University of Virginia: Walking Away with History
by Robert L. Pyles, MD
May 2023
On your tour, you would probably be expecting to hear about how Thomas Jefferson founded the University in 1819, as one of the earliest institutions of higher learning in our Country. You might be expecting to hear about Thomas Jefferson as one of our Founding Fathers, and especially as the author of the Declaration of Independence. You might hear that this document stands as one of the landmark beacons of freedom and liberty, admired and emulated over many nations ever since. You might also learn that Jefferson’s architectural genius still shines brightly in both the academic village of the University and his beautiful home, Monticello. You might also learn how, as America’s third president, Jefferson quadrupled the size of our country with the Louisiana Purchase, sending Lewis and Clark across the largely unknown West, aided by their invaluable native American guide, Sacajawea. And finally, you might learn of the unique history and tradition of the University’s “Honor System”, administered and preserved by the students themselves.
If those were your expectations, you would be in for a shock. The many U Va. students who volunteer to give these tours are required to go through an intensive preparatory program, which sounds a lot more like indoctrination, than education. There are a number of courses and lectures, presided over by a massive, 500 page training manual, which makes for some pretty stunning reading.
To hit some of the high (or low) points, it is asserted that the land that Jefferson chose to build the University upon was forcefully stolen from the rightful owners, the Monacan Tribe of Native Americans. Then, Jefferson used cruelly enforced slave labor to make the bricks, and construct the buildings of both the University and Monticello. The architectural designs for both the academic village and Monticello were not original in any way, but were in fact, pilfered from architects of earlier eras.
It is stated, as a fact, that Jefferson had children by one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings, even though historians have repeatedly asserted that there is no convincing proof of this. Jefferson is presented as a hard core slave owner, and his writings to the contrary are completely ignored.
In fact, Jefferson’s understanding that the failure of the Constitutional Convention to deal with the issue of slavery, and his prediction that our country would suffer in the future for that failure, is in fact literally graven in stone on his Memorial: “I weep for my country when I reflect that God is just”. Not a word about that in this document.
There is scant mention of the Declaration of Independence, and when there is, there is again the repeated assertion that there is nothing original in it. The ideas were all stolen from earlier writers. No mention at all of the massive influence across the world of the Declaration, and the country it helped found.
The Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition are treated as one long plot to destroy one Native American tribe after another, in order to take their land by force.
As a final bizarre note, the document features a picture, which looks to be possibly from the 1930’s, showing a group of white medical students standing over a table containing a black body, which they had apparently been dissecting. There follows a section on “grave-robbing”, the goal of which is to exhume black bodies, for this purpose.
There was a very impressive statue, near the University, depicting Lewis and Clark (both were local) with Sacajawea, placed there in 1919. There is also a statue of Jefferson, in front of the Rotunda, placed there in 1910. There has been great pressure to take them both down. The Lewis and Clark statue has succumbed to the “Woke” mob, and has been removed. The Jefferson one is still standing, barely. The bone tossed to the “Woke” mob was that a plaque will be added to the statue, depicting Jefferson as a slave owner.
The goal of these tours would seem to be to humiliate the memory of Thomas Jefferson, the University, and even the state of Virginia, as much as possible. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to go to the University after having one of these tours, and many have so decided. However, the academic reputation of the University is such that the ratio of applications to acceptances is still 10 to 1.
I am not sure how long this “Woke” religion is going to last, but like many such mob hysterias, I hope it will eventually run its course. Perhaps someday, sanity will return, our history and traditions will again be valued, and perhaps these symbols of freedom and liberty can be restored.
More here and here.
__________________________
Among other credits, Dr. Pyles served as President of the American Psychoanalytic Association and was awarded the honor of “Distinguished Life Fellow” of the American Psychiatric Association.
by Robert L. Pyles, MD
May 2023
- “Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.”
― George Orwell, 1984
On your tour, you would probably be expecting to hear about how Thomas Jefferson founded the University in 1819, as one of the earliest institutions of higher learning in our Country. You might be expecting to hear about Thomas Jefferson as one of our Founding Fathers, and especially as the author of the Declaration of Independence. You might hear that this document stands as one of the landmark beacons of freedom and liberty, admired and emulated over many nations ever since. You might also learn that Jefferson’s architectural genius still shines brightly in both the academic village of the University and his beautiful home, Monticello. You might also learn how, as America’s third president, Jefferson quadrupled the size of our country with the Louisiana Purchase, sending Lewis and Clark across the largely unknown West, aided by their invaluable native American guide, Sacajawea. And finally, you might learn of the unique history and tradition of the University’s “Honor System”, administered and preserved by the students themselves.
If those were your expectations, you would be in for a shock. The many U Va. students who volunteer to give these tours are required to go through an intensive preparatory program, which sounds a lot more like indoctrination, than education. There are a number of courses and lectures, presided over by a massive, 500 page training manual, which makes for some pretty stunning reading.
To hit some of the high (or low) points, it is asserted that the land that Jefferson chose to build the University upon was forcefully stolen from the rightful owners, the Monacan Tribe of Native Americans. Then, Jefferson used cruelly enforced slave labor to make the bricks, and construct the buildings of both the University and Monticello. The architectural designs for both the academic village and Monticello were not original in any way, but were in fact, pilfered from architects of earlier eras.
It is stated, as a fact, that Jefferson had children by one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings, even though historians have repeatedly asserted that there is no convincing proof of this. Jefferson is presented as a hard core slave owner, and his writings to the contrary are completely ignored.
In fact, Jefferson’s understanding that the failure of the Constitutional Convention to deal with the issue of slavery, and his prediction that our country would suffer in the future for that failure, is in fact literally graven in stone on his Memorial: “I weep for my country when I reflect that God is just”. Not a word about that in this document.
There is scant mention of the Declaration of Independence, and when there is, there is again the repeated assertion that there is nothing original in it. The ideas were all stolen from earlier writers. No mention at all of the massive influence across the world of the Declaration, and the country it helped found.
The Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition are treated as one long plot to destroy one Native American tribe after another, in order to take their land by force.
As a final bizarre note, the document features a picture, which looks to be possibly from the 1930’s, showing a group of white medical students standing over a table containing a black body, which they had apparently been dissecting. There follows a section on “grave-robbing”, the goal of which is to exhume black bodies, for this purpose.
There was a very impressive statue, near the University, depicting Lewis and Clark (both were local) with Sacajawea, placed there in 1919. There is also a statue of Jefferson, in front of the Rotunda, placed there in 1910. There has been great pressure to take them both down. The Lewis and Clark statue has succumbed to the “Woke” mob, and has been removed. The Jefferson one is still standing, barely. The bone tossed to the “Woke” mob was that a plaque will be added to the statue, depicting Jefferson as a slave owner.
The goal of these tours would seem to be to humiliate the memory of Thomas Jefferson, the University, and even the state of Virginia, as much as possible. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to go to the University after having one of these tours, and many have so decided. However, the academic reputation of the University is such that the ratio of applications to acceptances is still 10 to 1.
I am not sure how long this “Woke” religion is going to last, but like many such mob hysterias, I hope it will eventually run its course. Perhaps someday, sanity will return, our history and traditions will again be valued, and perhaps these symbols of freedom and liberty can be restored.
More here and here.
__________________________
Among other credits, Dr. Pyles served as President of the American Psychoanalytic Association and was awarded the honor of “Distinguished Life Fellow” of the American Psychiatric Association.