American Scripture

Pauline Maier (1938-2013) was a historian whose work focused on the American Revolution and the Colonial period in American history. From 1978 until she died in 2013, she was the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In addition to American Scripture, she is the author of several other books about the American Revolution and the founding of the United States, including From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain (1972) and Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 (2010). She identified herself as a revisionist and neo-Whig historian, indicating that she saw it as her mission to correct myths and fallacies in the prevailing narrative of US history. An obituary about her in the New York Times was entitled “Pauline Maier, historian who described Jefferson as 'overrated,' dies at 75” (14 Aug. 2013).

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the third president of the United States and the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Tall, soft-spoken, educated, and wealthy, Jefferson was the owner of a Virginia plantation that ran on enslaved labor, making his declaration that “all men are created equal” contentious from the start.