Scholars have written a great deal about Thomas Jefferson's tortured thinking about race and the nature of racial difference in recent years. But Jefferson was not the only one who wrestled with these questions. During the Jeffersonian era (1770-1840) Americans debated the meaning of race in statehouses, churches, and newspapers across the country. How did Americans' ideas about race and ethnicity inform other important questions in the Jeffersonian era? How did their ideas, for example, shape the discussion of issues like slavery, Indian policy, expansion, or national identity?
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