The Nexus Archive
American Republicanism · Essay
Notes on the State of Virginia
by Thomas Jefferson · The Paradox of Liberty · American Founding, 1743-1826
Jefferson's wide-ranging reflections on nature, society, race, politics, and Virginia.
- Advanced
- ~5 hr 15 min read
- 17 chapter guides
- Public domain
Start reading · Read the Author's Advertisement guide free
Before the text
Editor's Prelude
A Republic Takes Its Own Measure
In 1781, while the American Revolution’s outcome was still uncertain, Thomas Jefferson began answering a foreign diplomat’s questions about Virginia. What were its boundaries, rivers, climate, population, laws, and customs? His answers grew into twenty-three Queries, or topics for inquiry. The resulting book combines a survey of a place with an argument about the society taking shape there.
The book keeps changing scale. Petrified shells raise questions about the earth’s history. Mammoth bones enter a dispute over whether American nature is weaker than Europe’s. Weather records and population figures stand beside arguments about power, education, and belief. Jefferson writes as someone who wants observation to support public judgment. Reports from other people share the page with what he has seen and measured himself.
That ambition makes the book’s contradictions matter. Jefferson defends liberty while describing a society built on slavery. He challenges European prejudice about America, yet makes prejudiced claims about race himself. His case for religious freedom trusts open argument even when people disagree. The appendices extend this exchange through Charles Thomson’s observations and Jefferson’s proposals for government and freedom of belief. Virginia becomes a place where the principles of a republic meet the habits and interests that can defeat them.
The opening pages
Query I: Limits and Boundaries
An exact description of the limits and boundaries of the state of Virginia?
Limits
Virginia is bounded on the East by the Atlantic: on the North by a line of latitude, crossing the Eastern Shore through Watkins's Point, being about 37 degrees.57' North latitude; from thence by a streight line to Cinquac, near the mouth of Patowmac; thence by the Patowmac, which is common to Virginia and Maryland, to the first fountain of its northern branch; thence by a meridian line, passing through that fountain till it intersects a line running East and West, in latitude 39 degrees.43'.42.4" which divides Maryland from Pennsylvania, and which was marked by Messrs. Mason and Dixon; thence by that line, and a continuation of it westwardly to the completion of five degrees of longitude from the eastern boundary of Pennsylvania, in the same latitude, and thence by a meridian line to the Ohio: On the West by the Ohio and Missisipi, to latitude 36 degrees.30'. North: and on the South by the line of latitude last-mentioned. By admeasurements through nearly the whole of this last line, and supplying the unmeasured parts from good data, the Atlantic and Missisipi, are found in this latitude to be 758 miles distant, equal to 13 degrees.38'. of longitude, reckoning 55 miles and 3144 feet to the degree. This being our comprehension of longitude, that of our latitude, taken between this and Mason and Dixon's line, is 3 degrees.13'.42.4" equal to 223.3 miles, supposing a degree of a great circle to be 69 m. 864 f. as computed by Cassini. These boundaries include an area somewhat triangular, of 121525 square miles, whereof 79650 lie westward of the Allegany mountains, and 57034 westward of the meridian of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway. This state is therefore one third larger than the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, which are reckoned at 88357 square miles.
These limits result from, 1. The antient charters from the crown of England. 2. The grant of Maryland to the Lord Baltimore, and the subsequent determinations of the British court as to the extent of that grant. 3. The grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn, and a compact between the general assemblies of the commonwealths of Virginia and Pennsylvania as to the extent of that grant. 4. The grant of Carolina, and actual location of its northern boundary, by consent of both parties. 5. The treaty of Paris of 1763. 6. The confirmation of the charters of the neighbouring states by the convention of Virginia at the time of constituting their commonwealth. 7. The cession made by Virginia to Congress of all the lands to which they had title on the North side of the Ohio.
Chapter guides · 17
Author's Advertisement
An Answer Escapes Its First Audience
A private set of answers becomes a public book.
Main idea
Jefferson explains why he is publishing notes he first meant for a small circle. The book began as answers to questions about Virginia, and he acknowledges gaps in both his information and his writing.
Recap
He dates the first notes to 1781 and their expansion to the following winter. A foreign questioner prompted the work. Jefferson then describes making a few copies for friends. A French translation had already appeared, but restrictions on the press had altered it. He now publishes the original English version. The Advertisement ends with its date: February 27, 1787.
Query II
A Map Becomes a Political Forecast
Rivers offer routes for trade, but rapids, seasons, and unfinished improvements limit their use.
Main idea
Navigation means travelling by water. A portage is a stretch where goods must be carried overland. Jefferson compares rivers as parts of possible trade routes, paying attention to these practical limits.
Recap
He surveys Virginia’s waterways, describing depths, falls, distances, and the boats they can carry. Western rivers then raise a larger question: how can inland goods reach the Atlantic? Heavy cargo can travel down the Mississippi more easily than boats can return upstream. Jefferson compares routes through New York and toward Alexandria on the Potomac. He ends by favouring the Potomac route’s distance and location, while admitting that New York’s route is already usable and his preferred route still needs clearing.
Query V
Wonder Becomes Evidence
Virginia’s striking landscapes invite explanations that its observers cannot yet fully supply.
Query VI · The Mammoth and Buffon
The Mammoth Enters a Continental Argument
Jefferson challenges the claim that American nature produces smaller, weaker animals.
Query VI · Comparative Animals
A Table Is Not a Neutral Judge
Comparisons between continents depend on which animals are counted and how their sizes are measured.
Query VI · Humanity and the New World
Natural History Crosses a Dangerous Line
Jefferson disputes European claims that American people lack strength, feeling, or talent.
Query VII
From Weather Diary to Theory
Local observations lead Jefferson to compare climates and question changes in the weather.
Query XI
Languages, Mounds, and the Violence of the Record
Jefferson records Indigenous histories and customs while acknowledging how much information has been lost.
Query XIII
A Constitution Without a Higher Law
Jefferson argues that Virginia’s legislature has too much power and its constitution needs stronger authority.
Query XIV
Reform Meets the System Jefferson Would Not Leave
Jefferson’s plans for legal reform combine wider education and liberty with severe limits on freedom.
Query XVII
The Mind Is Outside the Magistrate's Reach
Jefferson argues that religious belief should remain free because government cannot force people to think truly.
Query XVIII
Slavery Educates the Master Too
Slavery damages the character of masters as well as the lives of those they enslave.
Query XX
Trade Begins on the Farm
Jefferson favours a shift from tobacco toward crops that support healthier land and farming.
Query XXIII
A State Needs a Memory
Jefferson assembles written records of America’s past while admitting that his collection is incomplete.
Appendix I · Charles Thomson's Observations
The Survey Receives an Answer
Charles Thomson adds observations and challenges broad claims about Indigenous people.
Appendix II · Draft Constitution of Virginia
Criticism Becomes Constitutional Design
Jefferson’s unadopted draft tries to place lasting constitutional limits above ordinary lawmakers.
Appendix III · Religious Freedom
A Principle Enters the Law
The statute protects public profession and argument about religion and keeps civil rights independent of belief.
Questions readers ask
- How long does it take to read Notes on the State of Virginia?
- About 5 hr 15 min in total.
- How difficult is Notes on the State of Virginia?
- Advanced. A long essay; about 5 hours of reading.
- Can I read Notes on the State of Virginia for free?
- Notes on the State of Virginia is part of Nexus Premium, so reading it needs an account and a Premium subscription. The opening above and two chapter guides on this page are free to read.
- How many chapter guides are there?
- 17 chapter guides, written by the Nexus editors. Two open in full here; the rest show their opening line.
About Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the third president of the United States, and a central figure in American republican thought. His life joins liberty, empire, education, party politics, and the unresolved contradiction of slavery.
“Can a republic proclaim equality while living against it?”
Jefferson forces Nexus to face both the language of liberty and the contradictions built into the American founding.
Source text: public domain. Chapter guides: original Nexus writing. Notes on the State of Virginia is part of The Nexus Archive, guided Quests through the great works.