All language subtitles for Thomas.Jefferson.2025.S01E05.President.Jefferson.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb

Previously on
"Thomas Jefferson"...

Benjamin Franklin decides
he's going to give up

his role
as minister to France,

and Jefferson
takes over for him.

Jefferson insists that his
daughter Maria come to France.

And he says she should come
with a careful Negro woman.

They send Sally Hemings.

Sally and Jefferson begin
a sexual relationship.

She's 16 years old.

And then, when Jefferson
returns home in late 1789,

George Washington
wants Alexander Hamilton to be

secretary of the treasury
and he wants Jefferson

to be secretary of state.

Jefferson believes
that Hamilton

is restoring the British
system to the United States.

But Washington agreed
with Hamilton and not him.

That causes bad blood,
big time.

In the summer of 1793,

Thomas Jefferson has taken
on the role as America's

first secretary of state.

Though appointed directly
by George Washington,

he finds himself constantly
at odds with the president,

his vice president John Adams,

and his treasury secretary
Alexander Hamilton.

The presidency, it's still an
office very much in evolution.

People like John Adams
and Alexander Hamilton

are constantly agitating
for more titles, more pomp,

more circumstance.

Adams thinks that people
need that kind of figurehead

to look up to,
and there should be

some continuity between
the kings of Europe

and an American president.

And Washington
and Hamilton were

seeing the struggle to
build a meaningful army,

to build institutions.

So they bring that to
the federal government.

How do we build institutions?

Can you really trust the people
to always do the right thing?

No, of course not.

Jefferson believes
the exact opposite.

Jefferson believes
that anything that

tends towards monarchy
or British example

is a betrayal of
the Revolution;

that this is supposed to be
a country that's bottom up,

not top down.

But Washington,
Hamilton, Adams

are much more concerned

that anarchy can turn to
a new type of tyranny.

They see it happening
in France.

Hamilton believes that
Jefferson and the people

who will come to be called
Jeffersonian Republicans

are adherents to the
French Revolution.

He believes they want
to overthrow all order.

Anarchy will be the result.
Blood will run in the streets.

America's republican experiment
will fail

and Britain will
take over again.

After having been in
Paris in the early years

of the French Revolution,
Jefferson staunchly

supports the popular uprising.

Despite forming relationships
with the French royals,

Jefferson says he stands for
the toppling of all kings.

When it comes to the war
between Britain and France,

Washington declares a
policy of strict neutrality.

We are not going to get dragged
into continental squabbles.

But Jefferson disagrees.

Jefferson unfairly says
that neutrality

is a de facto endorsement
of England.

And so he says
Washington isn't

listening to him anymore.

And Jefferson resigns
as secretary of state.

But of course,
he doesn't retire entirely.

He's a political animal.

For over two years, he remains
in touch with people.

He's writing letters.

And he's maintaining his
networks, as we now say.

He's still agitating
behind the scenes.

When Washington makes
the truly revolutionary step

of announcing his intention
to leave office

after his second term, setting
the second term precedent,

it eases those monarchical
concerns immediately.

It also sets off
the first contested election.

Jefferson runs for
president in 1796.

The 1796 election marks

the first official partisan
election in the United States.

53-year-old
Thomas Jefferson runs

as a Democratic Republican
against Federalist John Adams.

Jefferson is the founder

of the Democratic
Republican Party.

And it says that
government shouldn't

be so federalized,
that a lot of the power

should go to the states.

The federal government
shouldn't spend too much,

shouldn't tax too much.

The Washingtonian party
becomes the Federalists.

They were fighting for
more centralized power.

It's an ugly fight.

Adams is cast as
a puffed-up plutocrat,

a would-be monarchist,
an elite

who's out of touch
with the common people.

Jefferson is attacked as
an effete intellectual,

who's an apostate and
a radical revolutionary,

who has no faith,
and is therefore immoral.

It's hard for us
to imagine just how

acrimonious the 1790s were.

We sort of imagine people
like Jefferson and Hamilton

as stiff.

But these are human beings,

who had emotions,
who got angry,

who felt insulted,
who didn't like each other.

The 1790s was a moment where

you really had
two opposing parties form,

each of whom thought that
if the other group had power,

the American experiment
would fail.

In 1796, the winner
of the election

is the person who
gets the most votes

in the electoral college.

But unlike today,
the person who comes second

becomes vice president.

In theory,
this is really nice.

You're going to reunite
the nation after an election

and get people to transcend
their partisan divides

by working together.

But that doesn't happen.

Adams wins.

Jefferson becomes
his vice president.

And actually, Adams makes
overtures to working together,

but Jefferson rebuffs.

Jefferson thought he'd
been there at the beginning,

and he wanted it to be
the way he wanted it.

He thought that he was right.

He thought the Republicans
are the nation.

That's the way he saw it.

He's already
planning for a rematch.

Rather than watch Adams
and the Federalists

move forward with an agenda
he disagrees with,

Jefferson disengages from
his role as vice president.

He comes back to Monticello
a lot during this time

to his mistress.

Sally Hemings has
her first child Harriet

in 1795 before Jefferson

becomes vice president.

And then, thereafter,
every two or three years,

has another baby.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia,

John Adams and his
Federalist cabinet

receive fierce criticism
and accusations of tyranny.

Adams signs the Alien
and Sedition Acts,

which authorized the
president to deport immigrants

and arrest any citizens who
make what he deems to be

false or malicious statements
about the federal government.

The Democratic Republicans
staunchly oppose these acts,

which they believe
are direct assaults

to the freedom of speech

guaranteed by
the First Amendment.

A promise to repeal these
unconstitutional acts

will be a tenant
of Jefferson's

next presidential campaign.

The 1796 election,
it's an ugly fight.

But the election of 1800
is even uglier.

You see the beginning of
a vitriolic partisan press

that is full of misinformation

and half-truths and truths
that are exaggerated.

I mean, Adams is accused
of being a hermaphrodite.

It's widely reported by
Federalists in New England

that if Jefferson is elected,
he's an atheist

and he'll take
your Bibles away.

The Federalists really
believed that if Jefferson

was elected, you would have
a French-loving anarchist

who is hostile to the
Christian religion in power,

and he would threaten
the stability of society

with all his wild-eyed ideas

of letting the people
rule themselves.

Now,
on the other side of this,

Jeffersonians had
been broadly hinting

that if Jefferson
didn't become president,

the Union was gone--

the experiment in Republican
government would fail.

Jefferson and Adams become

highly polarizing

and polarized figures.

Paradoxically, because
of the intense animosities,

you also have
intense engagement.

We've seen this in our
most recent election,

that that animosity in some
ways can breed engagement.

Citizens are really coming out
to make their will known.

So both the Federalists
and Jefferson realize

that they need
to appeal to voters,

and voters need to
therefore be informed,

or misinformed
as the case may be,

so that they'll vote
for the right person.

And this is really important
for American democracy

because the voters themselves
are starting to learn

that they have a role to play.

And so in order to appeal to

and mobilize support
in Virginia,

Jefferson says, in order
for a republic to succeed,

its citizens
should be small farmers,

farming their own land--
independent farmers.

There is this
weird thing where

you have a wealthy person
who is a champion

of supposedly the little guy.

But he is seen as the person
who represents the common man.

He's against banks
and the elites,

and he wants public education
for people.

That kind of talk
is galvanizing,

and makes him popular
among artisans and farmers

and people who recoil
at the Federalists,

whom they see as elitists.

In the election of 1800,

it's a confused and confusing
election because it ends up

that New York Senator
Aaron Burr and Jefferson,

both Republicans,

are tied in the
electoral college.

And that means the outgoing
House of Representatives,

which is dominated
by Federalists,

has to decide the election.

And it takes Congress
36 tries to break that tie.

After two months
of House re-votes,

lobbying,
and backdoor dealing,

Jefferson's adversary
Alexander Hamilton writes,

"In a choice of evils,
let them take the least.

Jefferson is in every view
less dangerous than Burr."

And so thanks to the support
of his archrival,

on February 17, 1801,

Thomas Jefferson is announced
as the third president

of the United States.

On March 4, 1801,
after an extremely fraught

and ugly election,
57-year-old Thomas Jefferson

is elected the third president
of the United States.

Jefferson gets it by
the skin of his teeth.

And this is the first time
we've had a change of parties

in the United States.

These two parties have
believed for a decade

that the other represents
a mortal danger,

an existential threat,
to the United States.

For the people have spoken,
and they have decided

to elect a different
president in response

to Federalist highhandedness.

And so this is a
revolution because we had

a peaceful transfer of power.

This is a big part of what the
American political tradition

is all about.

Thomas Jefferson is the first
president to be inaugurated

in Washington, D.C.

Jefferson walks over into
the old Senate chamber.

And in that chamber
are gathered

our entire government.

They have the House of
Representatives, the Senate,

and the Supreme Court.

Adams is bitter.

He bails on the inauguration.

After the swearing-in,
Jefferson then turns

to read his inaugural address.

And it's the first great
presidential inaugural speech.

It's his best piece of writing
since the Declaration.

"Let us, then,
fellow citizens,

"unite with one heart
and one mind.

"Let us restore to
social intercourse

"that harmony and affection,
without which liberty

and even life itself
are but dreary things."

The first inaugural
is all about togetherness

and how beautiful
the country is.

He is preaching the
values of national unity,

saying famously,
we are all Republicans,

we are all Federalists.

He defends the
right of dissent,

saying criticism in a
democracy is your birthright.

Our country is going to be
strong enough to withstand it.

That's new.

But what's really
stunning is when

he becomes
a born-again Washingtonian

on the issue
of foreign policy.

Remember, he has been
arguing against neutrality,

saying it's a de facto
endorsement of England.

Suddenly, he's in
the presidential chair,

and he starts by
extolling the virtues

of America's relative isolation
from the problems of Europe.

We're insulated from
those fights, he says.

We don't need to
be part of them.

That's what Washington's
been arguing all along

that he's been attacking.

"Let us stand with
courage and confidence,

"pursue our own federal
and republican principles,

"our attachment to union and
representative government,

"kindly separated by nature
and a wide ocean

from the exterminating havoc
of one quarter of the globe."

He's saying like,
we're really lucky because

the Atlantic Ocean separates us
from our greatest enemies.

And also, we're really
fortunate because,

on the other side of us,
to our west,

there's a bunch of forests
through which

it's hard for enemies to come.

And then he does
a better articulation

of Washington's vision
of foreign policy for America

than Washington ever did,
despite spending

the past decade
fighting those principles.

"Equal and exact justice
to all men

"of whatever state
or persuasion,

"religious or political,

"peace, commerce, and honest
friendship with all nations,

entangling alliances
with none."

It shows how much
that where you stand

is often a matter
of where you sit,

that Jefferson is
already being changed

and constrained by
the responsibility

of the presidency.

A president has an
obligation to think bigger.

But the address itself,
nobody could hear it.

Because he basically
had his text

and he mumbled his text
to himself.

He literally reads it.

He holds it up this close.

He has his spectacles on, and
he reads his inaugural address

very much like this.

They say that those seated
beyond the second row

could not hear
a single word he uttered.

So I argue Jefferson couldn't
run for president today.

He doesn't have the skill set,

didn't like speaking in public,
doesn't like conflict,

couldn't have a debate.

He has the wrong skill set
to run for president,

not just today,
but, frankly,

throughout much
of American history.

As soon as Jefferson
moves into the White House,

he begins to redefine
the role of the presidency.

Washington was very aware
of his dignity and gravitas.

And in many respects,
this was very important

because this was
a new government

and Washington was
striving to give

that government legitimacy.

Jefferson, by contrast,
was very critical of what

he saw as a kind of regal
style around Washington,

and actively sought
to push against that

in his presidency.

He walks to the Capitol
to be inaugurated.

He doesn't take a coach.

He wears a plain brown suit.

Famously,
in November of 1803,

he encountered the British
ambassador Anthony Merry.

Merry was in his full
diplomatic uniform,

and was dressed appropriately
to meet a head of state.

And Merry commented
with some disdain--

Jefferson, as he put it,

was wearing
down-at-the-heels slippers.

He called him slovenly, even.

This wasn't an accident.

He also was making
a political statement here.

In contrast
to the imperial grandeur

that Merry represented,
Jefferson was deliberately

attempting to cultivate
a democratic sensibility,

and expressing that
in the way he dressed

when he greeted Merry.

As president,
Jefferson does not try

to dominate public debate.

He also governs in that
dinner table diplomacy format

that hearkens back
to his youth in Virginia.

Dinners at the
Jefferson White House,

instead of having
formal seating plans,

the seating was pell-mell,
as they described it.

People were meant to just
find their own seats.

And this is more democratic
than the more formal style

of the Washington
administration.

He knows he's not going
to command a room

the way Washington did.

But he brings together
people at his dinner table

for honest and frank
discussion and debate.

He gains political
intelligence.

He networks.
He earns goodwill.

He doesn't necessarily
combine the Republicans

and the Federalists at
the same dinner table,

but the Federalists in
Congress get to know him.

And they find that,
on an interpersonal level,

he's almost
impossible to dislike.

He's interesting.
He listens.

That's something that most
politicians are terrible at.

But while Jefferson
gains a reputation

as a charming politician
in Washington,

in Virginia, he gains a
reputation for something else.

Two years into
his presidency,

Thomas Jefferson is popular.

He's established America's
first military academy

at West Point
and has repealed

a number of controversial
taxes and laws,

and let the unconstitutional

Alien and Sedition Acts
expire.

But though he is
a political success,

rumors fly about
his personal life.

People who knew Jefferson
noticed that

when they come to dinners
at Monticello,

that there seemed to be
a number of mixed-race people

who kind of resembled
Thomas Jefferson around.

Over the years, there are
some blind items in newspapers

clearly talking
about Jefferson

and his addiction
to golden affections,

meaning mixed-race women.

So we get a sense that

people are talking
about this in his area.

Then, in September 1802,
a bombshell article

is published by popular
political writer

James Callender.

Callender had really
come to the fore

for attacking
Alexander Hamilton

on behalf of Jefferson
in the 1790s.

He also wrote some really
nasty things about John Adams

in the past, which Jefferson
ends up supporting.

So Callender is one of the
people who got jailed because

of the Sedition Act,
and Jefferson promised

to pardon all of those people
if he were elected.

And when Jefferson is elected,

Callender was one
of those individuals.

Callender was looking
to restart his career.

And he had asked Jefferson for
an appointment as postmaster,

but Jefferson declined
to give him that post.

So Callender turns on him.

It's James Thompson
Callender

who will publish and make
public the allegations

that Jefferson had had
a longstanding relationship

with one of the people
he enslaved, Sally Hemings.

He writes that Sally Hemings
only has a child

nine months after she has been

in close physical contact
to Thomas Jefferson.

When Thomas Jefferson
is away in Washington,

Sally Hemings isn't
getting pregnant.

When Thomas Jefferson
is away in Philadelphia,

she's not getting pregnant.

When Thomas Jefferson
is at Monticello

and Sally is at Monticello,
she's getting pregnant.

It's a bombshell.
It's a huge scandal.

Callender uses this
as an attempt

to attack Thomas Jefferson,
to discredit his suitability

to be president.

He refers to her as a slut
as common as the pavement.

It's pretty vile stuff.

This is grist for
the political mill

of Jefferson's opponents.

The Federalist press in
particular picks up on this,

and there are derisory cartoons
mocking Jefferson and Hemings.

So in response to this,

Jefferson has to adopt
a media strategy, effectively.

And his strategy
is to say nothing.

So there's just silence.

Silence.

He was not going to give
people the satisfaction

of responding, as if
this were their business.

It never gained
any traction.

I mean, it's something
that people talk about,

but it's not something that
people get very upset about.

So it kind of comes and goes.

It doesn't have
the kind of effect

that James Callender wanted.

People think that
this is going to sink

Jefferson's presidency.

But it doesn't.

People didn't care.

The scandal doesn't
sink Jefferson,

but his resolve to ignore it
solidifies America's belief

in the First Amendment and
the press's right to attack

any sitting president.

And like any scandal,

the Hemings story
becomes old news

when President Jefferson's
next move dominates headlines.

In 1803,
Jefferson turns his attention

to the Louisiana Territory,

an area comprised of more
than 800,000 square miles.

Jefferson says
this is the most

important spot on the globe
for us because of geography.

And whoever controls
New Orleans

basically has
a knife to our throat

because the United States
at that time

extended from
the Atlantic Ocean

to the Mississippi west of
the Appalachian Mountains--

just a rapidly growing part
of the United States.

That growing population
west of the mountains

can't get their
produce to market

easily over the mountains.

So what do they do?

They go down the Ohio River
to the Mississippi,

down the Mississippi
to New Orleans,

through the Gulf of Mexico,
and to the wider world.

And so if you have
a hostile power

controlling access
to New Orleans,

then you have several problems.

One is the trade down
the Mississippi River.

The other was it wasn't clear
that the Americans in the West

would remain loyal
to the nation,

and Jefferson's dream of an
expanding empire could falter.

He thought America should
have the entire continent.

In 1803,
the Louisiana Territory

is controlled by France

and its notoriously
erratic leader,

Napoleon Bonaparte.

Originally, Napoleon had
grand plans to establish

a North American empire.

But around the same time
he acquires Louisiana in 1800,

he begins to embroil France
in battles all over Europe.

By 1802, he has lost interest
in North America

and needs cash to fund his
military campaigns in Europe.

Jefferson sees an opportunity.

He also thought that
one of the purposes

of the American Revolution was
to take the United States

out of European conflict.

He thought that if you could
have an ocean on one side

and an ocean on the other
side, you could have peace.

So it was about
national security.

Jefferson sends
a trusted dignitary to France

to negotiate a sale
with the volatile dictator.

The negotiations
were undertaken

by Robert Livingston.

But Robert Livingston
is aging,

he's deaf,
and he didn't speak French.

French was the language
of diplomacy

at the turn of
the 19th century.

It was also
the language of France...

At the turn of the
19th century, and remains so.

And Jefferson's worried
about this.

And so he dispatches
James Monroe to assist.

Monroe had served in France
before as a diplomat.

His French was better
than Livingston's.

And Monroe was the luckiest
diplomat in American history

because he turns up
virtually at the same moment

Napoleon has decided
to sell Louisiana

to the United States.

Napoleon offers to sell
the entire Louisiana Territory

to the United States
for $15 million--

about $388 million today.

Jefferson, in the 1790s,
and certainly

when he was
secretary of state,

had been an advocate
of what was called

strict construction
of the Constitution.

If something
is not stipulated,

if it's not specified
in the Constitution,

he said,
look, you can't do it.

Well, nowhere in
the Constitution

does it authorize the
president of the United States

to buy hundreds of thousands
of square miles of territory

just because it's a good deal.

Jefferson talked about
maybe we should float the idea

of a constitutional amendment
to authorize it.

And his secretary of state,
his old friend James Madison,

said, look, if you dither,
Napoleon could change his mind.

We don't have time for this.

Think back
to his governorship.

One of the things
he learned was

you can't dither when
you're making decisions.

Because if you do,
disaster can happen.

So Jefferson's advisors
convinced him, look,

just do it.

And so, presented
with this opportunity,

Jefferson seized it
with two hands

because he believed
this was essential

for the economic future
of the United States.

And so, in October of 1803,

Jefferson authorizes
James Monroe

to accept Napoleon's offer,

and effectively increases
America's size by 140%.

It becomes
one of the most intense

and significant actions
the federal government

has ever done,
to more than double

the size of the nation
by buying land.

It was a great
real estate deal.

But the Jefferson
who purchases Louisiana

despite constitutional scruples

is acting like a king,

the very thing
he supposedly despised.

If Alexander Hamilton
had tried to buy Louisiana,

Thomas Jefferson's head
would have exploded

because it would have been
this massive overreach

of constitutional power.

But Thomas Jefferson
as president does it.

So he's willing to embrace
his inconsistencies

when it helps achieve
larger goals.

As he said, you can believe
something in principle,

but act differently
in practice.

That's the nature of politics.

Despite its hypocrisy,
the Louisiana Purchase

is the biggest accomplishment
of Jefferson's presidency.

But let's not forget
that land is occupied.

So that expansion,

that necessary growth
as he sees it,

will come at the expense
of Indigenous people.

And in the southern part
of that,

where slave-based agriculture
is being practiced,

much of the labor is going to
be provided by enslaved labor.

Expanding the size
of the country

opened up that territory
for slavery.

Acquiring the Louisiana Territory

gives the United States
large tracts of land

ripe for the
cultivation of cotton,

which in 1802 accounts
for nearly

20% of American exports.

However,
the profitability of cotton

relies entirely
on unpaid labor.

This vision of his,

it's coming
at the expense of others.

The Louisiana Purchase
is a major victory

for the Jefferson
administration.

The acquired land
more than doubles

the size of the country.

Just seven months later,
on May 14, 1804,

Jefferson sends Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark

on an expedition
to explore and survey

not only the newly acquired
530 million acres,

but the uncharted mountains
and Pacific Northwest beyond.

Jefferson was also
very interested

in issues around exploration.

And he's got some
bizarre ideas.

For example, he thinks there
might still be woolly mammoths

west of the Mississippi River
because he's not sure

how natural history
might have unfolded there.

Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark

have four dozen men with them.

And so it's a huge expedition,
called the Corps of Discovery.

As they're going up
the Missouri

and they're carrying
all of this equipment,

they are instructed
to keep journals

to give to Thomas Jefferson.

They discovered
178 new kinds of plants,

122 species of animals.

Lewis and Clark depart
from St. Louis, Missouri,

and over the course
of two years,

travel more than 8,000 miles
to the Pacific Ocean.

They are often touted
as lone adventurers,

taming uncharted territory.

But in reality,
they elicit the help

of hundreds
of Indigenous people

throughout their journey.

Lewis and Clark
meet something like

50 different tribes, handing
out these peace medals--

like medallions.

Lewis and Clark told
the native leaders,

you are friends with
Thomas Jefferson.

The difficulty in world history
is always in shared space,

and that's where he begins
to change his ideas

about the rights
of Native people.

Jefferson believed that

there were stages
of human development,

and that Native Americans

had the potential to be equal
to European Americans,

but they were at a different
stage of development.

It was all tied up
with this notion of

America and North America
and the New World

having inherently
good things in it.

And Native Americans
were part of that.

But Africans were never
supposed to be here.

So Jefferson says Blacks
are intellectually inferior.

And because of that,
Jefferson's Indian policy

was to cultivate Native people

so that they would become
"more civilized."

Jefferson said
that Native Americans

had to adopt European ways.

They had to farm
like Europeans.

They had to bring their women
in the house.

In many Native American
cultures, women worked.

And he said
we should intermarry,

our blood should mingle.

So that was his solution
for Native Americans.

He thought they could
become the equal to whites--

at the cost of their
culture, of course.

He lamented, as he saw it,

that they would probably
never catch up.

But he allowed for the
possibility that they might.

But also,
Thomas Jefferson

wants to really kind of
keep them at peace.

He believes that,
if we keep them at peace,

we then can later
bargain for their lands.

And so trading posts
are set up by Jefferson

and the government,
and owned by the government,

not individuals.

That's key.

Jefferson's strategy
for western expansion,

first laid out in a letter
to William Henry Harrison

in 1803, is quite clear--

"to promote this disposition
to exchange lands,

"which they have to spare
and we want,

"we shall push
our trading uses,

"and be glad to see the good
and influential individuals

"among them run in debt.

"We observe that when
these debts get beyond

"what the individuals can pay,
they become willing

to lock them off
by a cession of lands."

He sees, the more that
they become dependent

upon American goods,
then they will build up debts,

then they will need to pay
with their lands.

It's maneuvering.
It's exploitation.

It's taking advantage.

He admired Native peoples,

but he believed they were
passing from the scene

because that was
the price of progress.

For Jefferson,
the fact was there were

two possible solutions
for Native Americans--

assimilation or annihilation.

In November 1804,
fueled in part

by his successful acquisition
of the Louisiana Territory,

Jefferson is reelected
in a landslide victory

over the Federalist candidate
Charles Pinckney.

His second term
is largely uneventful,

until 1807,
when he is yet again faced

with a delicate
foreign policy issue.

As Britain and France duel
in a series of battles

surrounding Napoleon's attempts

to annex Italy and Germany,

despite its distance, America
is caught in the crossfire.

Britain and France
are at war.

And the United States benefits
from this because

the United States trades
with both sides.

The United States is neutral,

and Jefferson believes
in free trade.

He said, we should be able to
trade with anybody we like.

The British and the French
say, you can trade with us,

but you can't trade
with our enemies.

Also, since Britain hasn't
always recognized or respected

American independence,
the British Navy

has a habit of engaging in
what's called impressment,

where they stop
American merchant ships

and review their crews.

And if they identify
anybody they believe

is a deserter
from the Royal Navy,

they take them off the ship.

And then, in 1807,
there's an incident

off the coast of Virginia,
when a British Navy ship,

the HMS "Leopard,"

stopped a United States warship,

the USS "Chesapeake."

So not a merchant ship--
and this is important--

just within
international waters.

And there are actually
deserters on the "Chesapeake."

So the British forces them
into the Royal Navy.

And the "Leopard" fires
on the "Chesapeake."

And there's a widespread call
to declare war on Britain.

There's also
a widespread belief

that the British
are encouraging

Native peoples in the West
to attack American settlers.

And these are the issues
that are going to become

the justification for
a declaration of war in 1812.

But Jefferson recognized
that the United States

was not in a position
to go to war in 1807.

And so he proposed an embargo.

He said, the United States
will not trade with anybody.

We're taking our ball
and we're going home.

Jefferson believed

Americans could show
France and England

that their economic interests

lay in peaceful free trade.

So the solution was to hold
all American ships in port.

I don't think this is
necessarily as naive

as it's often portrayed.

I think it's the least
bad option available to him.

However, it's a disaster.

Jefferson imposes
an embargo.

He closes all
U.S. ports to exports,

and severely restricts
imports from Britain.

The embargo wrecks
the American economy.

American exports collapse.

It led to protests.

It led to one of America's
first secession movements.

New England Federalists met and
talked about the possibility

of leaving the Union.

The authority
of the government

is called into question.

Western farmers, who are
Jefferson's core constituency,

they suffer really, really
badly as a result of this.

Smuggling is rife.

So because of this,
he goes through a period where

he's not as popular
as he was before.

And he's pretty thin skinned,
very thin skinned.

He didn't like criticism.

Desperate to revive
his public image,

Jefferson turns to

the controversial business
of slavery.

The cotton harvested
by unpaid labor

had nearly doubled
since the Revolution.

In 1808,
the Southern United States

is home to more
millionaires per capita

than any other region
on Earth.

And so despite
Northern sentiments

moving towards emancipation,

national abolition
is out of the question.

Instead, Jefferson makes
a calculated move.

There was
a compromise made

at the Constitutional
Convention in 1787,

where Congress couldn't outlaw
American participation

in the transatlantic
slave trade for 20 years.

So going back to 1806,

President Jefferson
goes to Congress and says,

in 1808, we can end
the slave trade.

Let's pass a law now
so that the slave traders know

that on January 1, 1808,

the slave trade
will be illegal,

and they won't bring any
more slaves in after that.

We've got to give them
advance notice.

This is the most
concrete step he took

during his long public life
in opposition to slavery.

And it is a significant step,

but it's a relatively
moderate step.

In the North, the gradual
abolition of slavery

had been rolling out
for decades.

Even in the Deep South,
they're not really worried

about importing slaves
from Africa anymore.

People have a lot of slaves.

Look, almost everyone
agrees at the time

that the transatlantic
slave trade

is just a terrible, terrible,
terrible crime.

And so for slaveholders
who want to demonstrate

their anti-slavery
credentials,

that's the position
they can take.

Now, we look at that and say,
well, that's ridiculous,

because obviously slaves
are going to increase here.

They're going to reproduce.

Abandoning the transatlantic slave trade

only makes American slavery
more lucrative.

Jefferson, in his ledgers,
at one point

does calculate that there's
a guaranteed 4% rise in value

over time of slave women,
who are going to reproduce.

He sees women are valuable
in Virginia precisely because

you're thinking about
selling their children.

Years later,
Jefferson writes,

"I consider a woman who brings
a child every two years

"as more profitable than
the best man of the farm.

"What she produces is in
addition to the capital,

while his laborers disappear
in mere consumption."

After the abolition
of the slave trade,

the value of domestic slaves
is actually going to go up.

So this also simply makes
Jefferson much richer.

And there's
one more piece of this,

which historians
don't talk about very much.

Under Jefferson's law,
if you import slaves

to the United States
and you're caught--

you're smuggling them--
the Africans will be seized

and they are given to
the governor of the state

where they're brought in.

And the governor
gets to sell them

for the benefit of the state.

So the state makes money,

and Jefferson
doesn't have to worry

about freeing Black people.

And so the governments
of the states

will become involved
in the very slave trade

that we're supposed
to be suppressing.

As President,
Jefferson has the opportunity

to untangle America from
its dependence on slavery.

Yet his actions only ensure
that the country continues

to rely on slave labor
for another 57 years.

In 1809,

Jefferson has no interest
in serving a third term.

Washington had set
the precedent

of a president serving
two terms.

And so he would only
serve two terms.

He is somebody who is
happy to have the job,

but is also ready
for it to end.

And so, after 40 years
in public service,

he said, probably one of
the greatest pleasures

was to leave eight years
of a splendid misery.

He is putting
the federal government

that he built in the hands
of some very close friends.

When he leaves office,
he is succeeded

by his friend James Madison,

and then James Monroe.

So he has sort of
an extended term

even after he's gone because
his acolytes take his place.

And he is confident that
the political program

of the Democratic
Republican Party,

of which he was the head,
would continue.

But though
his political career ends

in 1809, Jefferson's story
is far from over.