The year is 2043. Americans are commemorating the tricentennial of Thomas Jefferson’s birth. You are a prominent historian, essayist, and raconteur with a doctorate in history (which began with your studies at Cuesta College).
The president of the United States has asked you to author an OBJECTIVE paper on the Jeffersonian paradox of democratic optimism cohabitating with the slave institution.
How did Thomas Jefferson view race, slavery, and liberty in America? What factors explain Jefferson’s jarring contradictions between his authorship of the Declaration of Independence and advocacy of democratic optimism and inalienable rights and his statements about race in Notes on the State of Virginia and his ownership of slave property?
The president is hoping to submit your well-researched and well-crafted paper to the Library of Congress as part of the institution’s celebration of the Jefferson tricentenary.