Notes on the State of Virginia

What it is

Notes on the State of Virginia is a book written by Thomas Jefferson, first completed in 1781 and enlarged through 1783, published anonymously in Paris in 1785. It grew out of questions about Virginia posed by a French official in 1780. It was the only full-length book Jefferson published in his lifetime.

Why it matters

The book combines data on Virginia's land, resources and economy with Jefferson's political beliefs in republicanism, separation of church and state, and individual liberty. It also contains his extensive and troubling writings on slavery, including justifications for white supremacy and claims that white and Black Americans could not coexist as equals in freedom. The book shows both Jefferson's Enlightenment thinking and the deep contradictions of a man who held enslaved people while writing about liberty.

Look closer

• Why might Jefferson have published this book anonymously and in Paris rather than in America?
• How can the same book contain ideas about liberty and ideas defending slavery?
• What do Jefferson's writings here reveal about how his era's thinkers justified inequality?