The most comprehensive collection of the Founding Father’s famous writings, including drafts of the Declaration of Independence At the moment of our nation's birth, Thomas Jefferson defined the issues that still direct our political life. Displaying his extraordinary variety of interests and powerful and precise style, Jefferson’s writings are an invaluable and incisive record of the landscape, inhabitants, life, and daily customs of America in the Revolutionary and early national eras. This book is the most comprehensive one-volume selection of Jefferson ever published. It contains such famous works as "Autobiography" and "Notes on the State of Virginia." A series of addresses, 287 letters, and public and private writings—including the original and revised drafts of the Declaration of Independence—round out the collection, painting not only a portrait of the early days of America but of one of the most influential and controversial figures in our nation's history. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Prepared in 1821. Apparently first published in the Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, 1829.

When Annette Gordon-Reed's groundbreaking study was first published, rumors of Thomas Jefferson's sexual involvement with his slave Sally Hemings had circulated for two centuries. Among all aspects of Jefferson's renowned life, it was perhaps the most hotly contested topic. The publication of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings intensified this debate by identifying glaring inconsistencies in many noted scholars' evaluations of the existing evidence. In this study, Gordon-Reed assembles a fascinating and convincing argument: not that the alleged thirty-eight-year liaison necessarily took place but rather that the evidence for its taking place has been denied a fair hearing. Friends of Jefferson sought to debunk the Hemings story as early as 1800, and most subsequent historians and biographers followed suit, finding the affair unthinkable based upon their view of Jefferson's life, character, and beliefs. Gordon-Reed responds to these critics by pointing out numerous errors and prejudices in their writings, ranging from inaccurate citations, to impossible time lines, to virtual exclusions of evidence—especially evidence concerning the Hemings family. She demonstrates how these scholars may have been misguided by their own biases and may even have tailored evidence to serve and preserve their opinions of Jefferson. This updated edition of the book also includes an afterword in which the author comments on the DNA study that provided further evidence of a Jefferson and Hemings liaison. Possessing both a layperson's unfettered curiosity and a lawyer's logical mind, Annette Gordon-Reed writes with a style and compassion that are irresistible. Each chapter revolves around a key figure in the Hemings drama, and the resulting portraits are engrossing and very personal. Gordon-Reed also brings a keen intuitive sense of the psychological complexities of human relationships—relationships that, in the real world, often develop regardless of status or race. The most compelling element of all, however, is her extensive and careful research, which often allows the evidence to speak for itself. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy is the definitive look at a centuries-old question that should fascinate general readers and historians alike.

Original sources document the ratification of the Constitution, including state debates.

A lifelong scholar of Benjamin Franklin's life completes the unfinished "Autobiography" with information on Franklin's attitudes about such topics as the Constitutional Convention, slavery, and Thomas Jefferson.

A collection of 380 letters, written between 1777-1826, with notes and chapter introductions that relate them to the history of the American republic. For other editions, see Author Catalog.

The first book to include Thomas Jefferson?s writings and writings about him?from his era and ours. This Norton Critical Edition seeks to give readers a full understanding of Thomas Jefferson?s importance to the intellectual development of the United States, particularly in political theory and scientific learning; of Jefferson?s role in the expansion of the territory and sovereignty of the United States; and of Jefferson?s controversial relation to slavery and race as key issues in American history. The editor has selected Jefferson?s most important published texts?A Summary View of the Rights of British America, the Declaration of Independence, and Notes on the State of Virginia?along with An Appendix to the Notes on Virginia Relative to the Murder of Logan?s Family and his Message to Congress on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In addition, more than one hundred of Jefferson?s letters (1760?1826) have been judiciously selected from his rich body of correspondence, allowing readers to see Jefferson as a person as well as a public figure. All texts are accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations. ?Contexts? reprints contemporary documents that place Jefferson and his writings within the early American Republic, including works by Thomas Paine, John Adams, François-Jean de Beauvoir, and Luther Martin. Also included are diverse and early responses to Jefferson and his writings by, among others, John Quincy Adams, William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. "Criticism" provides representative works of modern interpretation and analysis that confirm Jefferson's continuing relevance. Included are twelve thought-provoking assessments from several disciplinary perspectives by, among others, Annette Gordon Reed, Peter Onuf, and Douglas L. Wilson. A Selected Bibliography is also included.