When Thomas Jefferson first stated that “the tree of Liberty
needs watered from time to time with the blood of tyrants” I don’t think he
ever envisioned himself in the role of the Tyrant. But that is exactly what
happened when he was forced to confront the students at his dream, the
University of Virginia in 1825, just one year before his death.
Discipline at the school was non-existent; the idea being
that young gentlemen could be trusted to act upon their honor. And act they
did. These sons of southern aristocratic plantation owners had such thin skins;
and thickly inflated senses of honor; that they were in a perpetual state of
dueling with one another, and even there professors.
Such was the situation that Jefferson, only one year prior
to his death in 1826, was forced on occasion, to make the 8 mile journey from
his home at Monticello, to the University in order to quell the problems there.
On one such occasion he was struck speechless and broke into tears. It was hard
for him to see his dream school begin its life in a state of disgrace. To make
matters worse, one of the leaders of the student rebellion was his own
grand-nephew.
The story behind that day and how it came to be in the first
place; is the subject of this wonderful little book by Messrs. Bowman and
Santos as they explore the beginnings of Jefferson’s dream of higher education
in what is considered to be America’s first public University.
From its first conception by Jefferson as the first public
university in America the whole idea was plagued with problems and
disagreements about how, and who, should fund it. The authors give a very
accurate accounting of all the machinations which went into the project.
But by far the most enjoyable portion of the book is the
story of its first few decades of students. They flogged their professors,
misused their servants, drank to excess, gambled profanely, and otherwise did
their best to squander their own futures as well as Mr. Jefferson’s dream.
The story of how the student body was finally tamed, and how
the school became the model of Mr. Jefferson’s original vision make this book a
very worthy chronicle of the history of higher education in America. And,
through the antics of some its earliest alumni; including Edgar Allan Poe; it
is also just plain fun to read it, and realize that, with the exception of the
students having servants, not much has changed in regards to student life in
the almost two centuries since Jefferson’s experiment first came into being.
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