Signed Copies Now Available

Signed copies of Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Faith & Liberty in Fredericksburg are now available. Visit here for details.

Welcome to my blog.

My name is Michael Aubrecht. I live in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia. I’m an author, historian and producer with a genuine passion for preserving and presenting the past through film and the written word. My research and writing are focused primarily on the history and legacy of the Revolutionary War and Civil War eras. I am the author and editor of multiple books and many magazine and website articles.I am also an accomplished tour guide and public speaker. I invite you to look around. Feel free to contact me at ma@pinstripepress.net or subscribe below. 

Op-Ed: No one to pass the torch to

Lately I have begrudgingly accepted the fact that no one really cares about the Civil War but us enthusiasts.

Regardless of how many great programs our local National Parks Service host, the audiences at these events are usually made up of the same people. In essence, all these Civil War events give us ‘buffs’ more things to see. A bad analogy would be extending a special invitation to “Trekees” for a Star Trek Convention. They will go no matter what.

I have spent a tremendous amount of time leading tours, speaking to groups, and attending CW-related functions. Most of the time, I am the youngest person in the room and I never-ever see any young people at round tables, museum conferences, or panel chats. Yes, you may see the occasional kid traipsing around a battlefield or participating at a re-enactment with his family, but for the most part, it’s middle-aged folks or older (many seniors or retirees), who still care enough to pursue and cultivate an interest in the Civil War. Many of these enthusiasts were around for the Centennial celebrations of the Civil War in the 1960’s and grew up with a penchant for the subject that has blossomed. Unfortunately, times have changed.

The problem is that there are no fresh faces stepping up to take the places of the old-timers after they are gone. Our audience is thinning every day and it’s easy to see the fading and eventual disappearance of roundtables and historical societies. My generation (aka Gen-X) are now in our 50’s and our kids have grown up entirely in the Video Game/Information Age. Civil War memory can’t compete with the Xbox and iPhones.

Let’s be honest folks, this was never ‘cool’ to outsiders. We do what we do because we love it (even if no one else cares). Heck, most of my friends and peers consider me to be a geek. They will attend the occasional event out of courtesy, but they don’t have any interest in this subject matter beyond me. My kids aren’t particularly interested in the Civil War either. They don’t even teach cursive anymore in school so they will never be able to read historical documents.

I thought that technology was the issue. I have discussed the idea of using iPads w/ GPS for tours and incorporating 3D modeling to present what is no longer there. Many museums are trying to incorporate kid-friendly activities that allow them to touch the exhibits. Guess what? The iPads w/ GPS are too expensive and older people won’t use them. The museums are always struggling for visitors due to the sagging economy.

As a historian, tour guide, and lifelong enthusiast, I will be very interested to see if we ever witness another surge of interest in Civil War history by the general public. In the meantime, I and my fellow geeks will continue to do what we do regardless. Won’t you join us?

Update on next book

I spoke with my publisher, and they are interested in exploring a future book on Hugh Mercer who left his mark on the Revolution and lived in Fredericksburg. This isn’t something I would be working on until probably early next year but its valuable to start a conversation with the publisher now. We are both waiting to see how the Jefferson book performs. We agreed to revisit this proposal in the Fall. The working title is: Hugh Mercer, The Extraordinary Life and Death of Fredericksburg’s Patriot Physician.

Tour Stop

It looks like the book tour will be visiting Pittsburgh, PA. I have communicated with the Library Director at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall who has graciously presented me with an invitation. I have spoken there on multiple occasions and even premiered a documentary film there in 2010. I am always impressed with the insightful conversations that I share with the audience. I also have a friend who is in communication with another location in South Fayette so I may be speaking at two venues while I am up there. It looks like August will be the timeframe. There may be other engagements that happen locally here in Fredericksburg, VA before then.

With Appreciation

The Jefferson book continues to perform well over on Amazon. It is still the #1 New Release in its category. I am asking those of you who purchased the book through Amazon to think about leaving a review in the comments section. It helps the rating and promotion of the book. Thank you!

Next project?

The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777. Artist: John Trumbull

Now that the Jefferson book is completed and doing well, I was thinking about a future project that will meet the requirements of my publisher The History Press. The goal is to write something that is original and tied to the City of Fredericksburg. Looking at some options I came upon the idea of compiling the letters of Hugh Mercer who left his mark on the Revolution and lived in Fredericksburg. Like Jefferson, Mercer left behind an impressive legacy that is still commemorated to this day.

A cursorily search online produced some wonderful sources and many of his letters are accessible. Before I would begin, I would have to ensure that I will have enough material to justify a book. Ironically, Mercer’s monument is just a few yards from the Religious Freedom Monument here in Fredericksburg. This is of course a future endeavor as I’m busy promoting the Jefferson book, but it would be nice to have something to look forward to.

UPDATE: I have acquired local historian and writer Timothy Willging to write the Foreword. Tim is well-versed in the life of Hugh Mercer and I am very lucky to have him. As I said, the project is off in the future but it’s great to have that ironed out if it comes to fruition.

Working Title:

Hugh Mercer, The Extraordinary Life and Death of Fredericksburg’s Patriot Physician

Hugh Mercer was a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He fought in the New York and New Jersey campaign and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Princeton. He lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia where he worked as a physician and established an apothecary shop that is still standing. Mercer served alongside George Washington during the French and Indian War, and he and Washington became close friends. Today a monument commemorating Mercer stands in downtown Fredericksburg. This collection of letters provides an intimate look at the man who is still remembered today.

History and Hypocrisy

Internal Slave Trade by Lewis Miller, 1850s (Click pic for full-size)

Thomas Jefferson is remembered as one of the most exceptional charter members of the Founding Fathers. His contributions to the birth of our nation are second-to-none and his words have inspired generations of Americans to covet their freedom and liberty.

At the same time, the author of the Declaration of Independence is criticized as the most hypocritical affiliate of that revolutionary generation. The largest point of contention in this Virginia planter’s legacy is his lifelong practice of slavery and how it benefited him. It is an emerging blemish on an otherwise brilliant existence.

Jefferson experienced the so-called “peculiar institution” of bondage directly, as Monticello’s slave population was one of the largest in Virginia. His community of human property resided just over the hill from the main house, on what was referred to as “Mulberry Row.” Often Jefferson would walk along the path tracing the slave workforce community which included family dwellings, wood and ironwork shops, a smokehouse, a dairy, and a wash house and stable.

“Mulberry Row” was the center of plantation activity from the 1770s to Jefferson’s death in 1826. Five log cabin dwellings were also built near the site for additional household servants who did not fit in the basement-level dependency wings of the estate.

Despite the initial appearance of a bustling plantation community, one cannot forget that it was populated by slaves. And regardless of the quality of life that Jefferson’s servants appear to have shared over other Africans held in bondage, they were still held as property.

Like their proprietor, Monticello slaves maintained an arduous schedule. Most servants worked from dawn to dusk, six days of the week. Only on Sundays and holidays could they pursue their own affairs. These included prayer meetings and worship, spiritual singing, and night excursions, when wild honey would be gathered for their personal consumption. The supplementing of rations was also practiced as farm hands grew acres of vegetables, fished the river, and trapped game.

Unlike many Virginia planters, Jefferson paid his slaves a monetary share for extra vegetables, chickens, and fish for the main house, as well as for special tasks performed outside their normal working hours. He also encouraged some of his enslaved artisans by offering them a percentage of what they produced in their shops.

Jefferson’s very good friend James Madison appreciated the vocations exhibited on Mulberry Row and purchased all of the nails used to enlarge his neighboring estate of Montpelier from Jefferson’s nail foundry.

The conflict that existed between Jefferson, the slaveholder and Jefferson, the proponent of liberty is still being debated and examined to this very day. According to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, who is tasked with preserving and presenting the storied legacy of its namesake, Jefferson’s words and deeds are contradictory on the issue of slavery.

Although he drafted the words “all men are created equal,” and worked to limit the stranglehold of slavery on the new country, he had personally found no political or economic remedies for the problem, and trusted that future generations would find a solution. “But as it is,” Jefferson wrote, “we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”

For his entire life, Thomas Jefferson was surrounded by the practice of slavery. In 1764, he inherited 20 slaves from his father. Ten years later, he inherited 135 more from his father-in-law, John Wayles, who was involved in the importation of enslaved Africans into Virginia. By 1796, Jefferson owned approximately 170 slaves with 50 living on his property in Bedford County and 120 residing in Albemarle.

Each residence was completely dependent on the use of forced labor, from the planting of fields to the daily operations of the house. Slave labor was also the economic force behind many of Jefferson’s enterprises. It seems that his lifestyle demanded the practice, regardless of his prejudices against it.

Ironically, throughout his career, both politically and personally, Jefferson repeatedly voiced displeasure with the institution of slavery. He often referred to it as an “abominable crime,” a “moral depravity,” a “hideous blot,” and a “fatal stain that deformed what nature had bestowed on us of her fairest gifts.” He was successful in outlawing international slave trade in the Old Dominion, but continued to keep slaves on all of his farms in Virginia.

This blatant contradiction illustrates the complexity that was Thomas Jefferson. One conclusion is that he believed that a practicable solution to this moral dilemma could not be found in his lifetime. He still continued, however, to advocate privately his own emancipation plan, which included a provision for colonizing slaves outside the boundaries of the United States.

Without a doubt, the most controversial issue, with regard to slavery and the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, is his relationship with Sally Hemings. A house slave, Sally was the half-sister of Jefferson’s deceased wife, Martha. Not merely a modern scandal, rumors that Jefferson had fathered multiple children with Sally Hemings entered the public arena during his first term as president.

It continued to hang over Jefferson’s memory for many years. In 1998, Dr. Eugene Foster and a team of geneticists revealed that they had “established that an individual carrying the male Jefferson Y chromosome fathered Eston Hemings (born 1808), the last-known child born to Sally Hemings.

There were approximately 25 adult male Jeffersons who carried this chromosome living in Virginia at that time, and a few of them are known to have visited Monticello.” The study’s authors, however, said, “the simplest and most probable conclusion was that Thomas Jefferson had fathered Eston Hemings.”

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s official statement on the matter declares, “Although the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings has been for many years, and will surely continue to be, a subject of intense interest to historians and the public, the evidence is not definitive, and the complete story may never be known.

The Foundation encourages its visitors and patrons, based on what evidence does exist, to make up their own minds as to the true nature of the relationship.” This adds an entirely new layer to the complexity of Thomas Jefferson’s views, not only on slavery, but also on race in general.

Today Thomas Jefferson continues to be credited with doing some extraordinary things as well as some indefensible things. He will forever remain a fascinating and controversial figure in the history of our nation.

The book is now available in the Gift Shop at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

Beliefs of an Unbeliever

Often referred to as the “Father of the American Revolution,” Thomas Paine was also the best-selling author in eighteenth-century America. Even those with a casual knowledge of our nation’s history are familiar with his most popular work titled “Common Sense.” This of course was the radical political-pamphlet that he anonymously published (as “an Englishman”) in January of 1776. “Common Sense” presented the American colonists with an argument for freedom from English rule at a time when the question of independence was still being debated. Upon its release, “Common Sense” quickly spread among the literate and within three months, 100,000 copies were sold throughout the colonies.

Many people forget that Thomas Paine went on to write a highly controversial deistic-pamphlet titled “The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology.” This publication levied harsh criticism on the institution of organized religion and challenged the very legitimacy of the Christian Bible. Published in three parts over a period of three years (1794, 1795, and 1807), it was also a best-seller that ignited a short-lived deistic revival.

Much like Thomas Jefferson who wrote his own interpretation of scripture, Paine favored scientific-reason over faith and rejected all biblical references to miracles. While promoting the concept of “natural religion” he openly abandoned the notion that the Christian Bible was a divinely inspired book and argued against the very existence of a creator-God. By taking a philosophical stance that was usually reserved for the educated-elite and making it irreverent (and inexpensive), Paine was able to appeal to a mass readership, thus increasing sales while spreading his divisive message. Although (at the time) it did not sell nearly as well as “Common Sense,” “The Age of Reason” went through seventeen editions and sold thousands of copies in the United States.

Not surprising, Paine’s irreverent assumptions on organized religion (Christianity in particular) were met with much anger and outrage, especially from the Church of England. The British government reacted to this by prosecuting any printer or bookseller that tried to produce and/or distribute the book. The content of “The Age of Reason” was divided into three sections: In Part I, Paine outlined his major arguments and personal creed. In Parts II and III, he analyzed specific portions of the Christian Bible in order to demonstrate that it was not the revealed “Word of God.” Throughout the book Paine placed an emphasis on the individual’s right of conscience and an inherent accountability to be held to oneself. At the beginning of Part I, Paine summarized his personal creed:

“I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”

In his argument against the Bible, Paine not only questioned the sacredness of the text, but also its historical origins. He often referred to the stories as “fabulous mythology” and stated that the Book of Proverbs was “inferior in keenness to the proverbs of the Spaniards, and not more wise and economical than those of the American Franklin [referring to Benjamin].” Paine then went on to question the overall consistency and accuracy of the Bible, blaming the errors on man as opposed to a divine being. Many of his comparative-reasoning styles are still practiced today in biblical scholarship.

The Old Testament in particular became a major target for Paine’s criticisms. He argued that the God of the Old Testament was so tyrannical and cruel that he could only be a “human-authored-myth.” He then went on to present a series of incidents supporting this theory including an account from the Book of Numbers, specifically 31:13–47, in which Moses orders the slaughter of thousands of boys and women, as well as the abduction of virgins. Excerpt: “15 ‘Have you allowed all the women to live?’ he asked them. 16 ‘They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the LORD in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the LORD’s people. 17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.’” Paine called this kind of content a “book of lies, wickedness, and blasphemy; for what can be greater blasphemy than to ascribe the wickedness of man to the orders of the Almighty!”

Another sentiment offered up by Paine was the distrust of religious institutions. This included the indicting of priests for their want of power and the Church’s opposition to scientific investigation. He recalled: “Soon after I had published the pamphlet ‘Common Sense,’ in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion. The adulterous connection of Church and State, wherever it has taken place has so effectually prohibited by pains and penalties every discussion upon established creeds, and upon first principles of religion, that until the system of government should be changed, those subjects could not be brought fairly and openly before the world; but that whenever this should be done, a revolution in the system of religion would follow.”

Over the years many historians have supported to notion that Paine’s religious and political philosophies were very much in support of one-another. Therefore Paine felt that propagating a religious revolution was crucial to the success of any political revolution, not only because the Church controlled the State, but also because it required a radically new way of thinking and looking at the world. The threat to achieving this “political enlightenment” was directly attributed to a religious superstition that prevented oneself from diversifying their antiquated perspective or rejecting what they had been taught. Scholars have referred to this theory as Paine’s “secular-millennialism.” Perhaps Paine’s most telling statement on the subject of reform (religious and otherwise) came in the conclusion to his “Rights of Man” when he stated: “From what we now see, nothing of reform in the political world ought to be held improbable. It is an age of revolutions, in which everything may be looked for.”

Thomas Paine’s thoughts on this world are still debated today. In 2006, English writer and Atheist Christopher Hitchens wrote a book about the effect of Paine’s writings. In it he summarized the need for his words in today’s political spectrum. He wrote, “If the rights of man are to be upheld in a dark time, we shall require an age of reason. In a time when both rights and reason are under several kinds of open and covert attack, the life and writing of Thomas Paine will always be part of the arsenal on which we shall need to depend.”

Image: George Cruikshank cartoon attacking Thomas Paine. The caption reads: “The Age of Reason; or, the World turned Topsy-turvy exemplified in Tom Paine’s Works!”

I’m speechless

I followed up on the Facebook post our local newspaper put up about the book and it has over 2.6K likes. Unbelievable. The book is really getting a lot of attention for sure.

In Progress

I have three people currently reviewing the Jefferson book. It’s great to hear comments like this: “Your research is impressive and I really appreciate your ability to place the narrative in context.” I’ll post the reviews here as they become available.

Booking is currently underway. Stay tuned for event announcements.