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Thomas Jefferson declares that "Americans'" right to independence is based on their Saxon ancestry.

1774

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Jefferson ties the founding of America as an independent nation to a specifically Saxon history, focusing on the values of liberty and independence that he believes emerged from the "suffering" of his Saxon ancestors during the Norman conquest. He claims "racial purity," claiming that the Saxons always resisted the Roman, and then Norman, influences. Jefferson will go on to found the University of Virginia in 1818–the only university in the U.S. to teach the Anglo-Saxon language.