Encountering the Other

Abstract

Written in response to a questionnaire about the American states circulated by the French legation in 1780, Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia began as a statistical survey and expanded into the most comprehensive statement of his philosophical, social, political, and scientific beliefs. It was also his only published book. Jefferson (1743–1826) collected material for the book while serving as Virginia’s Revolutionary governor, circulated the manuscript privately, and published it in Paris in 1784–85, in London in 1787, and in Philadelphia in 1788. Highly controversial, Jefferson’s Notes became the subject of bitter partisan debate during the presidential campaigns of 1800 and 1804. Jefferson was labeled a “howling atheist,” a “confirmed infidel,” a “liar,” and a “hypocrite.” In 1798, he exclaimed, “Ol that mine enemy would write a book! Has been a well known prayer against an enemy I had written a book, and it has furnished matter of abuse for want of something better.”