Thomas Jefferson
Conflicting Views of Freedom
From: Footprints of Freedom: Spring Lesson Study, 2013
History Standards: 5.5
5.5 Students explain the causes of the American Revolution.
3. Understand the people and events associated with the drafting and signing of the
Declaration of Independence and the document's significance, including the key
political concepts it embodies, the origins of those concepts, and its role in severing ties
with Great Britain.
4. Describe the views, lives, and impact of key individuals during this period (e.g., King
George III, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin,
John Adams).
5.4 Students understand the political, religious, social, and economic institutions
that evolved in the colonial era.
6. Describe the introduction of slavery into America, the responses of slave families to
their condition, the ongoing struggle between proponents and opponents of slavery, and
the gradual institutionalization of slavery in the South.
CCSS Standards: Reading for Informational Text, Grade 5
2. Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key
details; summarize the text.
6. Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and
differences in the point of view they represent.
9. Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about
the subject knowledgeably.
Writing, Grade 5
1. Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and
information.
5. With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed
by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.
Guiding Question:
How did Thomas Jefferson’s actions demonstrate his beliefs about freedom?
Overview of Lesson:
By the end of this lesson, students should be able to understand the views, life, and impact of
Thomas Jefferson, particularly the paradox surrounding his conflicting views on freedom. They
should be able to contrast his political activism as a writer, orator, and abolitionist with his role
as the master of a plantation which relied on slave labor, and form an opinion regarding the
impact of his life on early America.
Assessment: Students will be provided with a three-part recording form on which they will
track their stance on the question: “Did Thomas Jefferson’s actions reflect his beliefs on
freedom?”
Section 1: Students will complete section 1 after only a very broad overview of the topic.
Section 2: A joint parent-student homework assignment will ask students to examine
provided sources regarding Thomas Jefferson’s actions and his views on freedom. Some of the
sources present evidence of his fight for freedom, and some of the sources present evidence of
his role as a participatory owner of slaves. Students will complete section 2 following their
investigation of the sources with their parents.
Section 3: Students will share their homework in pairs, and then in groups of four, using the
civil conversation process. Students will then complete section 3, and a whole class discussion
will take place to discuss how their answers evolved. What does that say about our opinions,
the way we learn, and Thomas Jefferson?
Name:___________________________________#_______
Box 1 – BEFORE Reading or Discussion
Did Thomas Jefferson’s actions reflect his beliefs about
freedom?
______ Pro (Yes)
_____Con (No)
Reason(s):
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Box 2 – AFTER Reading and Discussion at Home
What is your current feeling about whether or not Thomas Jefferson’s
actions reflected his beliefs about freedom?
______ Pro (Yes)
_____Con (No)
Comments? If you changed your opinion, what influenced you to change?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Box 3 – AFTER Class Civil Conservation Activity
What is your current feeling about whether or not Thomas Jefferson’s
actions reflected his beliefs about freedom?
______ Pro (Yes)
_____Con (No)
Comments? If you changed your opinion, what influenced you to change?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
What did you learn from the Active Listening and Civil Conversation
process?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Sources that are FOR (Pro) the idea that Jefferson’s actions reflected his beliefs about freedom:
On July 4, 1826, the author of the
Declaration of Independence
died on its 50th anniversary.
Thomas Jefferson was 83 years
old and passed away only hours
before John Adams, who
remained his life-long friend
despite many disagreements.
Thomas Jefferson wanted to be
remembered for three things,
Freedom from Britain,
Freedom from conscience,
and Freedom maintained through
education.
(from Cicero Education website)
Thomas Jefferson was a consistent
opponent of slavery his whole life. Calling it a “moral
depravity” and a “hideous blot,” he believed that slavery
presented the greatest threat to the survival of the new
American nation. Jefferson also thought that slavery
was contrary to the laws of nature, which decreed that
everyone had a right to personal liberty. These views
were radical in a world where unfree labor was the
norm.
At the time of the American
Revolution, Jefferson was actively involved in legislation
that he hoped would result in slavery’s abolition. In
1778, he drafted a Virginia law that prohibited the
importation of enslaved Africans. In 1784, he proposed
an ordinance that would ban slavery in the Northwest
territories. But Jefferson always maintained that the
decision to emancipate slaves would have to be part of
a democratic process; abolition would be stymied until
slaveowners consented to free their human property
together in a large-scale act of emancipation. To
Jefferson, it was anti-democratic and contrary to the
principles of the American Revolution for the federal
government to enact abolition or for only a few planters
to free their slaves.
http://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-andslavery/thomas-jefferson-and-slavery
Jefferson obituary, New-York American,1826
Sources that are AGAINST (Con) the idea that Jefferson’s
actions reflected his beliefs about freedom:
“There is, it is true, a compelling paradox about Jefferson: when he wrote the Declaration of
Independence, announcing the “self-evident” truth that all men are “created equal,” he owned
some 175 slaves. Too often, scholars and readers use those facts as a crutch, to write off Jefferson’s
inconvenient views as products of the time and the complexities of the human condition.
But while many of his contemporaries, including George Washington, freed their slaves during and
after the revolution — inspired, perhaps, by the words of the Declaration — Jefferson did not. Over
the subsequent 50 years, a period of extraordinary public service, Jefferson remained the master of
Monticello, and a buyer and seller of human beings.”
By PAUL FINKELMAN
Published: November 30, 2012
New York Times
Description: Jefferson ran this ad
offering a reward for the return of "Sandy"
in "The Virginia Gazette" on September 14,
1769.
Jefferson wrote, “I allow nothing for
losses by death, but, on the contrary, shall
presently take credit four per cent. per annum,
for their increase over and above keeping up
their own numbers.” His plantation was
producing inexhaustible human assets. The
percentage was predictable. In another
communication from the early 1790s, Jefferson
takes the 4 percent formula further and quite
bluntly advances the notion that slavery
presented an investment strategy for the future.
He writes that an acquaintance who had suffered
financial reverses “should have been invested in
negroes.”
Read more:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/historyarchaeology/The-Little-Known-Dark-Side-ofThomas-Jefferson169780996.html#ixzz2LZaqF4NN
Thomas Jefferson Charles Willson Peale, 1791
YouTube video clip: Jefferson Getting to Know:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjgZf4or8wk
Lesson Vocabulary:
Cultural Norm
Economics
Standard of Living
Controversy
Conscience
Contradiction
Opponent
Societal Classes
Contemporaries (people)
Subsequent
Asset
Civil Conversation
A civil conversation is a formal discussion about a topic that has more than one perspective. Not
everyone will have the same opinion about the things being discussed. During the civil
conversation, all participants must follow these guidelines:
 Show respect for the views expressed by others, even if you strongly disagree.
 Keep your comments short so that everyone gets a chance to be heard.
 Direct your comments to the whole group rather than to any one individual.
 Don’t let conflict over different viewpoints become personal. No name-calling or
shouting.
 Let others express their views without interrupting. You will get a turn to speak.
 It’s okay for people to share their opinions and not come to an agreement.
Active Listening And
Responding
I heard you say…
My idea is like/different
than ______’s idea…
I agree/respectfully
disagree with _______
because _________.
I think I heard you
say…