Feb 17, 2020 5 min read

Thomas Jefferson was a brilliant polymath and a statesman for the ages who penned the Declaration of Independence when he was 34, founded the University of Virginia and guided our democracy when it was still taking baby steps.

No, wait.

Thomas Jefferson was a rapist who fathered six of his 11 children with the slave Sally Hemings, who was 30 years his junior and might well have been 14 when they had their first sexual encounter.

Whether Thomas Jefferson was one of history’s heroes or villains is a subject that many history teachers in high schools, colleges and universities are having to confront. The same goes for fellow founding father and slaveholder George Washington, and other presidents who have combined great achievements with significant shortcomings, whether it’s Woodrow Wilson’s racism, John F. Kennedy’s treatment of women or Abraham Lincoln’s belief that freed slaves should be repatriated to Africa.

The days when America’s leading historical figures are treated in classrooms as faultless, mythological beings who descended from Mount Olympus largely ended in the 1960s and 1970s, when a generation of students who questioned American verities flooded onto campuses. More recently, the movement to topple Civil War memorials and monuments in the South has prompted additional scrutiny of individuals who may not have worn the gray of the Confederacy, but who nevertheless committed acts or held views that would now be considered beyond the pale.

At Princeton University, students tried to have Wilson’s name taken off its School of Public and International Affairs in 2016 because of his segregationist views, but the university’s board of trustees turned down the request. A church Washington once attended in Virginia took down a memorial to the first president out of concern it would make some visitors “feel unsafe or unwelcome.” Students at Hofstra University in New York called for the removal of a Jefferson statue, and a statue of Jefferson at the university he founded was vandalized, with “Racist + Rapist” spray painted on it.

Statues of Washington and Jefferson have been standing side-by-side at East Beau and North Lincoln streets on the Washington & Jefferson College campus since 2006. Made of bronze, and created by sculptor and former Washington resident Alan Cottrill, there have not been calls on campus or in the community to remove the statues, according to Erin Jones, a spokeswoman for the college.

Tom Mainwaring, a history professor at W&J, said the campus is conservative compared to other schools, so the statues have not caused a fuss.

Mainwaring said Washington and Jefferson are given an even-handed treatment at the institution that bears their names. The fact that they were slave owners is not glossed over, but is placed within the context of the era in which they lived. He noted Washington died more than 30 years before the abolitionist movement started to gather steam.

“I don’t think we should go in the other direction and say they deserve no favorable mention in history,” Mainwaring said. “Don’t judge them by today’s standards. By today’s standards, everyone who was white then was a racist.”

He added, “We need to understand Washington and Jefferson in a complex way.”

Dave Kieran, an assistant professor in W&J’s history department, largely echoed Mainwaring’s sentiments.

“We recognize the complexity of these historical figures,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a student who was entirely resistant to the idea that Washington and Jefferson made significant contributions to the nation.”

At Washington Junior/Senior High School, eighth grade history teacher Erin Moore uses the musical “Hamilton” and a field trip to Gettysburg to get her students interested in the subject. She is straightforward about the horrors of slavery and that Washington, Jefferson and other founders were slave owners. Moore believes it is OK if students end up not liking them.

Moore said the Founding Fathers made valuable contributions, but they also “made horrible errors in judgment in a time and culture that was very different from our own time.”

“I teach that human beings are not all good or all bad, and can do great things for the development of the country while participating in practices that are unthinkable to a modern American,” she said. “I constantly remind students that people’s beliefs are a product of their personal experiences and perceptions, and that you have to learn about people’s experiences and norms of the time to understand them.”

Last year, a parent complained to Washington School Board about a mural of Washington that was in the junior/senior high school building. A survey was sent to students to determine if the mural bothered them and “it offended only a few,” according to Troy Breese, a former school board member.

“I would be the first to say that George Washington didn’t lead a saintly life, but who does?” Breese said. “The values that are instilled in the school for the students are what make them better people. If students want to research George Washington and what he did or didn’t do, that’s fine. That’s education.”