The Role of Education
The legacy of Jefferson's ideas about accessible and equal education can still be seen today.
“ To give to every citizen the information he needs...to understand his duties to his neighbors and country...to know his rights...”
The Idea
Thomas Jefferson believed only educated citizens could make the American experiment in self-government succeed. He proposed a system of broad, free, public education that was radical in his day and his founding of the University of Virginia partially achieved his larger goals.
Yet in Jefferson's lifetime and beyond, Blacks, both free and enslaved, were denied citizenship and women were excluded from full citizenship. Education was a key factor in the struggle of Monticello's enslaved community and their descendants to win their rights to full citizenship.
The impact of these endeavors and the legacy of Jefferson's ideas about accessible and equal education can still be seen today, as Americans continue to debate the ends, ways, and means to provide for a well-informed citizenry.
Making the Idea a Reality
Unable to realize his vision of a system of public education from childhood to adulthood, Jefferson focused his energies to found the University of Virginia as a first step in achieving his larger goals.
In the ongoing journey to extend the full rights of citizenship to all Americans, the student body at the University of Virginia has grown to include people of color and all genders and identities.
One of Jefferson's Three Greatest Achievments
More in the Thomas Jeffeson Encyclopedia
“ ...the people are safe depositories of their own liberty, and ... are not safe unless enlightened...”
“ I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. no other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom, and happiness”
The education we stole for ourselves
During Jefferson’s lifetime it was not illegal to teach enslaved people to read or write. While Jefferson did not establish a school to educate those he enslaved, and expressed reservations about enslaved people learning to write he did not forbid those he enslaved from achieving literacy. Surviving letters and firsthand accounts by members of Monticello's enslaved community indicate their understanding that knowledge is power.
“ I consider what education I have as a legitimate fruit of freedom”
The lives and educational achievements of descendants of Monticello's enslaved community exemplify a quest for full citizenship and to manifest American ideals.
Moving Towards the Future
Two hundred years ago, Jefferson said, "Whenever the people are well informed, they may be trusted with their own government." Throughout our nation's history, there has been a struggle to make Jefferson's ideas a reality -- from Brown vs. The Board of Education and Massive Resistance to Title IX, ADA, school curricula, and admissions standards -- who becomes informed, and how, remains an ongoing challenge. How can we use Jefferson’s ideas and principles today to extend access to education and strengthen our democracy?
“ To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business. To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing. To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either. To know his rights.”
THE ROLE OF EDUCATION VIDEOS
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Monticello historian John Ragosta discusses the role of education in a self-governing populace.
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Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, speaks about educational inequality and the critical role education plays in the United States during her acceptance speech as the recipient of the 2013 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Citizen Leadership.
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Gayle Jessup White, descendant of both Thomas Jefferson and multiple members of the Monticello enslaved community, and Monticello's Public Relations and Community Engagement Officer, discusses the Hubbard family and how they navigated the landscape of enslavement.
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Peter Peterson, former United States Secretary of Commerce, discusses the significance of education in his early life as the son of Greek immigrants.
THE ROLE OF EDUCATION - BIOGRAPHIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES
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Born into slavery at Monticello, Israel Gillette Jefferson said that he considered "what education I have as a legitimate fruit of freedom." Learn more about his life and read his memoirs about growing up in slavery and later achieving freedom.
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John Hemmings was a skilled joiner (fine wood worker) who was literate and often wrote letters to Thomas Jefferson and other members of the Jefferson family while working on construction of Jefferson's second home, Poplar Forest.
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Hannah's surname is lost to history, but a surviving letter to Thomas Jefferson demonstrates her abilities as the only known literate female enslaved worker on Jefferson's plantations.
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James Hemings was an enslaved chef who was literate and traveled to France with Thomas Jefferson. While there, he paid for lessons from a French tutor to learn the language.
THE ROLE OF EDUCATION - PODCASTS
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Monticello guides Kyle Chattleton and Laura-Michal Balderson discuss the social expectations and realities women of the gentry class faced in 18th-Century Virginia and how they both aligned and diverged for Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph.
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Thomas Jefferson believed that knowledge was power. He wasn't the only one at Monticello who did.
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Monticello guide Kyle Chattleton takes us through the decades-long effort to establish the University of Virginia, which Jefferson considered one of three accomplishments for which he most wished to be remembered.
A Civic Engagement Initiative sponsored by and in collaboration with The New York Community Trust – The Peter G. Peterson Fund.
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