Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
Volume 112 / Number 2
ABSTRACT:
The Evolution of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia
- By Douglas L. Wilson, pp. 98–133
Although Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia came to be regarded as one of the most important
books in early American history, his ingeniously compiled manuscript of that work has never been studied in
detail. Instead, we have relied on its author for information on the origin and evolution of his book, much of
which proves to be highly misleading. The need to conserve Jefferson's manuscript has recently led its owner,
the Massachusetts Historical Society, to disbind and disassemble it, a development that makes it possible to
study its text as a layered process of composition. This article is an attempt to establish some of the
groundwork for that line of inquiry.
Jefferson generated a large number of memoranda and carried on a substantial correspondence in
connection with the writing of the Notes, and these are extremely useful in tracking its evolution. Along
with the discernible presence of a fair copy draft at the core of the manuscript, these make it possible
to establish a chronology of composition, which in turn sheds light on Jefferson's progress in turning the
questionnaire he sent to Marbois into a memorable treatise. Studying the changes and additions he
made to his manuscript affords insight into such things as his challenge to the erring pronouncements
of European scientists about America, the date and circumstances of his famous archeological
excavation of Indian mounds, and the racial views in the Notes that have achieved so much
notoriety. These are offered as examples of what further study of these materials may yield.
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