The Jefferson Lies
By Jeff Paulk, 11 March, 2026
In this article we are going to step a little farther back in time to one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson. Like most of our history, many things we have been taught about Thomas Jefferson are simply not true. But, since it is the “accepted narrative” and taught in our public schools and universities, PBS, and the History Channel, it must be true so, we believe it. I mean, they would not lie to us, would they? Of course they would, and they do, on a regular basis. So, let’s look at some of the things we are wrongfully taught about Thomas Jefferson.
In his book, The Jefferson Lies, which I highly recommend, David Barton reveals truths that have been kept hidden from us, and this is the book we will be referencing in this article. This book came out around 2012 and that is about the time I got a copy of it. It even has a Foreword in it by Glenn Beck, of whom I am no big fan due to his anti-Confederate views, but he does an excellent job in the Foreword of this book. I would like to give the following quote from Mr. Beck which is in the Foreword:
“Why does the Left continue to misquote Jefferson, accuse him of being anti-God, and attribute evil deeds to him? Because they know that if they are able to discredit and dismiss Jefferson and our other Founders, then we are that much closer to surrendering our birthright and our natural freedoms. These myths have flourished in our educational institutions in recent years and have become accepted as truth. It’s a poison in our nation’s system that can only be flushed out by light and truth.”
I could not agree more with Mr. Beck on this. My question to him is, if he “gets it” on this subject and realizes that academia has lied to us about Jefferson, why does he not apply the same thinking when it comes to the so-called “Civil War” and our Confederate ancestors? The same educational institutions lying to us about Jefferson have also been lying to us about Lincoln and his illegal war. Inquiring minds want to know.
Lie #1
Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings’ Children
What happened in 1998? President Bill Clinton was accused of having improper relations with a young intern inside the Oval Office. In an attempt to “normalize” this and get some of the heat off of him, it was argued that the greatness of Thomas Jefferson was not diminished due to his alleged sexual escapades. In fact, the timing of the debunked DNA testing “proving” that Jefferson fathered children with the slave girl, Sally Heming, could not have come at a better time. While it is certain that a Jefferson did father at least one of Hemings’ children, no DNA was used from Thomas Jefferson. A commission of thirteen leading scholars met and examined the paternity issue. After a year of examining the evidence, all of them concluded that Jefferson’s younger brother, Randolph, was many times more likely to have sired the offspring. Randolph would fiddle and dance half the night with the black people. There is not one account of Thomas Jefferson socializing with the slaves in this way. There is no evidence, either modern or ancient, to prove Thomas Jefferson fathered any of Sally Hemings’ children.
Lie #2
Thomas Jefferson Founded a Secular University
Jefferson and the Board of Visitors founded the University of Virginia as America’s first school not associated with one specific denomination, but established it to train students from all denominations, which was a plan advocated by evangelical Presbyterian clergyman Samuel Knox of Baltimore. Jefferson encouraged people not to just know what they believed, but why they believed it so they could defend their faith. (The Bible advises this in 1 Peter 3:15). As with much of our history, things are taken out of context to support a particular agenda. This has been done when it comes to Jefferson.
Lie #3
Thomas Jefferson Wrote His Own Bible and Edited Out Things He Didn’t Agree With
Well, the short story here is that Jefferson did “cut and paste” passages from the Bible into a condensed version, but this was done as an evangelical tool to educate and convert the Indians, not to “create his own Bible”. In 1804 President Jefferson signed a federal act for “propagating the Gospel” among the Indians. He repeatedly showed his interest in bringing Christianity to the Indians.
Lie #4
Thomas Jefferson Was a Racist Who Opposed Equality for Black Americans
On page 100 of Mr. Barton’s book we read the following written by Jefferson:
“Under the law of nature, all men are born free. Everyone comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of Nature.”
“The abolition of domestic slavery is the greatest object of desire in those colonies where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state [by Britain]. But previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa. Yet our repeated attempts to effect this . . . have been hitherto defeated by His Majesty’s negative [veto].
Jefferson wrote an antislavery clause for the Declaration of Independence, but it was deleted. In 1778 Jefferson introduced a bill to the Virginia legislature to ban the importation of slaves from other countries, and it passed without opposition.
While there are several other issues covered in Mr. Barton’s book, space will not permit me to address them all here. But, the most important issue, I think, is the one claiming Jefferson to be an atheist. On page 189 of Mr. Barton’s book we find the following:
“So what conclusions can be made about Jefferson’s spiritual condition and whether or not he was a Christian? Well, Jefferson definitely called himself a Christian. For example, during the Restoration Movement he told his old friend Charles Thomson, ‘I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.’”
Do not put your trust in academia, the media, Hollywood, PBS or the History Channel for truth about our history. In this day and time, if you are not self-educated, then you are miseducated, or indoctrinated. As Mark Twain is reported to have said, “If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read it, you are misinformed”. The same goes for our “educational” institutions today.