All language subtitles for Thomas.Jefferson.2025.S01E06.Jeffersons.Legacy.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb

Previously on "Thomas Jefferson"...

The election of 1800 is
Adams versus Jefferson.

It's an ugly fight.

But this time, Jefferson wins.

And this is the first time
we've had a change of parties

in the United States.

These two parties have
believed for a decade

that the other represents
a mortal danger,

an existential threat
to the United States.

But the people have spoken,
and they have decided

to elect a different
president in response

to Federalist high-handedness.

In 1802,
James Thomson Callender

both published and made public
the allegations that Jefferson

had had a long-standing
relationship

with one of the people he
enslaved, Sally Hemings.

It's a bombshell.
It's a huge scandal.

Callender uses
this as an attempt

to attack Thomas Jefferson,
to discredit his suitability

to be president.

But Jefferson
has no interest

in serving a third term.

He's ready to retire.

That is when the real
story comes to the fore.

In 1809, just 33 years

after writing the
Declaration of Independence,

Thomas Jefferson sits
in the White House

as president
of a thriving nation.

He, along with his
fellow founding fathers,

have worked tirelessly to mold

13 independent
British colonies

into 17 United States.

What was once a disparate
collection of farmers

forging new lives thousands
of miles from home

has become a beacon
of democracy,

leading a global charge

towards a new way
of governing.

As his second term
comes to a close,

Thomas Jefferson looks
forward to finally retiring

on top of his
beloved Monticello Mountain.

At the end of his presidency,
Jefferson is what he was

when he was born back in 1743.

He's a Virginian.

This was a well-traveled man,

traveled widely in Europe,

and he goes back to Virginia.

Never left Virginia again.

When Jefferson returns
to Monticello in 1809,

his oldest daughter, Martha,
and her nine children

are there to greet him.

His youngest daughter,
Maria, his only other child

to survive to adulthood,

had died five years earlier

after complications
from childbirth.

He never, ever lost
his zest for life

and particularly
the company of children--

to surround himself
with children,

particularly his grandchildren.

On the West Lawn,
when he would gather,

not only his grandchildren
but the children

of the neighborhood to come
around and enjoy races,

essentially, ice cream races...

Because when he would draw the
line for the race to commence

and then drop a handkerchief,

those children,
who would run the distance

across the West Lawn,

and the first to make it
and the second and third

would be presented
with the gift of ice cream.

Perhaps the recipe
of ice cream

that was gained in Paris,

and the more so because
that recipe was flavored

with the little vanilla bean

that Jefferson
brought back from Paris.

The favorite flavor
for ice cream in the Colonies

before that was oyster,
oyster ice cream.

Here, Jefferson
introduces the vanilla bean.

So you can imagine
these children,

anxious to succeed
in those races

and enjoy that novel flavor
of vanilla ice cream.

He was tremendously
affectionate

to his grandchildren,

more openly affectionate
and playful

than he was with his daughters,
his white daughters.

Remember, Sally Hemings
had six children,

who would have
been at Monticello

with his white grandchildren.

Over the course of Sally
and Jefferson's

40-year entanglement,

she bears six children,

four of whom live
to adulthood...

Harriet, Beverly,
Madison, and Eston.

We don't have any letters
that say,

I know that these
are Jefferson's children.

But the diary
of one of his friends

talked about this connection
between Jefferson

and an enslaved
woman, Sally Hemings.

Madison Hemings said
he was kind to them,

but he was distant.

He wasn't in the habit
of being affectionate to them

in the way that he was
to his grandchildren.

But he had planned for them

in a different way
than other enslaved people.

All of the young men were
put to apprenticeships

with the master
carpenter at Monticello.

Jefferson's
granddaughters' letters

talk about their trips--

stopping at inns
and having picnics.

We know they're there, because
when Jefferson is writing,

he says, I'm coming with the
carpenter and his apprentices.

That would be his sons.

The Hemings children
are interesting.

Like, they're all
very talented people.

The daughter,
Harriet, learns to spin.

All three of the sons played
the violin, as Jefferson did.

They're all carpenters,

and Jefferson
did woodworking himself.

So they're sort of like
versions of himself, in a way.

And as promised
in France in 1789,

Jefferson frees
all of Sally's children

when they turn 21.

Her sons, Madison and Eston,

move to the city
of Charlottesville,

and then they move to Ohio,
where they have large families.

And they carry a lot of the
Monticello history with them.

Beverly and Harriet--

Beverly is the oldest son--

they left Monticello
to live as white people.

They have
very light complexions,

and, in fact, do pass
into white society,

adopt new identities,
and disappear.

After his presidency
ends in 1809,

Jefferson sees
his home, Monticello,

as the embodiment of who he is

and all he has accomplished.

He becomes obsessed
with decorating

and adorning his home

in a fashion worthy
of America's founding father.

One visitor would later write,

"If it had not been called
Monticello,

"I would call it Olympus--

Jove, its occupant."

Monticello becomes not a house.

It's a museum.

It symbolizes what he
wants his legacy to be.

Jefferson adored control.

He adored architecture.

He adored a sense
of himself in the world.

And Monticello becomes
this embodiment,

an extension of himself.

He bought everything he
liked, everything he saw.

He didn't worry
about what it would cost.

He would have been
an Amazon Prime customer.

There's no doubt
in my mind about this,

and he would have
pressed, yes, one click,

and I want it tomorrow.

But Monticello was not

a tremendously
profitable place.

He didn't pay enough attention
to the business side of it.

On top of the fact
that this guy is a consumer,

there are macroeconomic
issues at work against him.

During his retirement,
the agricultural economy

is not changing for the
better for Virginia planters.

Most of his agricultural
practices and activities

don't produce the profits
that he hoped.

Tobacco planters
generally relied so heavily

on British credit,

they were normally
always deeply in debt.

That didn't mean they
didn't have great resources,

that they didn't have a lot of
money to spend on themselves.

But it did mean that there was
a kind of perpetual dependency

on overseas markets.

They're used to carrying debt

in ways that, frankly,

would probably make most of us
uncomfortable.

Planters are borrowing
money from each other.

They're signing notes for
each other to pay their debts.

And if you're
a member of the elite,

you never really
get called on it.

Most of the time,
you can keep signing notes,

and people
will keep taking them

and giving you wine
or books or people.

Jefferson is
aware of his debt,

but he sees it
as the currency of his class.

Having always had wealth,
he presumes he always will.

Jefferson has a great
sense of entitlement

to the good life,

but not that sense
of hardscrabble responsibility

on how to make money
and keep it.

But when Jefferson's
creditors come to collect,

his pockets are empty.

In 1809, when
Jefferson returns

to Monticello
after his presidency,

he is forced
to reconcile his debt.

After many years of floating
his lavish lifestyle

on loans and favors,

when his creditors ask
to be paid,

Jefferson realizes
he must come up

with a way to generate cash.

He responded to this debt

by coming up
with various schemes.

He had a flour mill.

He had other ventures
at his plantation

that he thought would
actually make money for him.

But Jefferson is not
a good businessman.

His efforts to diversify--
a lot of them

are based on ideals of how
a plantation should work,

rather than what
is actually going

to work best for Monticello.

Jefferson is experimenting
in industries

like weaving and spinning.

There are men who do ironwork.

He establishes the nailery,

and they start
manufacturing nails.

Young men working
in that nailery

are often being
treated quite harshly.

And in the end, the various
mills and that nail factory

didn't make the money that
he thought could be made.

After three years
of failed attempts

to make money,

in 1812, a new conflict
with Britain

emerges over contested trade
routes and infringements

of American rights at sea.

Amidst the chaos of war comes
an opportunity for Jefferson.

During the War of 1812,

the British burned part
of the capital.

And one of the
things they burned

is what was then the
Library of Congress.

So Jefferson's friends in
Congress know he's in debt.

They pass a law to authorize
the purchase

of Jefferson's
private library...

Because he collects
a huge number

of books, thousands of books.

He sells the entire
collection intact.

He says, you can't
just take the books

on politics and history.

You have to take
all the books,

because all knowledge should
be of interest to legislators.

And that becomes the core
of the Library of Congress

that we know today.

So they buy
Jefferson's library

for a lot more
than it's worth.

And Jefferson now
can pay his debts.

What does he do?

He takes the money and starts
ordering books from England,

where he
can get them much cheaper,

and he replaces everything
he sold, plus a lot more.

This guy's a consumer.

He needs the infusion of cash,

but instead, he builds
a third library.

And so he's getting into
greater and greater debt.

And then there's
the Panic of 1819.

There's a massive
economic downturn.

It's effectively a depression,
and he's caught out by that.

After years of prosperity
and expansion,

the Panic of 1819

is America's first
financial setback.

A result of fallout
from the global markets

in the aftermath of
the wars in Europe

and America's lack of
regulation on paper money,

the Panic forces
wealthy planters,

who previously just moved
debts around, to pay up.

Jefferson finds himself
responsible for paying back

not only money he borrowed

but money his friends
borrowed as well.

Jefferson cosigns loans

for friends that fail,

and he's on the hook for those.

The suggestion was
that he should downsize

and sell people the land.

But he didn't want to do that.

Because you don't
sell land in Virginia.

You buy land.
You get land.

Land is power in this place.

And the elite Virginians are
obsessed with acquiring it.

You don't give up land
unless you absolutely have to.

And the same,
to a large extent,

goes for enslaved people.

But you don't get rid of
your assets in that way

in order to get out of debt,

not in that culture
at that time.

And so
the Jefferson family--

they bring up the idea,

we could convince him to move
to the Deep South,

where cotton is booming.

The opportunity is there.

If you take the enslaved
laborers who are at Monticello

and take them
to a different landscape,

you could absolve the debt
without having to separate

the enslaved community.

But Jefferson's grandson said,

you know he'll never go
for that.

And so the family
basically gives up

on trying to solve Jefferson's
financial problems.

He wanted everything
to remain the same.

It was sort of really
unrealistic

that everything
is going to remain the same.

And so there's no question

that he was enormously
depressed at the end.

He felt that he had
failed as a patriarch,

he had failed to
protect his family.

After a life as a celebrated
revolutionary and aristocrat,

in his final years,

Thomas Jefferson
finds himself broke and alone.

At 76 years old,

Thomas Jefferson's political
career is over,

and he is deeply in debt.

He is celebrated as the author

of the
Declaration of Independence,

America's third president,

and a beloved founding father.

But he is still determined
to leave America with more.

In 1819...

he's a man
in declining health,

but he wanted to be remembered

as the embodiment of the
principles

of liberty and equality.

And so he spends much of his
retirement engaged in founding

the University of Virginia.

Jefferson presided over
the University of Virginia,

with hopes that this
could be a seminary

for Republican leaders
of the future.

But people were upset

because it didn't have
a chapel.

People called it
a godless institution.

And so Jefferson's
vision was,

this is going to be
a secular institution

that's meant
to be explicitly political.

He's going to properly train
young Southern men

to be good Republican citizens.

And he takes immense pride
in that.

On Jefferson's tombstone,
he cites three things--

author of the
Declaration of Independence,

author of the Virginia
Statute for Religious Freedom,

and founder of the
University of Virginia.

And it's fascinating he
chose those things

and not his presidency.

As Jefferson
descends into old age,

he becomes acutely aware

of the way he would like
to be remembered.

He'd been there
at the beginning.

The American Revolution was
a really, really big deal.

We don't take
monarchy seriously,

but that was the predominant
form of governance.

And for having defeated that--

and he knew that
it was something

that he would be
remembered for,

and he wanted to be remembered
in a particular kind of way.

Jefferson deliberately wrote
his own autobiography

because he was writing
a version of history

that he wanted
to be remembered.

He wants to be remembered
as someone who defended

the people's liberties...

and he stood
for human equality,

religious freedom,
and education and science.

Jefferson's life that we
get from his autobiography

is very carefully edited
and cultivated.

It doesn't just influence our
understanding of him early on.

I think it continues
to this day.

In his 70s,
Thomas Jefferson

is reflective and sentimental
about what he's accomplished.

His health is declining,
but his mind is still sharp.

Jefferson was a hale old man,

but he was
an old man nevertheless.

He'd lived considerably longer
than the average life span

for an American man
at that time.

He would go out

and ride around the plantation
occasionally,

and he would come for dinner,

but he spent most
of his time writing.

Jefferson loves
writing letters

and receiving letters
and trading books.

And one of the great joys
for him

is his correspondence
with John Adams

well into his last years.

The Adams-Jefferson
relationship

is a fascinating relationship.

There's a very,
very close bond.

They first meet
in the Continental Congress.

Of course, they serve
on the committee of five

that drafts the
Declaration of Independence.

They're in Paris together
before Adams goes to London.

But then they become estranged,
really, over politics.

Adams famously skipped
Jefferson's inauguration.

After a decade-long standoff
between the founding fathers

of America's two opposing
political parties,

John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson

find themselves nostalgic

for the days
of revolutionary fervor.

Years before, in 1812,

just as Jefferson began
to compile plans

for the University
of Virginia,

Benjamin Rush, who had served
with him and Adams

in the Continental Congress,

encouraged the two
old patriots to reconcile.

Benjamin Rush
gets into his head

that these two people should
not be enemies

because they had been
such great friends.

He approaches both people,

and they start
this correspondence

that has become famous.

They correspond a lot.

"I have thus stated
my opinion

"on a point
on which we differ,

"not with a view
to controversy,

"for we are both too old
to change opinions

"which are the result
of a long life

of inquiry and reflection."

They're both retired.
They're both opinionated.

They're both gifted
letter writers.

We have these two leaders
of the American Revolution

reflecting on their life's work.

Adams, characteristically,
writes three letters

for every one of Jefferson's.

Adams can't help himself.

He just writes and writes
and writes and writes.

"Your letter was
received in due time

"and with the welcome
of everything which comes

"from you with its opinions on
the difficulties of revolution

from despotism to freedom,
I very much concur."

They still don't
agree on everything.

But the venom has been taken
out of things.

The sting is out of it.

They're arguing about history,
to some extent.

They're arguing about politics,
to some extent.

But they're not fighting
about it anymore.

"I wish your
health may continue

"to last much better
than mine.

"We shall meet again,

"so wishes and so
believes your friend.

But if we are disappointed,
we shall never know it."

It's as if Adams and
Jefferson are reimagining

and reaffirming the original
bond that made them both,

at the same moment, Americans.

In 1826, he had been ill
for a number of months.

He'd had a bout of some
sort of bacterial infection

and had been treated
with mercury.

By June, it's clear
that he's failing.

In the last few days
of his life...

It's early July,

and he's coming in
and out of consciousness.

He's asking those around him,
is it the Fourth?

Is it the Fourth?

He called his
family into the room,

and he said, the end is near.

Do not weep for me.

Turning to his
daughter, he said,

I go where your mother is.

And we prepare a place for you.

And a story that is told

is that he asks
to be raised on his pillow,

and nobody knows
what he's saying.

The only person who knows
that's what he's saying

is Burwell Colbert,

an African American
enslaved person who does it

and raises him on his pillow.

And then he closes his eyes,
and he goes to sleep,

and he doesn't wake up.

John Adams and Jefferson
die on the same day...

July 4, 1826.

They die
on the 50th anniversary

of the
Declaration of Independence.

It's an amazing coincidence,

and it's a fitting end
to their story.

When Jefferson dies,
he is surrounded

by people who have been looking
after him his entire life.

One of the last people
that he sees

is an African American man,
enslaved man.

It brackets his life.

He comes into the world at
the hands of enslaved people,

and at the end, he, again, is
surrounded by enslaved people.

Jefferson left this country
with its founding creed,

but only after his death
will the enslaved people

of Monticello find out
if his vision of liberty

applies to them.

After Jefferson's death

and his lifetime
spent espousing

man's natural right
to liberty,

the enslaved community
of Monticello

anxiously awaits their fate
upon the reading of his will.

There was some hope within
the enslaved community

that because this is
the apostle of liberty,

he would have
a deathbed conversion.

There's people like
Washington, who, in his will,

frees enslaved people
who belong to him.

But Jefferson didn't
free his slaves.

90% of his wealth is bound
to these enslaved people.

He doesn't free people,
because he can't afford to.

He died deeply in debt,
and as a result of that,

there's a huge auction
to settle his debt.

That sale is advertised--
"130 valuable Negroes."

It's among the largest sales
of enslaved people

in the United States.

And so on a cold
January morning in 1827,

the moment arrived to liquidate
Thomas Jefferson's property.

Can you imagine
what that must have felt like,

to watch a member
of your family be sold?

Sold alongside artwork
out of the house,

chairs from the dining room,
alongside horses and cattle.

My great-great-
great-grandfather

was sold there on
the West Lawn,

along with scores
of other people.

My fourth great-grandfather
is Peter Hemings,

and Peter Hemings was
sold at the 1827 sale.

Despite talking
about the consequences,

about family separation,
a lot of these families

ended up separated.

Generations of people never
saw their families again.

In one case, Jefferson
puts in his will

that his blacksmith,
Joe Fossett, is freed

and can live in his cabin
with his wife and his family.

But Jefferson didn't free
his wife and his family.

And so the day Joe Fossett
got his freedom,

he watched his wife
and his children

auctioned off to a number
of different purchasers.

His son Peter Fossett,
who was 11 years old,

many years later said,

we were scattered
all over the country,

never to meet each other again
until we meet in another world.

I think about that
line all the time.

He understands what
separating people

from their families does.

He understands
the long-term consequences,

but these families end up
scattered all over the world,

all because this one family
couldn't figure out

what to do with their finances.

He had written
about personal liberty.

He had written about equality.

He had expressed
some of the most beautiful

and important sentiments
known to man.

And yet, he could not
live out his ideals.

Jefferson separated,
by sale or gift,

400 enslaved people over
the course of his lifetime.

In the last 250 years...

Thomas Jefferson's story
has been pruned and curated.

That he has come to be known
as the pinnacle

of American exceptionalism

is no accident.

There was a revival
of interest in Jefferson

around the time
of the Second World War.

When set against fascism
in an existential fight

like the Second World War,

Franklin Roosevelt,

and I think the American people
more generally,

saw Jefferson as the embodiment
of the principles

of liberty and equality.

And Roosevelt dedicated
the Jefferson Memorial in 1943.

And it's the high watermark

of the representation
of Jefferson

as the apostle of liberty.

And so the Jefferson
many of us grew up with

was an extension of an FDR-era
Democratic Party

that was liberal--
lowercase L--

inspiring,
rooted in the Declaration,

and intelligent.

The lessons of his presidency,

of the writing that he did

can be used to inspire
patriotism.

Over the course
of the last 70 years,

Jefferson's story
has been molded

in order to bolster
the American narrative.

But until Jefferson's
full story is told,

can the real story of
America's founding be known?

Much conversation
has surrounded

Jefferson's relationship
with Sally Hemings,

as well as the promise
he upheld

to emancipate her children.

But though Sally watched
each of her children

walk free
upon their 21st birthday,

she, like the rest
of the enslaved community

at Monticello,

learns her fate
upon the reading of his will.

He does not free
her in his will.

Jefferson's daughter
basically gives Sally Hemings

an unofficial sort of freedom.

She's given her time.

And that means that
she's basically allowed

to go and come as she pleases.

So Sally Hemings moves
into Charlottesville

with her sons,
Madison and Eston,

and she's able to live there
until her death.

After a nearly
40-year relationship,

Sally Hemings
is neither granted her freedom

nor ever
officially acknowledged

by Jefferson or his family.

While Jefferson's loved ones
and descendants are buried

next to him at Monticello,

Sally's gravesite is unknown.

Years later, after Sally
and Jefferson's deaths,

Sally's son Madison
publishes a memoir

claiming that he
and his siblings

are Thomas Jefferson's
children.

But his story
is fervently denied

by Jefferson's
white descendants.

Jefferson's grandson
says it wasn't Jefferson.

It was... a nephew.

Jefferson's granddaughter,
Ellen Coolidge,

says a similar thing.

Two of Jefferson's
grandchildren are quoted,

saying that
the children were fathered

by Jefferson's nephews.

That's why they look
just like Jefferson.

And so that's the line
that historians stuck to.

The idea is that
this is impossible.

Jefferson would never
do anything like this.

He couldn't have lived
among his grandchildren

and have a mistress.

Historians are saying
there's no evidence

that this happened.

I was insulted by that.

To say that Madison Hemings's
recollections

and the recollections
of a man named

Israel Gillette Jefferson,

who corroborates
what Madison Hemings said--

to say that there
was no evidence

was like saying that
they didn't even speak.

If you don't listen to
enslaved people about slavery,

what the heck are you doing?

The morality suggests that
you should pay attention

to what they're saying.

And that's how I ended up
writing the first book.

So, in my book, I look
at these two stories--

the Jefferson
grandchildren's story

and Madison Hemings's
recollections--

to try to see what
corroborating evidence

there was to prove that these
are Jefferson's children.

If you look at who is
at Monticello at the time

that Sally Hemings conceives
all of her children,

it's Thomas Jefferson.

When Thomas Jefferson
is away in Washington,

Sally Hemings isn't
getting pregnant.

When Thomas Jefferson
is at Monticello,

she's getting pregnant.

The children are named for
people connected to Jefferson,

and then there's
one nuclear family

that walks away
from that place,

and that's Sally Hemings
and her children.

All of this made it clear
that Madison Hemings

was likely telling the truth

when he said that Jefferson
was his father.

But these histories

from the enslaved community
are discounted

because historians have long
discounted the oral histories

of African Americans

by saying
that they are less valid

than other types
of historical information,

things like diaries
and handwritten records.

The key here being,
people who are literate

are able to produce
better history

than those who are not.

And so the story

that Jefferson's
white family weaves

becomes the main narrative.

These are the ways that
they have protected his legacy

for 200 years.

My book came out in 1997.

Eugene Foster arranged
the DNA testing

in 1998.

They test the descendant

of Sally Hemings'
youngest son, Eston,

and they compare that
with an unbroken line

through to Thomas Jefferson's
brother Peter.

The DNA study
in 1998 confirms

that Thomas Jefferson

fathered Sally Hemings's
last child, Eston.

Annette Gordon-Reed
got it right

before the scientists did.

It's one of the singular

and most formidable
contributions

of an American historian, ever.

So the combination
of the things that I'd done

and the DNA changed
the way people saw things.

Why is this important?

Because of what it said
about the way

people write about history

and who is a credible witness
and whose story matters

and the suggestion

that the founding era is
the era of white people

and not the era of lots
of different people.

We learn about the Hemings
through Madison Hemings

and through
Israel Gillette Hemings,

who confirm
from their own experience--

They were there.
They witnessed it.

And yet, historians,
for decades,

dismiss these
firsthand accounts

from the enslaved community.

But this DNA study
and Annette Gordon-Reed

shows us that these
enslaved families matter.

It's important to resist

the idea
that researching slavery

is difficult or impossible
or too challenging a project

to undertake.

I think the more that we
think through ways

that we can elevate
the stories

and preserve these histories,

the more that we can start
to bring some of this history

out of the shadows.

Suddenly, centuries of lies

and wishful thinking are gone.

And what stands is the truth.

And what is that truth?

The truth is what America is,

which is this remarkable
combination

of lies and reality

and contradiction
and hope and fear,

all of which Jefferson was.

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.

As more

of Thomas Jefferson's
complicated story

has come to light...

Many changes have been made
in the way history is taught

and understood in America.

There was this turn
with historic sites,

including Monticello...

starting to supplement

those traditional
historic records

with the human side,

grappling with slavery,

to teach history
as a full story,

as not just the high point.

Monticello and
early American history

are way more than
stories about Jefferson.

The Getting Word African
American Oral History Project

traveled over 40,000 miles,

looking for descendants
of families

associated with the Monticello
enslaved community,

locate them, and record
their oral histories.

This work that goes

into understanding
enslaved communities

is part of a groundswell
that's happening

to reunite those families.

Monticello hosted
the 25th anniversary

of the Getting Word Project,

and over 300 people came

from the descendant
community alone.

It's almost beyond words,
all of the descendants

gathered at the West Lawn,

where our ancestors
had been sold.

I mean, it's this
power of place.

It's the power of saying,
this is where it happened.

My job as a descendant
of enslaved people

is to debunk the myth...

and to give voice
to my ancestors.

Their voices were silenced
in life, but mine isn't.

And my people represent
millions of enslaved people

throughout American history.

Jefferson could
never have envisioned

that descendants would return
to Monticello for a reunion.

We can unite with one another
and learn about what happened

and also move forward.

Those individuals
have lived out

the Declaration
of Independence.

They are the patriots.

They have taken and extended

the Declaration
of Independence

for themselves
and for their families

and for their communities in
ways that Thomas Jefferson

never would have envisioned.

People have said to me,

you seem to be proud
of Thomas Jefferson.

Missing the whole point.

I'm not ashamed
or proud of Jefferson.

He will always be very
important to our history

and to making this
country what it is.

But I'll tell you
who I am proud of--

those people who
stood up and made

his life possible,

made it possible
for the United States

to be here today.

So what do we make
of the legacy

of Thomas Jefferson today?

He was, obviously, a person

with this vision of a society.

He articulated things that
hadn't been articulated

in quite that way before.

It sets forth an
ideal when you think

about citizenship and its
glories and responsibilities.

But we have to reckon

the apostle-of-liberty
Jefferson

with the Jefferson

whose legacy makes us
uncomfortable.

Jefferson was the one
politician--

brilliant, articulate,

popular, a slave-owner--

who could have made
a difference...

and didn't.

The crime feels worse
because...

it's abetted by things
that we admire.

And we don't quite know where
one starts and the other ends.

And so we worry that
if Jefferson was impure,

then our ideals are impure.

We worry that if Jefferson was
wrong, our nation is wrong.

Because America's greatnesses

are linked inextricably

with...

its horrors.

There's nobody else

that contains that observation
about the country

like Jefferson.

And so we have to think

about the period
of America's founding

in ways that would be
productive and helpful

and help us envision a future
where we could solve

some of the inequality caused
by the systems set up by people

like Thomas Jefferson.

Some of the founding fathers

hold up better to scrutiny
than others.

So you have to take the good
with the bad and the ugly

and look at all of it
together in context

and not demonize them
and not idolize them,

which itself makes their
wisdom more accessible,

which I think is infinitely
more interesting,

because it's more human.

And that itself, I think, can
inspire us to hold ourselves

up to higher standards and
learn from their examples--

their successes
and their failings.

We need to continue
debunking the mythology.

However, we must
always remember

those inspiring words.

Jefferson didn't write those
words considering Black people

who were free or enslaved.

He didn't write those
words considering women.

He certainly wasn't thinking

about the Indigenous
populations

whose land they were occupying.

But he did give us
this inspirational place

that we could always aspire
to be.

We could always
aspire for equality.

We could always work
to make these words true.

And for generations of people,

that is exactly
what has happened.

Jefferson's story is one
of conflict and contradiction.

But it remains
the story of America.

As he himself wrote
in a letter in 1790...

"The ground of liberty is
to be gained by inches,

"and we must be contented to
secure what we can from time

"to time and eternally
press forward

for what is yet to get."