Notes on the State of Virginia
Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) is a book written by the American statesman, philosopher, and planter Thomas Jefferson. He completed the first version in 1781 and updated and enlarged the book in 1782 and 1783. It originated in Jefferson's responses to questions about Virginia posed to him in 1780 by François Barbé-Marbois, the Secretary of the French delegation in Philadelphia, the temporary capital of the United Colonies.

"Notes on the State of Virginia" is both a compilation of data by Jefferson about the state's natural resources and economy and his vigorous argument about the nature of the good society, which he believed to be incarnated by Virginia. He expressed his beliefs in the separation of church and state, constitutional government, checks and balances, and individual liberty. He also wrote extensively about slavery, his dislike of race-mixing, a justification of white supremacy, and his belief that whites and blacks could not co-exist in a society in which blacks were free people of color.

It was the only full-length book that Jefferson published during his lifetime. He first had it published anonymously in Paris by Abbé Morellet in 1786 while Jefferson serving the US government as a trade representative. In London, John Stockdale published it in 1787 after Jefferson had come to terms for a limited print run and other arrangements.
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Notes on the State of Virginia
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Notes on the State of Virginia
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