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 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 the separation of church and state, constitutional government, checks and balances, and individual liberty. He also wrote extensively about slavery, his dislike of miscegenation, justifications of white supremacy, and his belief that Whites and Black Americans could not co-exist in a society in which Blacks were free.
It was the only full-length book that Jefferson published during his lifetime. He first had it published anonymously in Paris by Philippe Denis Pierres in 1785 while Jefferson serving the U.S. government as a trade representative. A French translation by Abbé Morellet appeared in 1787. In London, John Stockdale published it in 1787 after Jefferson had come to terms for a limited print run and other arrangements.
Publication
Notes was anonymously published in Paris in a limited private edition of 200 copies in 1785. A French translation by Abbé Morellet appeared in 1787 (though with an imprint date of 1786). Its first public edition, issued by John Stockdale in London, began to be sold in 1787. It was the only full-length book by Jefferson published that was during his lifetime though he issued a Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States, generally known as Jefferson's Manual, in 1801.
Notes includes some of Jefferson's most memorable statements of belief in political, legal, and constitutional principles like the separation of church and state, constitutional government, checks and balances, and individual liberty.
Naturalism
Jefferson meticulously documented, to his abilities, the natural resources of Virginia and fiercely opposed the proposition of the French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, whose authoritative Histoire Naturelle stated that nature, plant life, animal life, and human life degenerate in the New World in contrast with their state in the Old World.
Jefferson noted the 1648 work of scientists Georg Marcgraf and Willem Piso, whose work on natural history in Dutch Brazil resulted in the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae and argued that the honeybee was not native to North America.
Outline
The text is divided into 23 chapters, which Jefferson termed "Queries," each describing a different aspect of Virginia.
Boundaries of Virginia
Rivers
Sea Ports
Mountains
Cascades
Productions mineral, vegetable and animal
Climate
Population
Military force
Marine force
Aborigines
Counties and towns
Constitution
Laws
Colleges, buildings, and roads
Proceedings as to Tories
Religion
Manners
Manufactures
Subjects of commerce
Weights, Measures and Money
Public revenue and expenses
Histories, memorials, and state-papers
Freedom of speech and secular government
Notes on the State of Virginia contained Jefferson's firm belief in citizens' rights to express themselves freely without fear of government or church reprisal and that government's role is only secular and should not have anything to do with religion. That led later to charges of atheism leveled at him by his opponents in Federalist newspapers before the nasty election of 1800.
They quoted his European-published Notes on Virginia as proof that he was godless.
Jefferson addressed the authority of government and laws:
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
However, in Query XVIII, he also addressed the presumed retribution for lack of theistic respect: