What can Thomas Jefferson’s accounting records tell us about plantation management,slavery,and Enlightenment philosophy in colonial America?

Abstract

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States of America and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence of the American Colonies from Great Britain. Less well known is that he was a meticulous record keeper. He kept daily records of every receipt and expenditure that he made, no matter how small, for a period of over 60 years. Most of these records have survived and are located in various libraries throughout the United States. Two questions are raised in this article: first, what can Jefferson’s accounting records tell us about plantation management in colonial America? Second, what do these accounting records reveal about Jefferson’s perspectives on eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosophy? This article investigates original archives in an effort to answer these questions.

Keywords

accounting history eighteenth-century plantation management Enlightenment Thomas Jefferson slavery

Introduction

This article has been submitted to a Special Issue of Accounting History focusing on Accounting and the Enlightenment. The term “Age of Enlightenment” generally refers to a period in Western history spanning from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century, during which time intellectual leaders began to focus on scientific rationality and political freedom in place of religious dogma and aristocratic privilege (Outram, 2013). There was also a belief among many intellectuals that pursuant to natural law, human beings were entitled to pursue individual freedom and happiness. Such ideas led to political revolutions in America and France, which eventually spread to other parts of the world. The ideas embodied in Enlightenment philosophy have arguably played a major role in forming our modern world.

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was the third President of the United States, and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, which included the memorable phrase “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This phrase stands today as perhaps the most succinct expression of Enlightenment thought coming from eighteenth-century America. Paradoxically, however, Jefferson was a slave owner, and it is difficult for us to reconcile Jefferson’s Enlightenment ideas with his ownership of slaves. While this paradox has been extensively investigated by many eminent historians (see, for example, Bassani, 2010; Bear, 1967; Bernstein, 2003; Cogliano, 2008; Gordon-Reed, 1997; Hayes, 2008; Meacham, 2012; Peterson, 1960), this article seeks to expand this literature by examining the contents of Thomas Jefferson’s financial records for additional evidence relating to this issue. In addition, we follow Hernández-Esteve’s (2010) idea that accounting is a privileged way to understand history, by investigating Jefferson’s financial records in order to expand our understanding about Jefferson himself. As a result, a principal contribution of this article is to use accounting sources to bring new insights into the life of Thomas Jefferson, thereby providing new knowledge that complements historical works provided by other generalist historians.

More interestingly perhaps, for the purposes of this article, Jefferson was a meticulous record keeper. His accounting records began in 1767 when he was a young traveling lawyer, and continued throughout his years of public service (see Chronology of Thomas Jefferson’s life in Appendix 1). Most of these records have survived and are located in various libraries throughout the United States. This article investigates the surviving archives to address two primary questions. First, what can Jefferson’s accounting records tell us about plantation management in colonial America? Second, what do Jefferson’s accounting records reveal about his attitudes toward eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosophy?

The remainder of this article is divided into seven sections. The first section presents a brief biography of Thomas Jefferson, noting his political and personal accomplishments. The second section summarizes the accounting history literature in the areas of accounting and slavery and accounting and the Enlightenment. The archives used in this study are discussed in the third section, while the fourth section discusses several accounting analyses prepared by Jefferson regarding the management of his plantations. The fifth section presents Jefferson’s complex relationships with the practice of slavery and the individual slaves that he owned. The sixth section discusses the influence of Enlightenment philosophy on Jefferson’s own thinking. A final section discusses and concludes the article.

Biographical background

Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 at the colonial mansion of his father, a wealthy landowner in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Jefferson was the third of ten children. When his father died in 1757, the family estate was divided between Thomas and his brother Randolph. At 14 years of age, Jefferson inherited approximately 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) of land and more than a 100 slaves (Cogliano, 2008: 219).

Jefferson began his childhood education with tutors in the family home. From 1752 to 1758, he attended a local school run by a Scottish Presbyterian minister, where he studied Latin, Greek, and French. From 1758 to 1760, he also studied history, science, and the classics as a boarder with another minister’s family. After this, he attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the College of William & Mary, he studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy and was introduced to British empiricist philosophers including John Locke,¹ Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton.

Beginning in 1762, Jefferson read law in the offices of a practicing attorney in Williamsburg in order to enter the field himself (Bernstein, 2003). After serving in the colonial legislature, Jefferson represented the Commonwealth of Virginia in the Continental Congress, where he was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence issued by that group in 1776. Later, he served as Governor of Virginia (1779–1781) and also as the United States Minister to France (1785–1789). He was also the nation’s first Secretary of State from 1790 to 1793 under President George Washington and, subsequently, he served as president himself between 1801 and 1809 (Bernstein, 2003).

Jefferson mastered many disciplines during his lifetime, ranging from surveying and mathematics to horticulture, mechanics, and architecture. He was also an accomplished violinist. While he shunned organized religion, he was influenced by Christianity and deism. In addition, he spoke several languages, including French, German, Italian, and Spanish as well as Latin and Greek. Historians have lauded Jefferson’s public life, noting his authorship of the Declaration of Independence and his advocacy of political democracy and religious freedom. Modern scholars have been more critical of Jefferson’s private life, pointing out the discrepancy between his ownership of slaves and his Enlightenment-influenced liberal political principles (Bernstein, 2003).

Prior accounting history literature

This section provides a review of prior accounting history literature dealing with the topics of accounting and slavery and accounting and the Enlightenment.

Accounting and slavery

A significant portion of the accounting history literature dealing with accounting and slavery has focused on the use of accounting practices to keep track of slaves (see, for example, Fleischman et al., 2011b; Fleischman and Tyson, 2004; Oldroyd et al., 2008; Tyson et al., 2004) More recently, there has been a focus on companies that managed the slave trade (e.g. Lemarchand and McWatters, 2011; McWatters, 2008; Pinto and West, 2017). This article extends the accounting history literature related to slavery by examining the contents of the personal journals kept by slave owner and third US president Thomas Jefferson.

Prior accounting history research has focused primarily on the interaction between accounting and slavery in the British West Indies (BWI) and the American South. This research indicates that inventories of slaves were taken by location and, that during this process the slaves were assigned a monetary value (Fleischman and Tyson, 2004). A listing of animal livestock was often included in the same inventory records. These records could be used for rental, sale, bankruptcy, insurance, collateral, or inheritance purposes (Fleischman et al., 2004). The authors also indicate that the accounting records were not used to measure labor productivity (Fleischman et al., 2011a, 2011b)

Absentee owners in Britain required accounting information from their agents, including an annual schedule specifying the increases and decreases of both slaves and animal livestock. The slaves were the most important assets on the plantations, and preserving this asset was of prime importance to the owners. The purpose of these schedules was to hold agents accountable for the maintenance of the inventory’s value (Fleischman et al., 2011a; Oldroyd et al., 2008).

It is not entirely clear why labor productivity records were not kept; however, the prior authors have also observed that British industrialists were criticized for not paying attention to labor costs during the same time period. Apparently, the difference between the British iron, textile, and coal sectors compared with the plantation economy of the BWI and American South was that the former promoted efficiency of the workforce through economic incentives, whereas the latter relied primarily on physical coercion and did not use accounting techniques for cost control, planning, and decision-making purposes. What will be seen later in this article is that Thomas Jefferson did use accounting type calculations to analyze the profitability of a nail factory and a proposed potash manufacturing operation. There is also evidence that Jefferson made frequent monetary payments to slaves and that in some cases he had close personal relationships with slaves.

With respect to research focusing on companies that managed the slave trade, McWatters (2008) has examined la traite négrière in terms of investment returns. She studied the investments of François Deguer, who was engaged in the slave trade in eighteenth-century France. The author’s findings provide evidence of the slave trade’s profitability. Specifically, her analysis indicates that slave-trade investments earned above-average returns compared with other available investment opportunities at the time.

More recently, Pinto and West (2017) studied the archives and analyzed the accounting techniques that the Companhia Geral do Grão Pará e Maranhão applied to its slave trading operations during the second half of the eighteenth century. The surviving accounting records of this Portuguese company illustrate the role that accounting technology played in enabling the slave trade. However, the same accounting records also document the humanity of the slaves and preserve details of the bleak circumstances of their existence. A later section of this article will indicate that Jefferson appears to have treated his slaves with a certain degree of respect, rather than merely as property.

Accounting and the Enlightenment

This section reviews the prior accounting history literature focused on accounting and the Enlightenment. Among the publications that have addressed this topic are Álvarez-Dardet et al. (2002), Álvarez-Dardet et al. (2006), Baños et al. (2005), Carmona and Ezzamel (2006), Nuñez (2002), and Prieto et al. (2006). These authors have primarily focused on the relationship between accounting and the development of Enlightenment thought in Spain in the eighteenth century. This research has investigated various aspects of Enlightenment philosophy dealing with the introduction of rational and scientific practices such as accounting into religious and public institutions. For example, Prieto et al. (2006) indicate that accounting records kept during the eighteenth century at the Monastery of Silos (Spain) show that Benedictine monks employed tools of internal control that were not only capable of detecting fraud, but were also used for administrative purposes. This prior literature has generally not addressed relationships between accounting and Enlightenment thought with respect to business organizations.

Most of the prior literature in this area has focused on European cases and has studied aspects of Enlightenment thought that dealt with the introduction of rational practices in eighteenth-century Spain (e.g. Baños et al., 2005). This article contributes to this prior literature by examining an American case of plantation management in the British American colonies during the eighteenth century. The accounting archives indicate that Jefferson was keenly interested in the scientific advances of his time and that he applied this knowledge to the management of his plantations, not always with financial success.

Through his readings of British Empirical philosophers, Jefferson became highly influenced by British Enlightenment philosophy. In particular, Jefferson relied on the political ideas expounded by John Locke pertaining to limited republican government. He was also influenced by the writings of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, among others (Cogliano, 2008). Similar to Enlightenment philosophers, Jefferson believed that human beings possess “certain inalienable rights” and that “liberty should be unobstructed, within the limits drawn by the equal rights of others” (Bassani, 2010: 113). We can see that these beliefs are in conflict with slave-ownership, thus posing a paradox, which subsequent historians have not been able to fully resolve.

Historical archives pertaining to Thomas Jefferson

Because he was one of the founders of the United States of America, Jefferson’s archival documents are located in various libraries throughout the United States (see the References section of this article for a list of available records). Many of these archives have been digitalized and are available for online use. For example, the website Founders Online (https://founders.archives.gov/about), which was created by the National Archives of the United States, includes an extensive collection of Thomas Jefferson’s papers. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) has identified collections of documents authored and received by, or related to, important early political leaders of the United States. These archives of original eighteenth- and nineteenth-century documents have been transcribed, provided with annotations, and reproduced in books, as well as online. A complete list of these printed volumes along with links to the documents can be found at https://founders.archives.gov/content/volumes

Jefferson’s memorandum and cash books

The most important annotated source of archival material pertaining to Jefferson’s accounting records can be found in two volumes edited by James A. Bear, Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton (1997), entitled: Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826. (Princeton: Princeton University Press). Bear was formerly the Director and Curator of Monticello (Jefferson’s home, which is now a national historic monument and museum). Stanton was the Senior Research Historian at Monticello. Many pages from the original Memorandum Books can also be found online in the United States Library of Congress, Manuscript Reading Room (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson).

In their annotated archive, Bear and Stanton identify people and places and provide explanations for the Memorandum Books and the Cash Books kept by Jefferson. The index prepared by Bear and Stanton goes well beyond Jefferson’s own index and includes entries under many diverse topics. A chronology of Jefferson’s life appears at the beginning of the first volume of Bear and Stanton (1997; a shorter version is provided in Appendix 1 of this article; Schwarz, 1998).

Jefferson began keeping detailed accounting records as a young adult; however, the early records were destroyed in a fire at his home at Shadwell in 1770. Fortunately for scholars, the Memorandum Books and Cash Books from 1767 through 1826 have been preserved and are available for research. The Memorandum Books include Jefferson’s notes on legal cases through 1775, when his legal practice ended. The Cash Books, which record daily receipts and expenditures, began in 1767 and continue until his death in 1826 (Bear and Stanton, 1997).

From a technical standpoint, Jefferson used bound books of blank paper pages which were intended to cover a certain period of time, typically one year. He made his memorandum entries at the beginning of the blank books (initially for his legal practice and later with respect to other matters). He made daily recordings of receipts and expenditures in the last pages of the bound books (the first example being 18 August 1767). During the years from 1767 to 1770, he placed a single oblique line (\) through the cash expenditure entries in the Cash Books indicating a transfer to a Ledger ([1767] 1770). Apparently, he abandoned the practice of transferring from a Cash Book to a Ledger after 1770. This failure to maintain a ledger may have led to his inability to ascertain his financial position or to determine the fact that he was often deeply in debt (Bear and Stanton, 1997: 39).

Units of account in the memorandum and cash books

Throughout the Memorandum Books and Cash Books, there are references to receipts and payments of money. However, these monetary amounts likely represented units of account rather than actual exchanges of cash or paper currency (Davidson, 2016).² For example, the first entry in the Memorandum Books for 25 August1767 includes a reference to a legal dispute between a certain Mr Pharr and a Mr Payne concerning the ownership of a mill in which Jefferson represented Mr Pharr (Bear and Stanton, 1997: 3). This dispute involved the payment of 37 pounds, 10 shillings. This entry indicates that the unit of account in the Colony of Virginia in 1767 was the pound, shilling, and pence (most likely referring to Virginia pounds). However, there was probably no intention that one party would actually pay the other party 37 pounds, 10 shillings, because there was a shortage of money in the American colonies in the eighteenth century. The amount of coin and currency circulating in Virginia was insufficient to satisfy the needs of commercial transactions, so that bookkeeping entries rather than cash transactions became the basis of economic exchange. While some colonies began to issue paper currency and mint coins in the seventeenth century, Virginia did not start issuing its own currency until the latter part of the eighteenth century. Virginia’s first paper currency appeared in 1755 to help finance the colony’s involvement in the French and Indian Wars. However, colonial paper notes were not really currency; they were bills of credit backed by the colony, to be paid off out of future tax revenues. Nevertheless, they functioned like currency, and were used to pay public and private debts (Davidson, 2016).

By the 1750s, there were several different colonial currencies circulating in North America. Although all were denominated in pounds, shillings, and pence, they were not equivalent in value. Merchants offered different rates of exchange since some colony’s money may be considered to be more valuable. Consequently, Virginians entered into commercial exchanges using a mixture of foreign coins, such as those from Spain’s American colonies, as well as paper money issued by other British colonies, and various sorts of bills of credit, which were private obligations backed by individual merchants or political entities. Planters, such as Jefferson, typically shipped their tobacco to British-based trading firms, which paid via credit rather than currency (Davidson, 2016).

Interestingly, references in the Cash Books with respect to transactions denominated in different currencies occur only in an indirect manner in that around 1776, Jefferson begins to refer to his expenditures as being made in a particular type of currency, such as that of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, or Massachusetts (Bear and Stanton, 1997: 404). From 1767 until the Revolution in 1776, Jefferson only recorded his receipts and expenditures using pounds, shillings, and pence. His Cash Books refer to dollars for the first time in 1779 (Bear and Stanton, 1997: 478). However, this reference to dollars may be to the Spanish dollar because the US dollar was not authorized until 1785, and it did not become the official unit of account until 1792.³ In his Cash Books, Jefferson continued to record his daily receipts and expenditures using pounds, shillings, and pence until his appointment as Minister to France. Upon his arrival in France in 1784, his daily entries in the Cash Books were recorded in the French units, livre-sous-deniers⁴ (Bear and Stanton, 1997: 556).

Jefferson’s accounting analyses

Much of what we know about Jefferson’s management of his plantations comes from another set of records that he maintained, that is, the Farm Book (Thomas Jefferson, 2003). The Farm Book is part of the Coolidge Collection of Jefferson Manuscripts at the Massachusetts Historical Society.⁵ It contains records of Jefferson’s home, Monticello, and his private retreat, Poplar Forest, as well as records of other farms and estates that he owned in the Albemarle, Bedford, and Campbell counties in Virginia. The Farm Book contains two lists of properties, one dated 1794 (Thomas Jefferson, 2003: 32) and another from 1810 (p. 227). Each list shows that he owned more than 10,000 acres of land.

The Farm Book is a bound manuscript volume. There is no title page. The first 168 pages in the volume are part of an original sequence of 174 pages established by Jefferson. Each page measures approximately 6 1/8 × 7 3/4 in. After his death, the Farm Book was bound in leather, but some of the pages went missing, perhaps taken by an unknown person who removed six pages of text (73–74 and 171–174), which are now owned by the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the Princeton University Library. The Farm Book contains three sequences of pages. The first (pages 1–60) and third (pages 123–174) sequences, consisting of lists, inventories, and diaries, are arranged in chronological order. The first sequence spans the years 1774–1805, and the third sequence spans the years 1809–1824. Not every type of record is assembled for every year and some inventories cover several consecutive years. The middle section (pages 61–119) contains a sequence of notes about farming topics.

The Farm Book contains detailed information about farming activities as well as Jefferson’s livestock and slaves. In 1795 and 1796, Jefferson recorded entries outlining the plowing, sowing, planting, and harvesting activities at his properties; these “diary” entries (Jefferson’s term) are arranged by date. He also maintained precise lists. Some lists include the names and locations of his slaves. Others tracked the clothes, bedding, and food (fish, bread, and beef) distributed to the slaves. The Farm Book also includes inventories of livestock (horses, sheep, cattle, etc.) and the numbers of hogs killed during various years. The middle sequence of pages (pages 61–119), entitled, “Aphorisms, Observations, Facts in Husbandry,” contains notes, observations, and calculations about farming topics such as equipment, livestock, plants, crop rotation, and spinning.

Example of Jefferson’s accounting analyses

On page 117 of the Farm Book, Jefferson recorded the following detailed analysis of the expected profitability from manufacturing perl-ash or potash, which was used to make soap, glass, and china, as well as in some cooking applications.

XVI. Pot-ash. Pearl-ash.

A tree of 1 1/2 f. diameter will yield 1 cord of wood.

2 1/2 f. diameter will yield 2 cords of wood.

An acre of middling timbered land will yield 30 cord of wood.

A man will cut and burn 2 1/2 cords a day.

A cord of wood yields 2 bushels of ashes.

A bushel of ashes sells for 9 cents.

A bushel of ashes makes 6 lb. of brown salts, which make from 3 to 5 lb. Pearl-ash in the common way or 5 lb. of Pearl-ash in the Hopkins’s way.

There should be 15 or 16 tubs of 100 bushels each.

2 kettles suffice to boil the lie into brown salts and 1 to melt up the brown salts.

1/4 cord of wood a day maintains one fire, which will do for 5 kettles.

To keep 3 kettles a going will require a man & boy to attend.

3 kettles will turn out 1000 lb. of Pearl-ash a week.

Consequently we require 100 cords of wood a week & 7 cutters to keep them constantly at work. Each kettle costs 24 Dollars.

Pot-ash is worth in America 114 2/3 Dollars per ton = .057 per lb.

Pearl-ash is worth in England 40 sterling the ton, & in America 133 1/3 Dollars per ton = .066 per lb.

An estimate of the expense and profit of such a work @ 3 lb. Pearl-ash to the bushel of ashes which would be 100 lb. of. Pearl-ash a day.

	L	s	d
7 cutters, hired @ 12 a year, adding all other expenses	128	−16	−0
a manager, hire & provisions	50	−0	−0
a boy	10	−0	−0
implements annually	10	−0	−0
a wagon & team & driver, all expenses calculated	111	−15	−0
Total	310	−11	−0
@ 3 lb. of Pearlash from the bushel, instead of 5 lb., and @ 5 days to the week, we should have 500 lb. instead of 1000 lb. a week, which would be 13 ton a year @ 40 pounds. Virginia. currency		520 - 0 - 0
Profit		209 -9 - 0

Several things can be noted in this profitability analysis. Some entries reference various monetary amounts, such as Spanish dollars and pounds sterling, which provides evidence that a variety of coins and bills were used concurrently as currency in Colonial Virginia. As a unit of computation, Jefferson appears to have used the Virginia currency units of pounds, shilling, and pence (as indicated in the next-to-last line of his analysis). Second, Jefferson makes conservative estimates, for example, using a yield of 3 pounds rather than 5 pounds of pearl-ash from a bushel of ashes. Third, the reason for including a cost for labor is not completely clear. The work may have been done by woodcutters, who may have been free workers or skilled slaves. These labor costs may indicate either the maintenance costs of the slaves or payments that were made to them as compensation. Jefferson has projected labor costs based on market wages for skilled woodcutters and others rather than assuming the use of uncompensated slave labor. Fourth, there is a reference to the sales price of a bushel of ashes, which in this calculation would be an intermediate product and not intended for sale. Perhaps some of the ashes were sold as a by-product at the production split-off point. Finally, this example is most likely an analysis of a proposed undertaking, rather than an account of a completed operation. Present and future tenses are used in the analysis and Jefferson states that the analysis is “an estimate of the expense and profit of such work.”

Jefferson’s efforts to improve his precarious financial position

Perhaps due to Jefferson’s active political life, and the fact that he was often away from his properties, he was frequently in debt and his return on investment from his plantations was mediocre at best. In 1789, Jefferson made a decision to shift away from growing tobacco at Monticello. Tobacco damaged the soil so quickly that new acreage constantly had to be cleared. This required so much land that food could not be raised to feed the workers, thus requiring the purchase of food (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2016).

The cultivation of wheat helped to revitalize the plantation economy, and planters throughout the Chesapeake region had been making the shift to the cultivation of wheat. George Washington had begun raising wheat 30 years earlier, because his land wore out faster than Jefferson’s did. Jefferson continued to plant some tobacco because it remained an important cash crop, but his enthusiasm for wheat farming was evident:

The cultivation of wheat is the reverse of tobacco in every circumstance. Besides clothing the earth with herbage, and preserving its fertility, it feeds the labourers plentifully, requires from them only a moderate toil, except in the season of harvest, raises great numbers of animals for food and service, and diffuses plenty and happiness among the whole (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2016).

Wheat farming also caused a change in the relationship between planter and slave. Tobacco was raised by groups of slaves doing the same repetitive tasks under the direct supervision of overseers. In contrast, wheat required a variety of skilled laborers such as millers, mechanics, carpenters, smiths, spinners, coopers, and plowmen. While there was still a need for a cohort of “labourers on the ground” to carry out the hardest tasks, the slave community became more segmented and hierarchical. The majority of slaves remained laborers, above them were enslaved artisans (both male and female), above them were managers, and above them was the household staff. The higher a slave stood in the hierarchy, the better clothes and food they received. Some slaves received pay, profit sharing, or what Jefferson called “gratuities,” while the lowest workers received only food and clothing (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2016). However, the cultivation of wheat was not the solution to Jefferson’s financial problems. He needed to find another solution to these problems.

The nail factory

Based on his visits to factories in New York State, in 1794 Jefferson added a nail-making operation to his blacksmith shop on Mulberry Row (the small village next to Monticello where slaves lived and worked). He hoped that the nail factory would provide a source of cash income. Nail rods were shipped from Philadelphia and hammered into nails ranging in size from 6 to 20 pennies. In 1796, Jefferson acquired a nail-cutting machine, which made 4-penny brads from hoop iron (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2016).

In his Farm Book, Jefferson wrote: “Children up until 10 years old serve as nurses. From 10 to 16 the boys make nails, the girls spin. At 16 they go to work in the fields or learn trades” (p. 77). Approximately 14 male slaves, aged 10–21, worked at the nail factory. During the period from 1794 to 1796, Jefferson calculated the efficiency of the nail workers by weighing the raw material input of nail rod against the output of finished nails. Most of the slaves who began working in the nail factory subsequently became skilled tradesmen, so in a certain sense this was a path to advancement. The nail factory was profitable in its early years, supplying nails throughout the Albemarle and Augusta counties. Managerial problems arose when Jefferson was serving as Vice-President and President, in part due to competition from cheaper imported nails. This reduced the profitability of the nail factory and eventually it was abandoned (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2016).

The following are extracts from letters in the Jefferson archives which show his keen interest in the nail factory, including all aspects of both its operations and profitability.

1791 May 27 (Jefferson’s Memorandum Books). Waterford [NY]. Saw nails made by cutting them with a pair of shears from the end of a bar of iron, the thickness of which corresponded with the thickness of the nail, and it’s breadth with the length. We saw 120 cut off in a minute, and 24 headed in a minute, which would amount to 20 a minute cut off and headed. But they make habitually about 4000 a day. The iron formed into bars costs about 50 per cent more than nail rod. The sheers cost 9 dollars. The bit is sometimes welded to the sheers, sometimes fixed on with screws so as to be taken off to be ground. They are made at Lebanon in New York. The lever vice for heading is very simple (Jefferson et al., 1950).

1795 March 11. (Letter from Jefferson to Henry Remsen). Indeed I would be glad to know the cost of the cutting and heading machines, and of the right to use them if under a patent.

1795 April 2. (Letter from Jefferson to Henry Remsen). I have also recollected that at either Troy or some other little town up the Hudson I saw a man cutting the 4d. nails and that the implements were of very small cost, and not under a patent, and I suppose this to be the method of cutting to which your letter refers. I therefore have concluded to ask the favor of you to send me immediately all the implements (if they be few and of little cost as I suppose).

1795 April 29. (Letter from Jefferson to Jean Nicolas Demeunier). … I now employ a dozen little boys from 10 to 16 years of age, overlooking all the details of their business myself, and drawing from it a profit on which I can get along till I can put my farms into a course of yielding profit. My new trade of nail-making is to me in this country what an additional title of nobility, or the ensigns of a new order are in Europe.

1795 June 18. (Letter from Jefferson to Henry Remsen). I observed you expected Mr. Burral to be shortly in New York and to give you further information on the subject of the machine for cutting nails. Without waiting for the further information, (as I am much pressed for nails) I am disposed to accept his offer of making a machine for 40 Dollars. The difference of a few dollars is of little account in adopting a thing which is to be of long continuance. So that unless you shall have received information which in your own judgment renders some other more eligible, I will pray you to get one of Mr. Burral’s machines, and to forward it to Col. Gamble in Richmond, with 500. ℔ of the proper iron for cutting 4 pennies, and a few (say 100) 4 pennies, 6 pennies and 8 pennies, of the cut nails, by way of sample.

1795 July 10. (Letter from Jefferson to James Lyle). A nailery which I have established with my own Negro boys now provides completely for the maintenance of my family, as we make from 8 to 10,000 nails a day and it is on the increase.

1796 January 11. (Letter from Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph). I am in hopes my cutting machine, hoop iron and rope will be up soon. If this should find you in Richmond perhaps you can aid in getting them off, as also 3 or 4 tons of nail rod lodged for me at Gamble & Temple’s.

1806.

Jim makes 15 pounds. 20 penny Nails.

Barnaby makes 10 pounds, 10 penny Nails.

Wagner Davy makes 10 pounds. 10 penny Nails.

Bedford John makes 8 pounds. 8 penny Nails.

Bedford Davy makes 6 pounds. 6 penny Nails.

Bartlet makes 6 pounds. 6 penny Nails

4 Boys make 8 pounds. 6 penny Nails.

[total] 63 pounds Nails.

1807 May 13. (Jefferson to Edmund Bacon). Those who work in the Nailery are Moses, Wormly, Jame Hubbard, Barnaby, Isbel’s Davy, Bedford John, Bedford Davy, Phill Hubbard, Bartlet, & Lewis. They are sufficient for 2 fires, five at a fire.

1812 June 22. (Jefferson to Charles Artzt). The object upon which my choice fell, was nail cutting machinery; for, although these machines, used in the vicinity of Boston, were almost in every respect perfect incorrigible, yet there had one important improvement often been attempted and never been attained, viz, to have these machines self-feeding. It seemed therefore the most convenient for my purpose, to undertake the invention of a self-feeding nail machine, and after four months working, I had the satisfaction, to present to the public a complete self-feeding nail machine, made on a small scale, yet all from metal, and only fit to cut nails from hoops of tin, or lead or copper.

These entries reflect Jefferson’s interest in both the operating and financial aspects of the nail factory, and his penchant for accounting analyses. He paid close attention to production outputs and throughput in the production process. His workers were teenage boys who needed close supervision. Most of these workers went on to do other things once they were older as the nail factory was primarily staffed with 10 to 16 year old boys.

Based on the contents of the Memorandum Books, it can be concluded that Jefferson accounted for everything, but that he never gained full control over his debt problem. The diligence with which he made daily records ought to have brought an awareness of his precarious financial position, but perhaps he was unable for various reasons to make changes such as reducing his spending habits or by becoming a more hands-on manager.

Jefferson’s relationship with slaves

Jefferson lived in a colonial plantation economy which was highly dependent on Negro slavery (Bear, 1967). As a wealthy landholder, he used slave labor for his household, plantations, and workshops. Over his lifetime he owned more than 600 slaves. He inherited 175 of these, but most of the rest were born on his plantations. Many historians have described Jefferson as a benevolent slave owner who did not overwork the slaves in comparison with the conventions of his time. The slaves lived in houses heated by fireplaces and they were provided with adequate food and clothing. In addition, Jefferson often gave his slaves monetary and other incentives while permitting them to cultivate kitchen gardens and raise livestock which they could sell for money. Slaves did not work on Sundays, which was comparable to industrial labor at the time, and in an agricultural environment they had little work to do during the winter months (Bear and Stanton, 1997).

Jefferson believed that slavery as an institution was harmful to both slave and master. However, he was reluctant to advocate freeing slaves in a precipitous manner and he advocated instead for gradual emancipation. In 1779, he proposed voluntary training and resettlement of slaves to a country outside of the United States. He also drafted legislation giving owners the right to free their own slaves. In his draft of the Declaration of Independence, he included a section, stricken by other Southern delegates, which criticized Britain’s role in promoting slavery in its colonies. In 1784, Jefferson proposed the abolition of slavery in all western US territories. Congress, however, failed to pass this law. In 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, a partial victory for Jefferson in that it terminated slavery in the Northwest Territory (e.g. Ohio and Indiana). In 1806, he officially called for anti-slavery legislation which would have terminated the import or export of slaves. Congress passed this law in 1807, which took effect in 1818 (Gordon-Reed, 1997).

Jefferson’s personal relationship with slaves

The Memorandum Books reveal a great deal about Jefferson’s personal relationships with slaves. These books first mention a specific relationship with a slave named Jupiter on March 16, 1769 when Jefferson records that he “purchased 16yds of coarse Dowlas⁶ for Jupiter” (Bear and Stanton, 1997: 16). Jefferson and Jupiter were both born in 1743, at Shadwell, Peter Jefferson’s estate. Thomas Jefferson and Jupiter were bound together over a long period of time because Jupiter acted as Jefferson’s personal valet and traveling companion throughout the years of his law study and practice. In 1774 when Jefferson entered public service, Jupiter became the head coachman at Monticello, with responsibility for all of the horses in the Monticello stables. He was also apprenticed to a local stonecutter, with whom he worked to shape the cylindrical blocks of stone that form the columns of the Monticello entrance portico. Jupiter’s wife Susan was a cook, and their son Philip was, like his father, a handler of horses (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2016). Jupiter and Susan had the surname of Evans, indicating their higher status. Typically, slaves were given the same last name as that of the master (Bear and Stanton, 1997: 503).

The Memorandum and Cash Books also indicate that Jefferson often engaged in monetary transaction with slaves. In 1780 alone, he gave money to slaves on 47 occasions (Bear and Stanton, 1997: 490). It is possible that some of these disbursements were related to slaves being instructed to make small purchases for the household. Nevertheless, this pattern of giving money to slaves continued throughout Jefferson’s residence in Virginia. In addition, he paid wages to his servants (i.e. slaves) during periods when he resided in France or non-slave owning territories. The index in the Cash Books listing “Slaves/Treatment/annual gratuities to/and premiums to,” indicates that Jefferson used monetary incentives to obtain extra or better work from slaves, or to give them what he regarded as their due. Virtually every day there is an entry in the Cash Books recording a payment to a slave as a gratuity or a contribution to a group or individual in need of charity (Bear and Stanton, 1997).

Jefferson’s involvement with the Hemings family

Sarah “Sally” Hemings (c. 1773–1835) was an enslaved woman of mixed race, who had a long-term relationship with Thomas Jefferson. She was the youngest of six children who were born to the widowed planter John Wayles and his mixed-race slave Betty Hemings. Sally and her siblings were three-quarters European and half-siblings of Martha Wayles Skelton, who was John Wales’ daughter and Jefferson’s wife (Gordon-Reed, 1997). Most historians believe that Jefferson fathered six children born by Sally Hemings (Gordon-Reed, 1997).

Sally’s brother, James Hemings, traveled with Jefferson during his years of public service. When Jefferson was elected governor of Virginia in 1779, he took James and his brother Robert to Williamsburg and Richmond as his personal servants. He apparently placed a great deal of trust in these young men because he directed them to lead his wife, Martha, and their daughters away from Richmond in 1781 when British forces threatened the capital. Later that same year the Hemings brothers led the family to safety when they fled Monticello as British troops approached. In 1796, James Hemings was freed by Jefferson so that he could pursue a career as a French chef. He subsequently became recognized for his talent and at various times was invited to be the chef in the White House during the years of Jefferson’s presidency (Gordon-Reed, 1997).

In 1787, Sally Hemings accompanied Jefferson and his youngest daughter Mary (“Polly”) to London and then to Paris, where the widowed Jefferson, was serving as the US Minister to France. Sally Hemings spent two years in Paris and she could have claimed freedom under the laws of France at that time. Jefferson began a sexual relationship with Hemings in Paris or soon after their return to Monticello. Sally Hemings’ children lived in Jefferson’s house and were trained as artisans. Jefferson freed all these children, who were seven-eighths European in ancestry, as they came of age. Three of the four moved to Washington DC and were regarded as white citizens. Although never being formerly granted freedom, Sally Hemings lived the last nine years of her life freely with her two younger sons in Charlottesville, Virginia (i.e. close to Monticello; Gordon-Reed, 1997).

Jefferson’s ambivalence toward slavery

One of the interesting things about Jefferson’s views on slavery was his silence. Beginning in the 1780s and into the early 1790s, Jefferson’s views began to change apparently leading to a moral reversal in which he concluded that slavery fitted into America’s national enterprise. In designing Monticello, Jefferson followed a precept put forth by the sixteenth-century architect Palladio, whose architectural concepts were the model for Monticello: “We must contrive a building in such a manner that the finest and most noble parts of it be the most exposed to public view, and the less agreeable removed from sight as much as possible” (Wiencek, 2012: 2). Underneath Monticello is a tunnel through which slaves carried platters of food, tableware, ice, beer, wine, and linens, while above them Jefferson’s guests listened to his dinner-table conversation. At one end of the tunnel was an icehouse, at the other end was a kitchen where the cooks and their helpers produced the food (Wiencek, 2012).

The turning point in Jefferson’s thinking may have come in 1792, when he wrote a letter to President George Washington, in which he indicated that he had detected a phenomenon at Monticello which he had begun to measure. He calculated that there was approximately a 4 per cent annual increase in the population of slaves. In his letter to Washington, Jefferson wrote, “I allow nothing for losses by death, but, on the contrary, shall presently credit four per cent per annum, for their increase over and above keeping up their own numbers” (Wiencek, 2012: 3). In some subsequent letters, Jefferson advised friends to “invest in land and negroes, which besides being a present support bring a silent profit of from 5 to 10 per cent by the increase in their numbers” (Wiencek, 2012: 4).

It should be pointed out that Jefferson sent his letter to Washington because he had come to the conclusion that slavery made human beings into a profitable business venture and this disgusted him. However, Jefferson may have been correct about the investment value of slaves. Various economists who have studied pre-Civil War America have estimated that on the eve of the Civil War, enslaved black people formed the second most valuable capital asset in the United States. In 1860, the value of Southern slaves was about three times the amount invested in manufacturing facilities or railroads nationwide. The only asset more valuable than Negro slaves was the land itself (Wiencek, 2012).

Discussion: the influence of Enlightenment philosophy on Thomas Jefferson

The Memorandum, Cash, and Farm books prepared by Thomas Jefferson provide a rich archival resource which helps us to better understand plantation management in colonial America. However, for insight into Jefferson’s views on republican democracy and Enlightenment philosophy, we need to refer to the large body of literature produced by Jeffersonian scholars.

Jefferson became highly influenced by British Enlightenment thought primarily through his readings of British Empirical philosophers such as John Locke. Jefferson relied to a great extent on the political ideas expounded by Locke (1988), a person whom he considered to be one of the most influential men who ever lived (Hayes, 2008). Jefferson was also influenced by the writings of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, among others (Cogliano, 2008). In accordance with the Enlightenment philosophers, Jefferson believed that human beings possess “certain inalienable rights” and that “liberty should be unobstructed, within the limits drawn by the equal rights of others” (Bassani, 2010: 113).

Again following the ideas of British Enlightenment philosophers, Jefferson considered republican democracy to be the fundamental basis of a good society (Wood, 2010: 277). His ideas regarding democracy were based on the concept of preventing individuals from infringing on the liberty of others, while also restraining government from diminishing individual liberties (Mayer, 1994,: 328). However, much like the Enlightenment philosophers, Jefferson’s views on democracy were limited. He believed that democracy should involve majority rule by a limited class of educated voters (Appleby, 2003). While in principle he supported the idea of granting voting rights to most adults, in practice he thought that the suffrage should be extended only to white males who owned land, while excluding tenant farmers, laborers, Negro slaves, American Indians, and women (Wood, 2010: 220).

Having been raised in a rural agricultural community, Jefferson also believed that independent farmers were the basis of a republican democracy and that the agrarian life embodied the ideal republican virtues. He distrusted cities and bankers, favored decentralized government, and believed that the tyranny that had plagued Europe was due to corrupt political establishments and monarchies. He also supported efforts to prevent organized religion from influencing or controlling the government and he advocated for a separation between church and state (Mayer, 1994). The Democratic-Republican political party that he founded was strongly influenced by the eighteenth-century British Whig Party, which also believed in limited government (Wood, 2010). The Democratic-Republicans became dominant in early American politics, and their policies became known as Jeffersonian democracy (Tucker, 1837).

Jefferson believed that over time, the number of eligible voters would gradually increase through widespread free education. After resigning as Secretary of State in 1795, he focused on increasing the electoral base of the Democratic-Republican Party. He defined republicanism to include “the entire body of landholders” as well as “the body of laborers” without land (Meachum, 2012: 298). His support for increasing electoral democracy led to an increase in the right to vote. Voter participation increased from about 67,000 in 1800 to 143,000 in 1804, however, this was still a small percentage of the total population of 5.3 million in 1800 (Cogliano, 2008: 12).

As President of the United States, Jefferson tried to establish a balance between the power of the states and the power of the federal government, seeking to reinforce state prerogatives where his Democratic-Republican Party constituted a majority. He led his political party through two terms of his presidency and helped to extend the power of the Democratic-Republicans to a third term under his successor James Madison. Upon his departure from the presidency in 1809, Jefferson described America as being “the solitary republic of the world, the only monument of human rights, and the sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and self-government” (Bober, 2008: 264).

Conclusion

This focus of this article has been on Thomas Jefferson, who was the most important proponent of Enlightenment thought during the early years of the United States of America. Jefferson was also a meticulous record keeper. He kept daily accounting records of every receipt and expenditure that he made for a period of over 60 years. Most of these accounting records have survived and are located in archives throughout the United States. Two questions have been posed in this article: first, what can Jefferson’s accounting records tell us about plantation management in colonial America? Second, what do his accounting records reveal about his attitudes toward eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosophy? The article has investigated original archives in an effort to answer these questions.

Regarding the first question, it is clear that Jefferson was a detailed record keeper and that he possessed the accounting data that would have proved useful in managing his business activities, but he was unable to mitigate his precarious financial position. This raises an interesting question related to the relationship between generating a large quantity of potentially useful data and the ability to integrate and analyze the data in a way that proves useful in decision-making. Jefferson was apparently not able to use his accounting data in an effective way to manage his affairs. He may have understood his tenuous financial position (even without reference to his detailed records), but for various reasons he could not modify his professional and personal lifestyle to take corrective actions. Perhaps this was due to his long years of public service, during which time he was unable to give sufficient attention to the management of his properties. Perhaps, it was also due to the fact that he liked to purchase books, wine, furniture, art, and other valuable items. This penchant for acquisition may have left him in debt.

With regard to the second question, the Memorandum, Cash, and Farm books do not provide direct information regarding Jefferson’s views on republican democracy and Enlightenment philosophy. His views on these topics come from other references primarily written by Jeffersonian historians. What may be said is that when Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” he probably did not mean to include most human beings in the category of “all men.” This is an unacceptable conclusion in today’s world, but it was a viewpoint that was not uncommon among Enlightenment philosophers. John Locke was a shareholder in a slave-trading company and Adam Smith accepted the existence of slavery. Even the prominent leaders of the French Revolution excluded non-citizens (e.g. priests, nobles, most women, and slaves) from voting. It is therefore important to understand Thomas Jefferson in relation to his time; as a person who not only had a major impact on the United States but also on many other countries around the world. It must be remembered that Jefferson was a wealthy plantation owner who grew up as a British subject in the Commonwealth of Virginia in pre-Revolutionary America. Although he became one of the most important figures in American history, he was bound both by his birth and his environment. Despite the paradox of Jefferson’s advocacy of Enlightenment thought while being a slave owner, the essential elements of Enlightenment philosophy, in which Jefferson played an important role, have had an enormous impact on creating the world in which we live today.

Footnotes

Appendix 1 Acknowledgements

The refereeing of this submission was totally managed by Garry Carnegie, Joint Editor, Accounting History.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

ORCID iD

Charles Richard Baker

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