01x01 - A Revolutionary is Born (1743-1773)

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- We hold these truths

to be self-evident,

that all men

are created equal.

- Jefferson wrote the

Declaration of Independence.

[dramatic music]

- That they are endowed

by their creator

with certain

unalienable rights.

- That's so powerful

that it keeps reconstructing

the country down the line.

- That among these

are life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness.

♪♪

- Jefferson is the

very icon of democracy.

♪♪

- Over two centuries later,

people are quoting

what Thomas Jefferson wrote

in that room.

♪♪

That's power.

♪♪

- Jefferson also

served as a diplomat.

He was the third president.

♪♪

- He was interested

in religion

and the separation

of church and state.

- He loves luxury, food, wine.

But this is why he gets

accusations of hypocrisy.

♪♪

When it comes for his romantic

ideals of liberty and freedom,

they are authentic,

but they are at great odds

with how he lives his life.

- Jefferson owned close

to 700 people in his lifetime.

♪♪

- And there's Sally Hemings.

♪♪

- An enslaved woman--

she was involved

with Thomas Jefferson sexually

at a very young age.

♪♪

- And so, we have to reckon

the apostle

of liberty, Jefferson,

with the Jefferson

whose legacy makes us

uncomfortable.

♪♪

- We worry

that if Jefferson was impure,

then our ideals are impure.

We worry that

if Jefferson was wrong,

our nation is wrong.

♪♪

- But if the founding fathers

are the standard

by which we judge leadership,

then we need to understand

who they really were,

the good and the bad.

♪♪

- Self-righteousness

in retrospect is easy,

also cheap.

The moral utility of history

is not to look down

on the past condescendingly

or look up at it adoringly but

to try to look it in the eye.

♪♪

If we want to understand

who we've been

and who we are

and who we want to be,

it begins

with an honest conversation

about Thomas Jefferson.

- All that stuff

that really infuriates you

is inextricably entangled,

even worse, it is the same

stuff as the good stuff!

♪♪

- We have to teach him

as a full story.

♪♪

We have to teach

the duality of his legacy

in ways that would help us

envision a better future.

♪♪

- In 1743,

the United States

does not exist.

For more than 100 years,

settlers have forged

new ways of life

in 13 separate colonies

under British rule.

♪♪

Colonists trade and farm

in service of the crown

♪♪

As they navigate

the challenges of living

in uncharted terrain.

♪♪

- Jefferson's born in 1743.

He was born into a world

that would be completely

unrecognizable to us.

♪♪

There are these

13 British colonies.

But the rest of the continent,

it's Indigenous.

- There are cities--

Boston, Charleston,

Philadelphia, New York.

But the vast majority

of Americans

are living in more rural,

agrarian communities.

It is a farming-based society.

All of the colonies only

has two million people.

♪♪

- These 13 British colonies

don't interact that much

with each other.

They're all oriented

back across the water

towards Britain.

It's a bit like all the buses

run into the center of town.

They don't run from

neighborhood to neighborhood.

Well, all the buses

are running to London.

♪♪

- By the 18th century,

when Jefferson comes along,

Virginia is

a tobacco-growing province.

♪♪

- Tobacco is very lucrative.

And so, of these

13 British colonies,

the largest, most populous,

wealthiest is Virginia.

♪♪

- There are great families,

particularly in Virginia,

and these families are famous,

and they have land,

and they have power.

And even Washington

is not considered from a first

family of Virginia,

but Jefferson is.

♪♪

- Thomas Jefferson is born

at Shadwell plantation

on April 13, 1743

to Peter and Jane Jefferson

♪♪

Two of

the most prominent names

in the most prominent

British colony.

♪♪

- His father was surveyor

and a plantation owner.

- Surveying

in colonial Virginia

meant access to land,

which meant potential income

as that land was developed.

And Peter Jefferson

holds almost

the highest government office

that anyone in Virginia

can hold.

He's well connected

in terms of business,

in terms

of social affiliations,

and he marries into one

of the most powerful families

in Virginia--

the Randolph family--

a household of wealth,

of privilege.

♪♪

- Thomas Jefferson

spends his childhood

exploring the vast grounds

of the Shadwell plantation.

He develops a great love for

literature, music, and nature.

- He liked to be outside.

He talked romantically about

his best friend, Dabney Carr.

They would hike on the hills

around Shadwell,

sit under trees.

They had a deal with each other

that whoever died first

would bury the other one

under their favorite oak tree

on what becomes

Monticello Mountain.

- Jefferson almost never talks

about his feelings.

There's something cool,

even cold, about Jefferson.

You can't really get

that close to him.

♪♪

But friendship was a very

important thing to Jefferson

throughout his life.

♪♪

- He is clearly

extremely smart.

♪♪

He gets a great

education growing up.

He reads everything.

He can read or write a number

of different languages.

He can speak French fluently.

♪♪

- They ordered the finest

clothing from England.

He played the violin.

It was a very genteel

kind of situation for him.

♪♪

- Shadwell, it is a house

that is set up

to enable this elite family

to perform in the way

that an elite family performs.

♪♪

The Jeffersons had

a dining room

that could seat 20 people

for dinner.

So there's potential

there for entertaining.

♪♪

- As the oldest son,

Thomas carries

a lot of responsibility

in the Jefferson household.

Despite his shy nature,

he is often thrust

into conversations

about philosophy and politics

with his father's

influential friends.

♪♪

- But Shadwell is also

the plantation

that housed the largest number

of enslaved African Americans

in colonial Albemarle County.

♪♪

The white people on

the plantation are outnumbered

by about six to one

by enslaved African Americans.

♪♪

- His first memory is of being

held by a sl*ve on horseback

on a pillow.

- Each of the Jefferson

children,

one brother and six sisters,

were assigned at birth

an enslaved person

who was their same sex

and roughly their same age

who was going to live

with them their entire lives,

which means

in the Jefferson household,

two-year-olds own

other two-year-olds.

♪♪

A man named Jupiter Evans is

born in 1743,

the same year

as Thomas Jefferson.

And Jupiter's mother,

Sal, was the wet nurse

to the Jefferson children.

So they have this

intimate relationship

from the moment they're born,

and they grow up together.

♪♪

All of the things that come

along with figuring out

who you are as a person

are wrapped up

in learning to be either

the master of enslaved people

or someone who serves them.

♪♪

- He had all of the things

that would have given him

an advantage

during that time period.

♪♪

He was literally the person

who was the master,

and that's the term

they would have used.

I know we use "enslaver" now.

But I think this conveys

his sense of himself,

the master of people,

of human beings.

♪♪

- And so there you get

the seeds of the contradictions

of Thomas Jefferson.

♪♪

He is a wealthy populist.

He becomes passionate

about freedom,

but sl*very, it's what

he's always known.

- Jefferson is raised

in a society

built on enslaved labor.

However, he will spend

the next decade of his life

constructing radical views

about liberty

and stoking

the flames of revolution.

♪♪

- Growing up, Thomas Jefferson

is taught

by the finest tutors

in Virginia.

But despite the experts

at his disposal,

there is no greater

influence on young Thomas

than his father, Peter.

♪♪

- There is a story

that when Thomas Jefferson

was a young boy,

three enslaved individuals

at Shadwell plantation

were instructed to go out

and pull down a wooden shed.

And try as they might,

they were unable to do that.

And Peter Jefferson,

in this somewhat mythical idea

of the great Sansom,

single-handedly

pulls the shed down and away.

♪♪

- He tells his grandchildren

that his father

would go off for weeks

in the back woods

and fend off wild animals.

♪♪

So Peter Jefferson is

painted by Jefferson

as this great explorer

that has superhuman

or hyper-masculine strength.

♪♪

- I believe that

Thomas Jefferson's admiration

for his father was amplified

because Jefferson only knew his

father for a very short time.

♪♪

He passes away

when Thomas Jefferson

is only 14 years old.

♪♪

- It's a momentous

event in his life.

♪♪

- Many years later, of the

death of his father, he says,

"The whole care

and direction of myself

"was thrown on myself entirely

"without relative or friend

qualified to advise

or guide me."

♪♪

- Jefferson inherits

his father's estate

at the age of 14.

♪♪

- For the next two years,

Jefferson works

with his father's executors

on the farm ledgers

and becomes the patriarch

to his mother,

sisters, and younger brother.

♪♪

But at 16, he persuades

the executors

to grant him a look at life

beyond the hills of Shadwell.

♪♪

- So, in the winter of 1760,

young Thomas Jefferson,

only 16 years old,

travels 120 miles to the east

to Williamsburg.

♪♪

He enrolls in the College

of William & Mary.

- William & Mary is

the second-oldest institution

of higher education

in the colonies.

Harvard was first.

♪♪

And Jefferson's friends say

that he was hard to tear

from his studies.

♪♪

But he does take part

in the social landscape

of Williamsburg.

♪♪

- There was drink.

[laughs] There were dances

with music and conversations

about books,

taverns and pubs

and libraries.

♪♪

- Williamsburg is a cultural

mecca for him in these years.

♪♪

He has access to some

of the most well connected

and brightest minds

available in the colonies.

♪♪

- Williamsburg was also

the colonial capital.

You have professors

and lawyers

and judges and legislators

who were cultured people.

And for a young man of great

appetite and great ambition,

it was exactly

the right place to be.

- And in Williamsburg,

Jefferson has the good fortune

to fall under the tutelage

of Dr. William Small.

There's the man.

- Though Jefferson is quiet

and rarely speaks up

in classroom debates,

his eloquent writing

catches Small's attention.

♪♪

- Jefferson writes

of William Small

that he had gentlemanly

and correct manners,

an enlarged and liberal mind,

and a happy talent

of communication.

"Perhaps more than any other,

he fixed my destinies."

♪♪

- William Small is a proponent

of the Enlightenment.

♪♪

- The Enlightenment is

an intellectual movement

that took hold in Europe

in the late 17th century.

Scientists and philosophers

spread ideas about freedom,

equality, and the pursuit

of knowledge

through reason and logic

instead of religion.

♪♪

- William Small teaches him

how to make observations

and make hypotheses

about the world.

- William Small is the one

who introduces Jefferson

to the writings of John Locke

and Francis Bacon

and Isaac Newton.

These are people whose

writings shaped cultures

and shaped world empires.

And Jefferson gets

not only a reverence

for the Enlightenment

and for a kind of rationalistic

approach to the world,

but he also gets a taste

of their style.

The people that he reads

when he's a very young man

really change the course

of everything in his life.

If he has a Holy Trinity,

it's not Father, Son,

and Holy Ghost.

It's Locke, Newton, Bacon.

♪♪

The Enlightenment

is his gospel.

♪♪

- William Small

gave him those tools

for thinking about the place

of man in society.

And because he impressed

his professor so much

and also because

of his family connections,

he is invited

to attend dinners

at the governor's palace

with William Small,

Governor Francis Fauquier,

and George Wythe,

who will later be

Jefferson's mentor in law.

And Jefferson

described these dinners

as a little piece of paradise.

A small table of people

sharing good food and big ideas

is happiness to him.

♪♪

- The room was warmed

with one fireplace crackling

through the evening, with the

table set by candlelight.

- Wine is flowing.

They're eating oysters

and ham

and some of the best foods

available in Virginia.

- They ate French cuisine

and French wine.

Remember, everything had

to come through England.

So to be able to sample

an elegant bottle of Bordeaux

was quite the privilege

and opportunity.

♪♪

- 20 years old, he's a kid,

whose abilities

have been recognized

by these older men

who bring him

into their world.

And he talks about that kind

of school of sociability

that he went through.

And this will serve him

very well decades later.

♪♪

- And over dinner,

people debated freedom

and enlightenment thinkers

and American identity.

♪♪

- Everybody's talking

about liberty and freedom.

But one doesn't discuss

Jefferson

if one doesn't have

an appetite

for a certain level of irony.

Let's not forget, of course,

enslaved people will be

in the room serving them.

♪♪

- White Virginians start

questioning and debating

freedom as it

applied to tyranny.

But the economy

and the culture

has been created

around sl*very.

It is a society rife

with contradictions,

and Jefferson

embodies all of that.

♪♪

- In 1769, Jefferson's

political life

begins when he is elected

to the Virginia House

of Burgesses.

♪♪

He is just 26.

♪♪

- The House of Burgesses

is the state legislature

of the time.

Being elected to the

House of Burgesses has as much

a sense of obligation

as opportunity to it.

It's what you did if you owned

land and you were of society.

♪♪

- It's almost an entitlement

that Jefferson and his friends

are going to step

into these roles.

♪♪

It's like, if you

are wealthy today,

you're on the boards

of museums

and of arts organizations.

That's how you have

political and social power.

♪♪

- The Virginia of this period

was being reshaped

in many ways.

♪♪

The Seven Years' w*r,

the French and Indian w*r

had ended, but British

troops were staying.

♪♪

Royal authority,

which had ceded the power

to pursue land titles,

had taken that power back.

♪♪

And the kinds of men that

Jefferson would have been with

would have been affected

by that.

And so there's

an entire redefinition,

an entire reordering

of what it meant to be

a colonist

in exactly the years that

Jefferson is in Williamsburg.

♪♪

- And Jefferson

distinguishes himself

in the House of Burgesses

by being a radical,

rejecting the idea

of British authority

and passionately railing

against the British Empire,

because to Jefferson,

given the distance

of the Atlantic Ocean,

the distance of the king,

inevitably, at this point,

the British Crown seems

incredibly out of touch

in the colonies.

And the sentimental

attachments that some

of the older generation had

begin to wipe away.

♪♪

You start to get that

resentment start to itch,

start to eat in those debates.

♪♪

- He was experiencing

the debates

as they unfolded,

beginning to be devoted to the ideal

of liberty in that argument.

But he wasn't

a leading indicator

of revolutionary sentiment

until a little bit later.

- He's enormously

intellectually confident,

very passionate, but insecure

when it comes to actually

speaking in public.

He is a weak speaker.

He is shy.

He is soft-spoken.

Some people say

he has a nasal voice.

♪♪

- He'd been quiet,

but Jefferson made it clear

that he believed in progress.

He's very much interested

in Enlightenment values

and thinking that he could

bring those to Virginia.

He is motivated by the desire

to want to shape his society.

♪♪

In a part

of Jefferson's biography,

he even mentions that when he

was in the House of Burgesses,

he and another member

wanted to have a plan

of emancipation.

♪♪

- In his autobiography,

which he wrote 52 years later,

Jefferson states that in 1769,

he and his cousin

proposed a bill that would

shift control of emancipation

from the general court over

to sl*ve owners themselves.

But he says

the House of Burgesses

kills the bill immediately.

♪♪

- He says once he saw

how people responded

to plans for emancipation,

basically shut them down

he left it alone.

- The weird thing is,

there is no other evidence

other than Jefferson

saying this,

that such a bill

was ever proposed.

♪♪

- The records

of the House of Burgesses

don't reflect this.

Now, it could be that the

records are simply incomplete.

Having said that,

other historians

have made a pretty strong case

that this didn't happen

and that he's making it up

in his autobiography.

♪♪

So then we have

to ask ourselves,

why is he saying this

when he's compiling

his autobiography

50 years later?

When we think

about autobiographies,

people are constructing

a version of their past.

And he wants to create

a narrative to show

that both he

and the United States

were troubled by sl*very

and sought to do

something about sl*very

as a problem

from the very beginning

♪♪

True or not.

♪♪

- While the truth

of these statements

will never be known,

it is clear that young

Jefferson embraces his role

in the House of Burgesses.

As he learns to navigate

the politics

of Virginia government,

he takes on the social aspects

of the job as well.

- When the House of Burgesses

is in session,

the city of Williamsburg

becomes a social event.

[indistinct chatter]

- It's the beginning

of his engagement with

and entrée to that kind of

world of urban sophistication,

which he claimed

throughout his life to disdain,

but he actually liked.

- The ba*ls

around political programs

are part of how elite

Virginians reinforce

their bonds with each other.

♪♪

But when Jefferson is young,

he is anxious.

♪♪

And he's just uncomfortable

around women.

- We are able to read

in letters of his early loves

and, in particular,

one Rebecca Burwell.

♪♪

She evidently has quite

a number of suitors.

Jefferson thinks,

quite proudly,

that he's prominent

in that lineup.

♪♪

So Thomas Jefferson decides

that it is time

that he will formally propose.

- Remember, it was

a different kind of world.

They didn't date in the way

we think of dating people.

If you are involved

with people,

at some point you expected to

be married to them.

♪♪

- He stayed up

the entire night composing

and memorizing this proposal.

The next evening, he would find

himself in a holiday soiree

and dance.

♪♪

On the floor

with his fair Rebecca,

he begins his proposal.

♪♪

And he says

the words fall out

in a great disarray.

♪♪

He can remember one or two

sentences that he memorized.

And then, suddenly, not only

had everyone left the floor,

but so had his fair Rebecca.

♪♪

And he said, the day never

saw a more miserable creature

when the sun rose

that next morning.

♪♪

So, evidently, he blew it.

♪♪

- I mean, he's not good

with women,

at least in his early days.

I mean, he's awkward.

- But he's in his early 20s.

And I don't know how

many heterosexual men

in their early 20s are

necessarily smooth with women.

♪♪

- Slowly, Jefferson

becomes more comfortable

in the ways of romance,

just in time

to meet a young woman

from a wealthier family

than his own.

Now at 27 years old,

Jefferson believes the future

he yearns for is possible.

[dramatic music]

- By 1770, Thomas Jefferson

has established himself

as a respected lawmaker

in the Virginia

House of Burgesses.

♪♪

He has also begun

to clear land

and develop his own estate

on Monticello Mountain,

about five miles

from the Shadwell plantation

where he grew up.

His plans for Monticello

are grand.

And Jefferson is eager

for someone to share it with.

♪♪

But at 27 years old,

he has gained a reputation

as a consummate bachelor,

having spent most of his 20s

pursuing unavailable women,

including the daughter

of a powerful colleague.

- John Wayles,

an English immigrant,

who has done very

well for himself

and amassed quite an acreage.

- He's a planter and a lawyer

and a sl*ve trader.

- Jefferson was a lawyer,

and John Wayles was a lawyer.

There's references to him

going to John Wayles's home.

So it was from their

business associations

that Jefferson met Martha.

♪♪

- Martha Wayles is the eldest

of the four daughters.

She's sought after by many

a male in Williamsburg.

But in 1766, Jefferson

loses out

to a man

named Bathurst Skelton.

- Great names

in the 18th century.

♪♪

- But Skelton dies in 1768.

And in 1770, Jefferson

takes a second shot.

♪♪

Martha Wayles-Skelton

was a very attractive widow

because she was young

and she was wealthy.

[hoofbeats, train bell ringing]

♪♪

- Jefferson is riding down

the Duke of Gloucester Street

in Williamsburg when he

hears the melody of a spinet

coming out of a parlor window.

[spinet music playing]

Jefferson runs up

onto the porch,

and there through the window,

he sees the form

of the Widow Skelton

seated at the spinet.

♪♪

Well, he quickly goes

to his horse satchel

and gets his miniature violin.

♪♪

Jefferson knocks on the door.

[knock at door]

And the Widow Skelton

and he have a musicale

for, oh, maybe an hour or so.

♪♪

And it's clear that she

has accepted his courtship.

♪♪

- And then they're

playing this duet,

and another suitor

comes to the house

and hears them playing,

and then just turns

and leaves.

- And he says, we're too late.

Jefferson's gotten

here before us.

♪♪

- On January 1, 1772

♪♪

Jefferson and Martha Wayles-Skelton

marry on her father's farm in

Charles City County, Virginia.

After the celebration,

they head to Jefferson's

burgeoning plantation.

♪♪

- They start out

for Monticello,

which would be about

maybe a four-day ride

in regular weather.

Well, within a day or two,

they're caught in a snowstorm.

♪♪

This is the largest

blizzard yet recorded

in Virginia history.

They have to abandon

the carriage,

make the rest of the way

on horseback.

♪♪

- But then, eventually,

through the snow,

they come to that cottage,

which is just

one small building

that has a kitchen

and just a single chamber

above stairs

on the oldest part

of Monticello.

♪♪

- It's near midnight.

He brings his bride over the

threshold of his hermitage.

♪♪

He goes to make a fire.

Mrs. Jefferson busies herself

among some of the books

he has on the shelves.

♪♪

They say she discovers

a bottle of wine.

♪♪

And that is where they begin

their family.

♪♪

- For the first year

of Jefferson

and Martha's marriage,

the couple lives quietly

in the modest honeymoon

cottage

at the top

of Monticello Mountain

as work continues

on the rest of the property.

They welcome a daughter,

and Jefferson practices law,

specializing in land cases.

♪♪

- And then her father,

John Wayles, died.

♪♪

- When John Wayles dies,

Jefferson inherits

about 11,000 acres

and 135 people--

enslaved people, including

the Hemings family.

♪♪

- Like many planters,

John Wayles has two families.

He has children by his

recognized wife, who died,

but he also has family

by a woman he enslaved,

Betty Hemings.

♪♪

Unfortunately, this is not

unusual in colonial Virginia.

♪♪

- When Betty Hemings arrives

at Monticello in 1774,

she brings her 12 children

with her,

6 of whom are thought

to be fathered by John Wayles.

♪♪

- Jefferson never says,

I know that these

are John Wayles's kids,

but his treatment

of them indicates

that they are a group apart

from other enslaved people.

♪♪

Many women

whose fathers or brothers

had children

with enslaved women,

were very hostile towards them

and would sell them.

Martha does the opposite.

She installs the Hemingses

in the household

as favored servants.

♪♪

The men are the ones

who get to travel

and hire out their own time

and keep their money.

They're not supposed

to do that.

That was actually against the

law during that time period.

The women did not go

to the fields.

They cooked.

They sewed.

They did the kinds of things

that white farming

women would do.

♪♪

- Betty Hemings is an

older woman by that point.

She's given

almost private quarters.

And she's given the role

at her house

of running the preschool.

♪♪

Critta Hemings

works as a nursemaid

to Jefferson's daughters.

James Hemings does joinery

and makes furniture,

including some pieces

that are in the house today.

And the other Hemings

had access to skills,

training for skills,

and some degree of autonomy

within the plantation system

that sets them apart.

♪♪

- They're allowed to do things

that other people

aren't allowed to do,

But they're still enslaved.

♪♪

- Jefferson comes across

as a very benevolent person.

In his writing, he recognizes

sl*very as a moral failing.

He thinks this is something

that will ultimately tear

apart the Union,

that is a threat to democracy.

He understands that.

But, also, he's complicit.

He's a slaveholder.

♪♪

- As Jefferson continues

to expand his family and home

in Virginia,

the British

continue their fight

to defend their empire

against France,

the Netherlands, and Spain.

- Britain is involved in

conflict around the world.

And as a consequence of that,

Britain has

a substantial public debt

that has to be paid.

And it looks to the colonies

for revenue.

♪♪

- For years,

Parliament has been taxing

the American colonies

and using the proceeds

to fund military campaigns

around the world.

One of

the most egregious taxes

is the Stamp Act of 1765--

a direct tax

on all printed materials,

from newspapers

to playing cards.

The Stamp Act was the fourth

in a series of taxes

that infuriated the settlers,

particularly Virginia's elite.

In the years

following these taxes,

resentment amongst

the colonists grows.

♪♪

- We have to ask ourselves,

why do these Virginia elites,

why do wealthy people like

Jefferson and Washington

become revolutionaries?

We expect the poor

and the desperate

to take up arms

and become revolutionaries.

Why do they do it?

♪♪

They do it because they

believe that their authority

is threatened by this British

assertion of sovereignty

over them.

And so, the issue

very quickly moves

from one of raising revenue

to one of political power

and autonomy.

And Virginians,

especially elite Virginians

like Jefferson,

highly value their autonomy

and their power.

♪♪

- The Stamp Act

would constitute an as*ault

on the fundamental

liberties of these people

because American Patriots

in the 1760s

worried about recognizing

their equal standing

within the British Empire.

♪♪

- The Sons of Liberty start as

a particular group in Boston

in response to the Stamp Act.

And then in the late 1760s,

early 1770s,

the phrase Sons of Liberty

will spread

through the colonies.

It's almost like a brand

or a hashtag, right?

[laughs]

- Throughout the late 1760s

and early 1770s,

tension between Britain

and the colonies

continues to escalate

and eventually erupts

into violence.

- And then in 1773,

to protest taxes on tea

♪♪

The Sons of Liberty board

a group of merchant vessels

one night in Boston Harbor,

seize the tea,

and dump it into the harbor

because the tea cannot be taxed

if it is not loaded onto shore.

But as soon as the tea

is offloaded,

then the colony is responsible

for the taxes.

- The Boston Tea Party

is an eruption

of a long-slumbering

resentment.

It basically says, taxation

without representation.

We're being treated

as a society

that is being taken from

and being given little.

- The white men who

participated in the Tea Party

dressed as Native Americans

that night

to be dramatic

and to draw attention,

to say, okay, maybe

we are different.

Maybe we are not

British subjects.

Maybe there's

a new American citizen here

that is no longer a subject.

♪♪

- Then in 1774, to punish

Boston,

British Parliament passes

a series of laws

known in the colonies

as the Intolerable Acts.

These acts greatly curtail

the independent governance

of Massachusetts

and stoke further resentment.

- Then the colonies begin

to write to each other,

saying,

we are being treated unfairly.

In what ways are you

being treated unfairly?

And are we going to band

together to stand as one?

Are we going to accept this

as a single event,

or are we going to see this

as a long train of abuses?

♪♪

- Jefferson becomes

a powerful colonial voice,

speaking out against Britain.

In 1774, he writes,

"We do declare that these,

their natural

and legal rights,

"have in frequent instances

been invaded by the Parliament

"of Great Britain,

"that all such assumptions of

unlawful power are dangerous

"to the rights of the

British Empire in general

and should be considered

as its common cause."

♪♪

What had been small bursts

of discontent

began to take root

as the seeds of revolution.

♪♪

- As a response to the

so-called Intolerable Acts

of 1774

♪♪

The 13 colonies

that previously had little in

common and little interaction

begin banding together

against British oppression.

♪♪

And Jefferson

continues to write,

railing against British tyranny.

♪♪

- In Virginia,

the House of Burgesses

have received letters

from their colleagues

in Massachusetts

explaining what happened.

So the high-ranking members

propose a day

of fasting and prayer.

And Jefferson

and the Burgesses

vote to support Massachusetts.

♪♪

They go up the street

to the Raleigh Tavern

and assemble and pass

their agreement

to have this day

of fasting and prayer

to demonstrate

a gentle form of protest.

It's a public statement of

solidarity with Massachusetts.

♪♪

- On the 1st of June,

they are going to go

to their churches,

and they're going to pray

for the people

in Massachusetts.

They're going to show

their allegiance in that mark.

♪♪

- It's basically saying,

hey, we need to sacrifice.

We need to make

a political statement

by fasting and praying.

♪♪

- They are deciding upon a

day of religious observation.

♪♪

But that can only be decided

upon by the royal governor,

because the royal governor is

not only the representative

of the Crown, he is the

colonial representative

of the Church of England.

When he learns

that the Burgesses gathered

in the Raleigh Tavern,

they've decided to do this

amongst themselves,

well, it's his prerogative

to dissolve

the House of Burgesses

at his will.

♪♪

So there you have Jefferson

and an elected body

now officially

in a state of rebellion.

- It's political activism.

Jefferson's not just writing

letters anymore.

♪♪

- As discontent escalates,

so does the British response.

♪♪

- British troops are marching

in New York.

They're mustering

threateningly in other places.

The public gunpowder stores

are seized

in Massachusetts and Virginia.

The gunpowder

is supposed to be there

so that if the royal governor

calls up the militia

to fight a w*r

against Native Americans

or a sl*ve uprising,

there is ammunition

for public protection.

♪♪

But the royal governor

seizes the powder,

takes it to a ship

waiting offshore.

♪♪

And so the royal governor

is saying,

I am not going to protect you

anymore.

♪♪

You are the enemy now.

♪♪

- And so, in 1774,

there you have Thomas Jefferson

in that group

of former Burgesses

gathered in the Raleigh Tavern.

♪♪

They're standing there

arguing, debating,

and bickering

and trying to decide

are we really going

to forget ourselves

as Virginians

and a sovereign colony

and light the spark

of revolution?

♪♪

Absolutely.

♪♪

- Still to come

on "Thomas Jefferson"

♪♪

- Now the hard work begins.

♪♪

They need to win the w*r.

♪♪

- Thomas Jefferson is

voted in as the governor

when the w*r is making its

way more directly to Virginia.

♪♪

The British dragoons

seek the capture

of the governor of Virginia.

- It's a chess match.

Jefferson is the prize.

- And then

Sally Hemings becomes

the maid for his daughters.

♪♪

- Jefferson's in his 40s.

His wife has died.

It's clear that Sally

and Jefferson

begin a sexual relationship.

♪♪

- Historians were

hostile to the story.

They said, this is impossible.

Jefferson would never do

anything like this.

- But if you look at who is

at Monticello at the time

that Sally Hemings conceives

all of her children,

it's Thomas Jefferson.

♪♪

- In 1801, Thomas Jefferson

is the first president

to be inaugurated

in Washington, D.C.

At the same moment, Napoleon's

decided to sell Louisiana

to the United States.

The Louisiana Purchase is

the biggest accomplishment

of Jefferson's presidency.

- Jefferson's words, arguably,

are the most powerful words

ever originally rendered

in English.

♪♪

- The Declaration

of Independence

is an address

to a candid world.

It signals that the rebellious

colonists

are not going to reconcile

with Britain.

We're here.

We are

the United States of America.

And we're not going anywhere.

♪♪