Was Jefferson 
a
Vegetarian?
Jefferson cannot be called a vegetarian, as we understand the
term today. In his own time, 
however,
he was unusually moderate in his consumption of meat and was notable
for the variety as well as the quantity of vegetables he ate.
The documentary record includes several descriptions, including Jefferson's own, of his eating habits:
Thomas Jefferson:
"I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that
not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables which
constitute my principal diet." (TJ to Dr. Vine Utley, 21 March
1819)
Ellen W. Coolidge, granddaughter:
"He lived principally on vegetables . . . . The little meat
he took seemed mostly as a seasoning for his vegetables."
Thomas J. Randolph, grandson:
"He ate heartily, and much vegetable food, preferring French cookery,
because it made the meats more tender." (Randall, Jefferson,
III, 675)
Daniel
Webster:
"He enjoys his dinner well, taking with meat a large proportion
of vegetables." (Notes of a visit to Monticello in 1824, in Webster,
Papers, IV, 371)
Edmund Bacon, Monticello overseer from 1806-1822:
"He never eat much hog meat. He often told me, as I was giving
out meat for the servants, that what I gave one of them for a
week would be more than he would use in six months. . . . He was
especially fond of Guinea fowls; and for meat he preferred good
beef, mutton, and lambs. . . . He was very fond of vegetables
and fruit and raised every variety of them." (Jefferson at
Monticello, p. 73). Note, each adult slave received one pound
of salt pork a week.
--Lucia C. Stanton, Monticello Research Department, May 1987; revised January 1988
Photo of tennis-ball lettuce by Skip Johns. Scarlet runner beans, by H. Andrew Johnson