THE JEFFERSONIAN ERA CHAPTER 2

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THE JEFFERSONIAN ERACHAPTER 2

• Political Economy, Ideology, and Schooling

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Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826

• Member of the Continental Congress (1775-1776),
  (1783-1784)
• Served in the Virginia Legislature (1776-1779)
• Wrote the Declaration of Independence (1776)
• Governor of Virginia (1779-1781)
• Minister to France (1784-1789)
• Secretary of State (1790-1793)
• Vice President of the United States (1796-1800)
• President of the United States (1800-1809)
• Founded the University of Virginia (1819)
• Believed that Democracy could only be sustained
  through education
• Died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the
  Declaration of Independence

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From FEUDALISM to LIBERALISM

• Capitalism
• Separation of church and state
• Republicanism-representative government

• State control of economy
• State religion
• Divine right of kings

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Political Economy

• Decentralized Republican government
• Communities were like local government.
• Regulated families and activities
• Defined participants role in marriage
• Intervened if child-rearing was thought to be
  failing
• Family was the basic social and economic unit
• Nation separated into 3 regions
• -New England- fishing, shipping and mercantile
• -Mid Atlantic- rich farmland, rivers and
  excellent ports
• -Southern States- agriculturetobacco, rice and
  indigo and later cotton

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• Agrarian Economy (of land, of agricultural groups
  and their welfare)
• 90 of the population depended on agriculture as
  their source of income
• Population included slaves, free men and women
  and indentured servants
• Family
• Values and vocations learned through daily life
  on the farm
• Patriarchal
• Men were role models for hard work, duty,
  self-sufficiency and temperance
• Husbands provided economic necessities, wisdom,
  and love
• Wives roles included wife, mother, chef and
  clothes maker
• Wives were expected to conform/obey husbands
  values and wishes
• Jefferson believed that a wifes principal
  vocation was to bear children
• Government
• Based upon the rights of English-men to be
  represented in the government. This excluded
  women, African-Americans and Native Americans.

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Key QuestionWhat do you think happened to
the families when farming in the 19th and 20th
centuries declined?
Developed into a moral, social, political and
educational crisis.
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IDEOLOGY
6 Central and Fundamental Ideas of Classical
Liberalism

• Faith in Reason
• Commitment to human reason vs. feudal beliefs
  that human reason was frail and incapable of
  guiding human action
• Viewed mind as a blank slate that sensory
  perceptions from the environment could fill
• Development and exercise of reason was the key to
  the future
• Advances in science inspired this belief

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• Natural Law
• A belief in a universe governed by natural law
• Newtons Publication, Mathematical Principles of
  Natural Philosophy, began the revolution that
  science replace theology as the reliable guide to
  action and authority of reason
• Virtue
• Conception of human virtue fulfilling ones
  duties to God was an important part of their view
  of nature
• Work ethic was an important past of virtue
• Women and Mens virtues differed
• Men- virtues found in commerce and politics
• Womenvirtues exercised in the home bearing
  children and taking care of the home

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• Progress
• Belief in the inevitability of progress
• Through human reason and virtue, it was believed
  that individuals as well as society as a whole
  could progress toward perfection
• Liberal faith in progress promised improvements
  here on earth rather than only faith in a better
  life after death
• Revolution was an important vehicle for progress
• Nationalism
• Growing sense of Nationalism, a commitment to a
  national state
• Embodied in national policies in defense, trade,
  and acquisition of new land to the south and west

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• Freedom
• Negative freedom was the belief in freedom from
  government
• Multidimensional
• Intellectual-free from the chains of the state
  and church
• Political-freedom from the monarchy or
  aristocracy--only way to ensure this was through
  self-governmentrepresentative republic
• Civil-guarantees like the Bill of
  Rightsprotected citizens from government
  interference in their right to speak as they saw
  fit, to assemble, to bear arms, etc
• Economic- Liberals opposed most government action
  in the economic sphere. Laissez Faire (allow to
  act) demanded protection of private property from
  government regulation (therefore leaving out the
  rights of the poor)

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SCHOOLING

• Through education, reason and virtue would
  develop
• Mind was made up of faculties---memory, reason
  and imagination
• Mind was a muscle which needed exercise for
  development and was an empty vessel which needed
  filling through education
• Democracy could only be sustained through
  education

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Jeffersons Plan for Education

• TIER ONE
• Divide states into small districts/wards that
  would become schools as well as local governments
• Each district would have an overseer
  responsible for
• Hiring/Firing of teachers
• 10 schools
• Examination of students
• Supervise curriculum
• 3 year curriculum
• Reading, writing, arithmetic
• Free for all children
• Smartest boys were then chosen to continue
  grammar schoolscreened for future leaders

• TIER TWO
• Grammar schools/district colleges or schools
• Boarding schools
• Preparing for the university
• 6 year curriculum
• Greek, Latin, English grammar, advanced
  arithmetic, geometry, geography and navigation
• Believed ages 10-15 were the best for
  memorization and learning language
• Graduates provided leadership in business,
  transportation, surveying, the militia and local
  government.
• This is where teachers for the elementary schools
  would be drawn

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• TIER THREE
• University
• Believed education was a prerequisite for
  leadership
• Original Plan-Professorships
• Ancient Language
• Modern Language
• Pure mathematics
• Physico-mathematics
• Natural philosophy
• Chemistry and Mineralogy
• Botany and Zoology
• Medicine and anatomy
• Government and law
• Ideologygrammar, ethics, rhetoric, belles
  lettres, and fine arts
• Private tuition in religion, gymnastics,
  military, manual arts, dancing, music and drawing

• TIER FOUR
• Self-educationlifelong learning
• Plans for libraries
• Provide annual allotments for the purchase of
  books, paintings and statues for the libraries

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GOALS FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Information sufficient to transact
business Writing skills Calculation
skills Reading skills Improved morals Understandin
g of duties Knowledge of rights Ability to vote
intelligently Ability to judge office holders
conduct Ability to fulfill social relationships
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GOALS FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

• Political Leaders
• Knowledge leading to political freedom
• Understanding to improve the economy
• Reason, morals, virtue and order
• Understanding of science and math to promote the
  general health, security and comfort
• Habits of reflection and correct actions in
  students which render them examples of virtue to
  others and bring happiness to themselves

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KEY QUESTION

• Do you agree with Thomas Jefferson when he says
  that democracy can only be sustained through
  education?