PART ONE. Introduction: Nature, Race, and Revolution in Jefferson's America -- Thomas Jefferson's Virginia -- Virginia's Jefferson -- Virginia's Revolution -- Law and War -- The French Alternative -- Notes on the State of Virginia -- The Strange History of a Book -- Hemingses, Jeffersons, and History -- A Note about the Texts -- PART TWO. The Documents -- 1. Thomas Jefferson, Resolutions of the Freeholders of Albemarle County, July 26, 1774 -- 2. Lord Dunmore, Proclamation of Freedom to Slaves and Servants, November 1775 -- 3. The Declaration of Independence: Thomas Jefferson's Draft with Congress's Changes, July 4, 1776 -- 4. François Marbois, Queries Concerning Virginia, November 1780 -- 5. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Jean Baptiste DuCoigne, Kaskaskia Chief, June 1781 -- 6. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Monroe, May 20, 1782 -- 7. Thomas Jefferson, An Anonymous Letter for the European Newspapers, November 1784 -- 8. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Marquis de Chastellux, June 7, 1785 -- 9. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Richard Price, August 7, 1785 -- 10. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Marquis de Chastellux, September 2, 1785 -- 11. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Archibald Stuart, January 25, 1786 -- 12. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-1787 -- Query I. Boundaries of Virginia -- Query II. Rivers -- Query III. Sea Ports -- Query IV. Mountains -- Query V. Cascades -- Query VI. Productions Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal -- Query VII. Climate -- Query VIII. Population -- Query IX. Military Force -- Query X. Marine Force -- Query XI. Aborigines -- Query XII. Counties and Towns -- Query XIII. Constitution -- Query XIV. Laws -- Query XV. Colleges, Buildings, and Roads -- Query XVI. Proceedings as to Tories -- Query XVII. Religion -- Query XVIII. Manners -- Query XIX. Manufactures -- Query XX. Subjects of Commerce -- Query XXI. Weights, Measures, and Money -- Query XXII. Public Revenue and Expenses -- Query XXIII. Histories, Memorials, and State-papers -- 13. Benjamin Banneker and Thomas Jefferson, Letters, August 19, 1791, and August 30, 1791 -- APPENDIXES -- A Thomas Jefferson Chronology (1743-1826) -- Questions for Consideration -- Selected Bibliography -- Index.;Thomas Jefferson's only book, Notes on the State of Virginia, is a rich and revealing compendium of information and opinion on the largest and most important state in the union at the end of the American Revolution. Presented in the scientific spirit of the Enlightenment as an encyclopedia of useful data, Notes is also an eloquent testament to Jefferson's faith in the redemptive potential of the republican revolution. Yet Jefferson's hopes are shadowed by his fearshis anxieties about the future, and the threat that forthcoming generations of Virginians will fail to fulfill Revolutionary Virginia's promiseare never far below the surface. Notes on Virginia, Jefferson's only sustained and systematic effort to chart Virginia's revolutionary transformation, illuminates the sources of his eloquence while offering some of his most memorable turns of phrase.
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