It's interesting that this is the first thing listed out of all the objects. With one of the best commerce schools in the nation, UVA seems to have highly valued business and educating people in this field since the beginning. To this day, UVA isn't exactly known for its medical or engineering schools but rather its McIntire School of Commerce. So, it seems that UVA is doing a relatively well job with fulfilling this object.

As someone who may potentially work in the health field, I appreciate how despite the fact that agriculture was heavily focused on at the time, the founders planned to include a hospital for practicing medicine while designing the university and its components. This opportunity to study medicine--alongside many other sections such as military, mechanics, government, and botany-- strengthens the core principle of a liberal arts program: diversity.

I wonder if slavery was a topic of discussion in these "ethics" classes at all, and if it was, to what extent?

As this university was planned to prepare students for their future careers/field of work--or at the very least, have some practical purpose in their lives--the founders wanted to provide a facility in which students can practice "military maneuvres." I just thought about how different the mentality for physical activity is now compared to when the gym was first established. Today, the gym is used for recreational purposes, specifically sports, but when the university was first planned, the gym was expected to be a place for men (since men were the only admits of the time, not to mention the ones drafted into the military) to participate in military-like activities in the case they are called for duty.