miniature violin.

Jefferson knocks on the door.

And the Widow Skelton
and he have a musicale

for, oh, maybe an hour or so.

And it's clear that she
has accepted his courtship.

And then they're
playing this duet,

and another suitor
comes to the house

and hears them playing,

and then just turns
and leaves.

And he says, we're too late.

Jefferson's gotten
here before us.

On January 1, 1772...

Jefferson and Martha Wayles-Skelton

marry on her father's farm in
Charles City County, Virginia.

After the celebration,

they head to Jefferson's
burgeoning plantation.

They start out
for Monticello,

which would be about
maybe a four-day ride

in regular weather.

Well, within a day or two,
they're caught in a snowstorm.

This is the largest
blizzard yet recorded

in Virginia history.

They have to abandon
the carriage,

make the rest of the way
on horseback.

But then, eventually,
through the snow,

they come to that cottage,

which is just
one small building

that has a kitchen

and just a single chamber
above stairs

on the oldest part
of Monticello.

It's near midnight.

He brings his bride over the
threshold of his hermitage.

He goes to make a fire.

Mrs. Jefferson busies herself
among some of the books

he has on the shelves.

They say she discovers
a bottle of wine.

And that is where they begin
their family.

For the first year

of Jefferson
and Martha's marriage,

the couple lives quietly

in the modest honeymoon
cottage

at the top
of Monticello Mountain

as work continues
on the rest of the property.

They welcome a daughter,
and Jefferson practices law,

specializing in land cases.

And then her father,
John Wayles, died.

When John Wayles dies,
Jefferson inherits

about 11,000 acres
and 135 people--

enslaved people, including
the Hemings family.

Like many planters,

John Wayles has two families.

He has children by his
recognized wife, who died,

but he also has family
by a woman he enslaved,

Betty Hemings.

Unfortunately, this is not
unusual in colonial Virginia.

When Betty Hemings arrives
at Monticello in 1774,

she brings her 12 children
with her,

6 of whom are thought
to be fathered by John Wayles.

Jefferson never says,

I know that these
are John Wayles's kids,

but his treatment
of them indicates

that they are a group apart
from other enslaved people.

Many women
whose fathers or brothers

had children
with enslaved women,

were very hostile towards them
and would sell them.

Martha does the opposite.

She installs the Hemingses
in the household

as favored servants.

The men are the ones
who get to travel

and hire out their own time
and keep their money.

They're not supposed
to do that.

That was actually against the
law during that time period.

The women did not go
to the fields.

They cooked.
They sewed.

They did the kinds of things

that white farming
women would do.

Betty Hemings is an
older woman by that point.

She's given
almost private quarters.

And she's given the role
at her house

of running the preschool.

Critta Hemings
works as a nursemaid

to Jefferson's daughters.

James Hemings does joinery
and makes furniture,

including some pieces
that are in the house today.

And the other Hemings
had access to skills,

training for skills,
and some degree of autonomy

within the plantation system
that sets them apart.

They're allowed to do things
that other people

aren't allowed to do,
But they're still enslaved.

Jefferson comes across
as a very benevolent person.

In his writing, he recognizes
slavery as a moral failing.

He thinks this is something

that will ultimately tear
apart the Union,

that is a threat to democracy.

He understands that.

But, also, he's complicit.
He's a slaveholder.

As Jefferson continues
to expand his family and home

in Virginia,

the British
continue their fight

to defend their empire
against France,

the Netherlands, and Spain.

Britain is involved in
conflict around the world.

And as a consequence of that,

Britain has
a substantial public debt

that has to be paid.

And it looks to the colonies
for revenue.

For years,
Parliament has been taxing

the American colonies
and using the proceeds

to fund military campaigns
around the world.

One of
the most egregious taxes

is the Stamp Act of 1765--

a direct tax
on all printed materials,

from newspapers
to playing cards.

The Stamp Act was the fourth

in a series of taxes
that infuriated the settlers,

particularly Virginia's elite.

In the years
following these taxes,

resentment amongst
the colonists grows.

We have to ask ourselves,
why do these Virginia elites,

why do wealthy people like
Jefferson and Washington

become revolutionaries?

We expect the poor
and the desperate

to take up arms
and become revolutionaries.

Why do they do it?

They do it because they
believe that their authority

is threatened by this British
assertion of sovereignty

over them.

And so, the issue
very quickly moves

from one of raising revenue
to one of political power

and autonomy.

And Virginians,

especially elite Virginians
like Jefferson,

highly value their autonomy
and their power.

The Stamp Act
would constitute an assault

on the fundamental
liberties of these people

because American Patriots

in the 1760s

worried about recognizing
their equal standing

within the British Empire.

The Sons of Liberty start as
a particular group in Boston

in response to the Stamp Act.

And then in the late 1760s,
early 1770s,

the phrase Sons of Liberty

will spread
through the colonies.

It's almost like a brand
or a hashtag, right?

Throughout the late 1760s
and early 1770s,

tension between Britain
and the colonies

continues to escalate

and eventually erupts
into violence.

And then in 1773,

to protest taxes on tea...

The Sons of Liberty board
a group of merchant vessels

one night in Boston Harbor,
seize the tea,

and dump it into the harbor

because the tea cannot be taxed

if it is not loaded onto shore.

But as soon as the tea
is offloaded,

then the colony is responsible
for the taxes.

The Boston Tea Party
is an eruption

of a long-slumbering
resentment.

It basically says, taxation
without representation.

We're being treated
as a society

that is being taken from
and being given little.

The white men who
participated in the Tea Party

dressed as Native Americans
that night

to be dramatic
and to draw attention,

to say, okay, maybe
we are different.

Maybe we are not
British subjects.

Maybe there's
a new American citizen here

that is no longer a subject.

Then in 1774, to punish
Boston,

British Parliament passes
a series of laws

known in the colonies
as the Intolerable Acts.

These acts greatly curtail
the independent governance

of Massachusetts

and stoke further resentment.

Then the colonies begin
to write to each other,

saying,
we are being treated unfairly.

In what ways are you
being treated unfairly?

And are we going to band
together to stand as one?

Are we going to accept this
as a single event,

or are we going to see this
as a long train of abuses?

Jefferson becomes
a powerful colonial voice,

speaking out against Britain.

In 1774, he writes,

"We do declare that these,

their natural
and legal rights,

"have in frequent instances
been invaded by the Parliament

"of Great Britain,

"that all such assumptions of
unlawful power are dangerous

"to the rights of the
British Empire in general

and should be considered
as its common cause."

What had been small bursts
of discontent

began to take root
as the seeds of revolution.

As a response to the
so-called Intolerable Acts

of 1774...

The 13 colonies

that previously had little in
common and little interaction

begin banding together
against British oppression.

And Jefferson
continues to write,

railing against British tyranny.

In Virginia,
the House of Burgesses

have received letters
from their colleagues

in Massachusetts
explaining what happened.

So the high-ranking members

propose a day
of fasting and prayer.

And Jefferson
and the Burgesses

vote to support Massachusetts.

They go up the street
to the Raleigh Tavern

and assemble and pass
their agreement

to have this day
of fasting and prayer

to demonstrate
a gentle form of protest.

It's a public statement of
solidarity with Massachusetts.

On the 1st of June,

they are going to go
to their churches,

and they're going to pray

for the people
in Massachusetts.

They're going to show
their allegiance in that mark.

It's basically saying,
hey, we need to sacrifice.

We need to make
a political statement

by fasting and praying.

They are deciding upon a
day of religious observation.

But that can only be decided
upon by the royal governor,

because the royal governor is
not only the representative

of the Crown, he is the
colonial representative

of the Church of England.

When he learns

that the Burgesses gathered
in the Raleigh Tavern,

they've decided to do this
amongst themselves,

well, it's his prerogative

to dissolve
the House of Burgesses

at his will.

So there you have Jefferson
and an elected body

now officially
in a state of rebellion.

It's political activism.

Jefferson's not just writing
letters anymore.

As discontent escalates,

so does the British response.

British troops are marching
in New York.

They're mustering
threateningly in other places.

The public gunpowder stores
are seized

in Massachusetts and Virginia.

The gunpowder
is supposed to be there

so that if the royal governor
calls up the militia

to fight a war
against Native Americans

or a slave uprising,

there is ammunition
for public protection.

But the royal governor
seizes the powder,

takes it to a ship
waiting offshore.

And so the royal governor
is saying,

I am not going to protect you
anymore.

You are the enemy now.

And so, in 1774,
there you have Thomas Jefferson

in that group
of former Burgesses

gathered in the Raleigh Tavern.

They're standing there
arguing, debating,

and bickering
and trying to decide...

are we really going
to forget ourselves

as Virginians
and a sovereign colony

and light the spark
of revolution?

Absolutely.

Still to come
on "Thomas Jefferson"...

Now the hard work begins.

They need to win the war.

Thomas Jefferson is
voted in as the governor

when the war is making its
way more directly to Virginia.

The British dragoons
seek the capture

of the governor of Virginia.

It's a chess match.

Jefferson is the prize.

And then
Sally Hemings becomes

the maid for his daughters.

Jefferson's in his 40s.

His wife has died.

It's clear that Sally
and Jefferson

begin a sexual relationship.

Historians were
hostile to the story.

They said, this is impossible.

Jefferson would never do
anything like this.

But if you look at who is
at Monticello at the time

that Sally Hemings conceives
all of her children,

it's Thomas Jefferson.

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson
is the first president

to be inaugurated
in Washington, D.C.

At the same moment, Napoleon's
decided to sell Louisiana

to the United States.

The Louisiana Purchase is
the biggest accomplishment

of Jefferson's presidency.

Jefferson's words, arguably,

are the most powerful words

ever originally rendered
in English.

The Declaration
of Independence

is an address
to a candid world.

It signals that the rebellious
colonists

are not going to reconcile
with Britain.

We're here.

We are
the United States of America.

And we're not going anywhere.