Dear Thomas Jefferson,   Today, I would like to talk about your nephew Peter Carr.  He lived at Monticello as a young man.  He was an educator and was a founding trustee of Albemarle Academy.  That academy later evolved into the University of Virginia.  Today, Peter is primarily known because you claimed that he was…

Dear President Thomas Jefferson,   Have you ever seen the movie Back to the Future?  Oh, of course you haven’t, movies weren’t invented until the twentieth century.   I have been wanting to talk to you.  I want to ask you about that letter you wrote to Charles Yancey on January 6, 1816.  You started…

Dear Thomas Jefferson,   When we were talking about enslaved people and the impact slavery had on this country, we did not discuss how long it would take people in this country to accept freedom and human rights for everyone.   In 1957, the New York Giants baseball team moved to San Francisco.  It was…

Dear Thomas Jefferson,   Did you believe that women belonged in the home?  Could you imagine anything else?    Do you remember Anna Willing Bingham?  She corresponded with you on many occasions.  She argued that women should play an active role in politics.  You disagreed.   In February 1788, when you responded to a letter…

Dear Thomas Jefferson,   What can you tell me about your evenings at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, the capital of the Virginia colony before it was moved to Richmond?  Would you be surprised to learn that some people say that the independence of the United States began in that tavern?   When you were…

In 1846, Susan B. Anthony started working as the head of the girl’s department at Canajoharie Academy.  She worked for two years and earned $110 per year. At that time, she was not yet an advocate for women’s right to vote. Her work at the academy gave her the opportunity to see the large discrepancy…

Dear Thomas Jefferson,    Thank you for your role in writing The Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.  I understand that you were an advocate for including it in the final Constitution.    I think everyone agrees with me that those first ten amendments are an important part of the Constitution.  Those Ten Amendments…

Dear Thomas Jefferson,   Are you interested in continuing the conversation about your feud with John Adams?  What do you know about the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton?  All four of you must have been very angry.  When I look back at how you treated each other in times of anger, it seems…

Dear Thomas Jefferson,   When you were planning a new country, did you ever think about how hard it was going to be for people to learn how to live in a democracy?  I have noticed that living with democratic principles and solving problems does not come naturally to some people.    I have seen…

Dear Thomas Jefferson, I have been wanting to give you ‘Democracy in America,’ a book by Alexis de Tocqueville. I think that you will really like it, especially since he quotes you many times in the book. He says he prefers to quote you on some of the topics in the book because he regards…