Why Americans today expect more of Thomas Jefferson

There is a “huge contradiction” between how Thomas Jefferson lived his life and what he wrote in the Declaration of Independence, says historian Annette Gordon-Reed.

The contradiction is one “that lots of people lived with,” she told PBS News’ Judy Woodruff. “One of the things that happens when you put things down on paper is that you’re held to a particular standard.”

Because Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, Gordon-Reed noted, Americans have higher expectations of him.

“That’s one of the things about being a prolific writer and keeping a record,” she later added. “People can note what you said when you were 20 and note what you said when were 80, and sometimes they don’t go together.”

Gordon-Reed, one of the country’s leading scholars on Jefferson, joined Woodruff for her series, Crossroads: America at 250.

For the full interview, check out the PBS News website.

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