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Today In History...Thomas Jefferson Born April 13, 1743 · Gil I Am

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: In seventeen sixty nine. Jefferson's political life begins when he
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: is elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. He is
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  Speaker 1: just twenty six.
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  Speaker 2: The House of Burgesses is the state legislature of the time.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Being elected the House of Burgesses has as much a
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  Speaker 2: sense of obligation as opportunity to it. It's what you
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: did if you own land and you were of society.
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  Speaker 3: It's almost an entitlement that Jefferson and his friends are
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: going to step into these roles. It's like, if you
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: are wealthy today, you're on the boards of museums and
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  Speaker 3: of arts organizations. That's how you have political and social power.
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  Speaker 4: The Virginia of this period was being reshaped in many ways.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: Seven years war, the French and Indian War had ended,
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  Speaker 4: but British troops were staying. Royal authority, which had ceded
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: the power to pursue land titles, had taken that power back,
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  Speaker 4: and the kinds of men that Jefferson would have been
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  Speaker 4: with would have been affected by that. And so there's
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  Speaker 4: an entire redefinition, an entire reordering of what it meant
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  Speaker 4: to be a colonist. In exactly the years that Jefferson
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: is in Williamsburg.
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  Speaker 2: And Jefferson distinguishes himself in the House of Burtises by
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  Speaker 2: being a radical, rejecting the idea of British authority and
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  Speaker 2: passionately railing again the British Empire. Because to Jefferson, given
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: the distance of the Atlantic Ocean the distance of the king, inevitably,
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  Speaker 2: at this point, the British Crown seems incredibly out of touch,
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  Speaker 2: and the colonies and the sentimental attachments that some of
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the older generation had begin to wipe away.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: As Jefferson continues to expand his family and home in Virginia,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the British continue their fight to defend their empire against France,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the Netherlands, and Spain.
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: Britain is involved in conflict around the world, and as
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  Speaker 5: a consequence of that, Britain is a substantial public debt
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  Speaker 5: that has to be paid, and it looks to the
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: colonies for revenue.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: For years, Parliament has been taxing the American colonies and
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  Speaker 1: using the proceeds to fund military campaigns around the world.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: One of the most egregious taxes is the Stamp Act
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  Speaker 1: of seventeen sixty five, a direct tax on all printed materials,
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  Speaker 1: from newspapers to playing cards, The Stamp Act was the
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  Speaker 1: fourth in a series of taxes that infuriated the settlers,
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  Speaker 1: particularly Virginia's elite. In the years following these taxes, resentment
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: amongst the colonists grows.
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  Speaker 5: We have to ask ourselves, why do these Virginia elites,
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  Speaker 5: Why do wealthy people like Jefferson and Washington become revolutionaries?
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  Speaker 5: We expect the poor and the desperate to take up
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  Speaker 5: arms and become revolutionaries. Why do they do it? They
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  Speaker 5: do it because they believe that their authority is threatened
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  Speaker 5: by this British assertion of sovereignty over them. And so
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  Speaker 5: the issue very quickly moves from one of raising revenue
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  Speaker 5: to one of political power and autonomy. And Virginians, especially
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  Speaker 5: elite Virginians like Jefferson, highly value their autonomy and their power.
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  Speaker 6: The Standppact would constitute an assault on the fundamental liberties
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  Speaker 6: of these people. Because American patriots in the seventeen sixties
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  Speaker 6: worried about recognizing their equals standing within the British Empire.
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  Speaker 5: Then Liberty start as a particular group in Boston in
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: response to the Stamp Act, and then in the late
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  Speaker 5: seventeen sixties early seventeen seventies, the phrase Sons of Liberty
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  Speaker 5: will spread through the colonies. It's almost like a brand
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  Speaker 5: or a hashback.
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  Speaker 1: Right throughout the late seventeen sixties and early seventeen seventies,
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  Speaker 1: tension between Britain and the colonies continues to escalate and
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  Speaker 1: eventually erupts into violence.
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  Speaker 3: And then in seventeen seventy three, to protest taxes on tea,
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  Speaker 3: the Sons of Liberty board a group of merchant vessels
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  Speaker 3: one night in Boston Harbor, sees the tea and dump
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  Speaker 3: it into the harbor because the ta cannot be taxed
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  Speaker 3: if it is not loaded onto shore. But as soon
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  Speaker 3: as that t is offloaded, then the colony is responsible
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  Speaker 3: for the taxes.
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  Speaker 2: The Boston Tea Party is an eruption of a long
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  Speaker 2: slumbering resis. It basically says taxation without representation. We're being
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  Speaker 2: treated as a society that is being taken from and
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  Speaker 2: being given little.
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  Speaker 3: The white men who participated in the tea party dressed
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  Speaker 3: is Native Americans that night to be dramatic and to
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  Speaker 3: draw attention to say, okay, maybe we are different, maybe
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  Speaker 3: we are not British subjects. Maybe there's a new American
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  Speaker 3: citizen here that is no longer a subject.
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  Speaker 1: Then, in seventeen seventy four, to punish Boston, British Parliament
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  Speaker 1: passes a series of laws, known in the colonies as
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  Speaker 1: the Intolerable Acts. These acts greatly curtail the independent governance
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  Speaker 1: of Massachusetts and stoke further resentment.
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  Speaker 3: Then the colonies begin to write to each other saying,
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  Speaker 3: we are being treated unfairly. In what ways? Are you
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  Speaker 3: being treated unfairly? And are we going to band together
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  Speaker 3: to stand as one? Are we going to accept this
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  Speaker 3: as a single event, or are we going to see
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  Speaker 3: this as a long train of abuses.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Jefferson becomes a powerful colonial voice, speaking out against Britain.
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  Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy four, he writes, we do declare that
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  Speaker 1: these their natural and legal rights, have in frequent instances
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  Speaker 1: been invaded by the Parliament of Great Britain, that all
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  Speaker 1: such assumptions of unlawful power are dangerous to the rights
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  Speaker 1: of the British Empire in general, and should be considered
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  Speaker 1: as its common cause. What had been small bursts of
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  Speaker 1: discontent began to take root as the seeds of revolution
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  Speaker 1: as a response to the so called Intolerable Acts of
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, the thirteen colonies that previously had little
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  Speaker 1: in common and little interaction begin banding together against British oppression,
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  Speaker 1: and Jefferson continues to write railing against British tyranny in Virginia.
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  Speaker 3: The House of Burgesses have received letters from their colleagues
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  Speaker 3: in Massachusetts explaining what happened. So the high ranking members
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  Speaker 3: propose a day of fasting and prayer, and Jefferson and
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  Speaker 3: the Burgesses vote to support Massachusetts. They go up the
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  Speaker 3: street to the Raleigh Tavern and assemble and pass their
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  Speaker 3: agreement to have this day of fasting and prayer to
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  Speaker 3: demonstrate a gentle form of protest. It's a public statement
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  Speaker 3: of solidarity with Massachusetts.
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  Speaker 7: On the first of June, they are going to go
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  Speaker 7: to their churches and they're going to pray for the
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  Speaker 7: people in Massachusetts. They're going to show their allegiance in
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  Speaker 7: that part.
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  Speaker 5: It's basically saying, hey, we need to sacrifice. You need
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: to make a political statement by basting and praying.
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  Speaker 7: They are deciding upon a day of religious observation, but
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  Speaker 7: that can only be decided upon by the Royal Governor.
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  Speaker 7: Because the Royal Governor is not only the representative of
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  Speaker 7: the Crown. He is the colonial representative of the Church
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  Speaker 7: of England. When he learns that the Burgesses gathered in
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  Speaker 7: the Raleigh tavern, they have decided to do this amongst themselves. Well,
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  Speaker 7: it's his prerogative to dissolve the House of Burgesses at
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  Speaker 7: his will. So there you have Jefferson and an elective
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  Speaker 7: body now officially in a state of rebellion.
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  Speaker 3: It's political activism. Jefferson's not just writing letters anymore.
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  Speaker 1: As discontent escalates, so does the British response.
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  Speaker 3: British troops are marching in New York, they're mustering threateningly
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  Speaker 3: in other places. The public gunpowder stores are seized in Massachusetts.
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  Speaker 3: In Virginia, the gunpowder is supposed to be there so
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  Speaker 3: that if the Royal Governor calls up the militia to
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  Speaker 3: fight a war against Native Americans or a slave uprising,
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  Speaker 3: there is ammunition for public protection. But the royal governor
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  Speaker 3: seizes the powder, takes it to a ship waiting offshore,
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  Speaker 3: and so the Royal governor is saying, I am not
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  Speaker 3: going to protect you anymore. You are the enemy now.
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  Speaker 7: And so in seventeen seventy four, there you have Thomas
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  Speaker 7: Jefferson in that group of former burgesses gathered in that
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  Speaker 7: Raleigh tavern. They're standing there arguing, debating and bickering and
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  Speaker 7: trying to decide, are we really going to forget ourselves
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  Speaker 7: as Virginia and a sovereign colony and labor spark of revolution? Absolutely.
• 10:25
  Speaker 8: On the twelfth of April eighteen sixty one, the American
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  Speaker 8: Civil War began with the Battle of Fort Sumter in
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  Speaker 8: Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Welcome to history. Pod Prior to
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  Speaker 8: the Battle of Fort Sumter, tensions had been building within
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  Speaker 8: the United States. Issues such as states rights, slavery, and
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  Speaker 8: the expansion of the United States into the Western territories.
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  Speaker 8: Were exacerbated by the election of Abraham Lincoln as President
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  Speaker 8: in nov eighteen sixty. His opposition to the spread of
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  Speaker 8: slavery into the western territories prompted seven Southern states to
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  Speaker 8: secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America.
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  Speaker 8: Fort Sumter, which controlled the entrance of Charleston Harbour, was
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  Speaker 8: one of the few remaining Federal outposts in the South
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  Speaker 8: still under Union control. Despite efforts to resupply and reinforce
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  Speaker 8: the fort, Major Robert Anderson and his garrison found themselves
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  Speaker 8: surrounded by Confederate forces and running low on supplies. When
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  Speaker 8: Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard demanded the surrender of
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  Speaker 8: the fort, Major Anderson refused. In response, Beauregard ordered artillery
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  Speaker 8: batteries surrounding the harbour to begin bombarding the Union outpost.
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  Speaker 8: Beginning at four thirty a m. On April twelfth, forty three.
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  Speaker 8: Confederate guns and mortars began firing, having suffered significant can
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  Speaker 8: damage from more than three thousand artillery rounds over thirty
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  Speaker 8: four hours. At two thirty pm the following day, Major
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  Speaker 8: Anderson and his men formally surrendered, and the Confederate forces
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  Speaker 8: took control of Fort Sumter. The fall of Fort Sumter
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  Speaker 8: galvanized support for the Union cause in the North and
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  Speaker 8: led President Lincoln to call for seventy five thousand volunteers
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  Speaker 8: to suppress the Southern rebellion. The Civil War quickly escalated
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  Speaker 8: into a full scale conflict that was to last for
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  Speaker 8: four years and result in the deaths of more than
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  Speaker 8: six hundred thousand Americans.