This is also interesting because it was Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a Persian who created the bedrock to algebra. In Notes of Virginia Thomas Jefferson praised Europeans, in other words white males, like himself for all the achievements mankind has made. In essence, Thomas Jefferson spoke of how white people were superior to all other people, yet he recognizes Algebra as a necessary class, which was founded by not only a Persian but a Muslim. While al-Khwarizimi had a Persian background, it is well documented that he was a follower of Islam. http://gulfnews.com/culture/people/the-father-of-algebra-abu-jaafar-mohammad-ibn-mousa-al-khwarizmi-1.1233076

One of the things that I do respect Jefferson for was his intelligence. Jefferson was instrumental in forming the government we have today by essentially creating its base. Our government is divided into two parts: the state government and the federal government. The federal government does have a lot of power, but they are several restrictions and regulations put into place to make it difficult for the federal government to even use its power let alone abuse it. This offers the state government, which is closer to the people, a level of autonomy in governing the people. I see the same structure in the University of Virginia today. At UVA, students are governed by other students, while the administration oversees the students and steps in when they need to. In other words, student council functions in the same manner as state government, while the administration functions like the federal government. State government is typically viewed in a more positive light than federal government, just as student council today is viewed in a more positive light than the administration at UVA with recent events in mind. I wonder if Jefferson imagined this for the school in the future.

This statement is interesting because it highlights sexist beliefs and values that dominated this time period. Jefferson stated that practicing with arms and warfare are inherent to manhood, while women were expected to simply stay at home, raise babies, and look nice. It seems that a person's status in life was determined not only determined by color, but also race/ skin color. If a person was black then he or she would be a slave, but if a person was female and black then they would be below that of a slave. Likewise, if a person was white they would be an American citizen, while if a person was a white female then they would be below that of an American citizen but above that of a slave. Wealth also played a factor more for white men of this time period in determining status, but this sentence is a reminder of how gender also played a role in determining someone's status and worth.

This is hypocritical in a way if one were to look closer at the American Revolution in a more objective manner. Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers believed they were being taxed unfairly by the British government because they did not have any representation in the British Parliament. The phrase "No taxation without representation" is used even today to justify the colonist in their decision to revolt against the British. However, the British citizens were actually paying more in taxes than the average colonist. In fact, according to Grover G. Norquist, the British citizen was paying on a per capita basis 10 times that of the average colonist. Norquist further stated, "Britons, for example, paid 5.4 times as much in taxes as taxpayers in Massachusetts, 18 times as much as Connecticut Yankees, 6.3 times as much as New Yorkers, 15.5 times as much as Virginians; and 35.8 times as much as Pennsylvanians." Some colonies, however, did pay more than the average citizen, but Britain needed the money to pay off their large war debts that the colonist did not have to worry about previously. The colonist, who were debt free, were more focused on westward expansion where they would eventually come to blows with the Native American tribes and French settlers, which the British wanted to avoid. However, the colonist or Americans during the 19th century felt no remorse or sympathy when slaves attempted to gain their rights in just revolutions. Instead, people like Nat Turner and Gabriel Prosser, both of whom were slaves that led slave rebellions in Virginia, were labeled as rebels and were put to death. http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/07/03/tea-taxes-and-the-revolution/ https://amstudz12.wordpress.com/gabriel-prosser-vs-nat-turner/

Nowhere in this description are the housing of slaves even discussed. During this time period, the University would not be able to function without the use of slaves. During the tour of the lawn, we learned that the pavilions on the lawn had three to four floors, and they all had basements or attics. The attics were used to dry clothes, while the slaves were forced to prepare meals in the basements. In other words, Jefferson was entirely focused on the comfort of the white students, while the slaves worked away preparing hot meals in cramped underground basements. This report seems to overlook the degree that Jefferson went to in order to hide the slaves or make their suffering invisible.

This is interesting because UVA functioned because of slavery when it was founded. In Making the Invisible Visible, we went on a tour of the lawn and learned that the university rented slaves from hotels not only to build the university but to cook meals and clean clothes for the students. Virginia was also very much a slave state, which means that the cite for the University was dead center of the black and white population.

This is peculiar because Thomas Jefferson was always focused on agriculture. It was one of the major points that he differed from Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. According to On the Notes of the State of Virginia, Jefferson believed that the ideal independent citizen was the farmer, who when needed to could feed and take care of himself instead of relying on others. The problem with agriculture being the predominant economic source of income was that the new nation as a whole received less money for exporting agricultural goods and paid more for importing more expensive commodities from nations such as Great Britain. Jefferson realized this but attributed poor government with manufacturing and used Great Britain as an example. Thus, Jefferson believed that a more just government outweighed the need for a better economy of the nation as a whole. It is this reasoning that Jefferson made in his On the Notes of the State of Virginia that I believe the 'public industry' here is actually referring more to agriculture and the teachings of manufacturing may have been biased in focusing more on the negatives of manufacturing.

I am greatly concerned for the people who live in these areas.