Tom Holland argues Jefferson's financial dependence on enslaved labor at Monticello, an estate embodying his classical and Enlightenment ideals, meant he ultimately valued the estate above the very principles of liberty he articulated, making him America's great tragic president. ✦ AI generated
Tom Holland · The Rest Is History · 2026-07-09 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 71:44
he loved Montichello more even than Sally, than his wife, than his best friend's wife, more than his principles, more even than how posterity would judge him... he is also the United States president who came to betray them the most grievously. He knew what he was doing.
verbatim transcript · starts at 71:44
71:44>> and he he'd gazed at incredibly wellpreserved Roman temple, great kind of gem of of Roman architecture. And he wrote in a letter that he he'd gazed at it like a lover at his mistress. And perhaps I you know at the end of the day he loved Montichello more even than than Sally than his wife than his his best friend's wife more than his principles more even than how posterity would judge
72:12him. To the extent that I can explain this you know the paradox that is Thomas Jefferson this I think is the explanation. you know, he is the the the the president of the United States who articulated the principles of America more boldly and more stirringly and more inspirationally >> than any other. But I think for that reason, he is also the the United States president who came to betray them the
72:40most grievously. He knew what he was doing, >> right? >> You know, we joke and say Thomas Jeffson, he's you know, history's a great monster. He wasn't a monster. He was a man of genuine principle. >> Mhm. >> But it's for that reason that his portrayal of those principles are all the more shameful. I think >> you're right. Yeah. Cuz you're sort of distinguishing. I mean, there's a
73:01difference between somebody who basically has been bred in the world of the 18th century. >> Right. >> Cannot think themselves outside it. doesn't question the uh established practices of the time and therefore, you know, owns slaves, buys and sells slaves, and is completely implicated in what we would now regard as a horrendous institution. And and you're effectively saying this is somebody who basically thinks it's wrong. >> He knows it's wrong to the depths of his
73:28heart, in his marrow, >> knows it's wrong, but his own pastoral classical fantasy world. >> Yeah. as it were, means more to him than doing what he believes to be right. And presumably he told himself the slaves are much better living with me on my plantation and working for me. I think he probably did tell himself that, but I don't think that's a justification that he would have accepted,