Notes on the State of Virginia

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Notes on the State of Virginia is a 1785 book written by the American statesman, philosopher, and planter Thomas Jefferson. It is the only full-length book Jefferson published during his lifetime. 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, part of a series of questions posed to each of the thirteen states in 1780 by François Barbé-Marbois, the secretary of the French delegation in Philadelphia, the temporary capital of the Continental Congress. 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 republicanism, the separation of church and state, constitutional reform, checks and balances, and individual liberty. Conversely, Jefferson also wrote extensively about slavery...

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