#8: Behind the Stone - Jefferson Memorial

On this week’s episode we take a look at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. and dive into the man behind the 19’ bronze statue. We discuss the issue of slavery in his day and the many times he actually voiced opposition to it.

The doors we peak behind are the National Archives doors: behind which lies one of Jefferson’s greatest contributions, The Declaration of Independence. And our call to action centers on the African-American, Benjamin Banneker, who called on Jefferson to follow through on the ideal that he wrote in 1776: “that all men are created equal.” Join us as we scratch the surface on this deep topic and kick off Black History Month.

LINKS:

• National Archives design: https://www.archives.gov/about/history/building.html
• Jefferson’s original paragraph banning slavery the Northwest in 1784: www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffwest.html#154
• Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia (on slavery): https://web.archive.org/web/20110221131430/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2id=JefVirg.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=18&division=div1
• Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html
• Jefferson Memorial: https://www.nps.gov/thje/index.htm
• Letter from Benjamin Banneker to Thomas Jefferson: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-22-02-0049
• Life of Benjamin Banneker: https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/november-09/