VIRGINIA STATUTE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
CURRICULUM

Found in his papers on the back of an old letter were Jefferson’s instructions for his monument and the inscription to be placed on it.   Teacher Note


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“On the grave a plain die or cube of three feet without any mouldings, surmounted by an obelisk of six feet height, each of a single stone; on the faces of the obelisk the following inscription, and not a word more:

HERE WAS BURIED
THOMAS JEFFERSON
AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 
OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM,
AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA;

because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish to be remembered.”

I.  What is a testimonial?

II.  On construction paper, create an illustration based on Jefferson’s description for his monument.
Teacher Note

III.  List these three achievements of Jefferson’s on the board and assign students to each category.  Task the students with researching the achievement and making a list of suggested reasons for Jefferson wanting to be remembered for this achievement.

Have each group list on the board their suggestions.

Discuss with the class the importance of these three achievements; what they represent today, and how life in American might be different if these three achievements had not occurred.

IV.  Have students make a list of their accomplishments and ask which ones they would want to use as a testimonial of their life.

V.  Jefferson wrote a Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in the State of Virginia on June 12, 1776.   The Bill was presented to the Virginia General Assembly in 1779 for consideration.  After debate, action was postponed.  Under James Madison's guidance, the bill was revived and passed as a statute in January 1786. Using the Written Document Analysis Worksheet, analyze the 1779 document written by Jefferson.  
Teacher Note

VI.  Have students look up the following words that appear in Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom and rewrite the sentence using the replacement words:

antagonist

coercions

ecclesiastical

emolument

hypocrisy

impious

incapacitation

infallible

infringement

insusceptible

involuntarily

irrevocable

manifested

propagate

proscribing

 supposition

tyrannical

VII. Have students in their own words write what they think Jefferson was trying to express in this document.

VIII.  Compare Jefferson’s original wording with the actual document passed by Congress.  What was deleted from his original document?  What was added?  Can you find any significant changes in the document? How do you think Jefferson felt about these changes to his work? 
Teacher Note 1 |  Teacher Note 2

IX.  Using the date of June 1776 as a cut off date for research, assign students a colony to research the religious groups in that colony.  Have each group put their colony on the board and list the religions practiced in the colony, explaining about each religion.  Using the information on the board students should complete the Comparing the Colonies Worksheet [pdf].  Further research may be needed to complete the worksheet (founding date, founder, etc.).  Using the map of the colonies have students label the colonies, prepare a legend for the religious groups, and illustrate such on the map.  
Teacher Note

X. Assign students a colony. Using the Declaration of Independence, have students discover the names of those individual(s) from their colony who signed the document. Students should then do research to discover the religious affiliation of these men.
Teacher Note

XI.  Current Event: Associated Press article about J. Gordon Melton of the Institute for the Study of American Religion

Using information from the Institute for the Study of American Religion, determine:

  • Which country is the most religiously diverse nation in the world?

  • When did the majority of American public become church members for the first time?

  • According to the newest edition of J. Gordon Melton’s “Encyclopedia of American Religions” there are how many religious groups in U.S. and Canada?  

XII. Using the biographies of Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, and Roger Williams, make a list of the beliefs they had in common. Place their births, distinguished writings, and deaths on a time line. Using the time line, determine if their lives overlapped and if they in any way might have influenced one another.
Teacher Note

XIII. On January 1, 1802 Jefferson wrote to Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins and Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist Association in the state of Connecticut, “Believing...that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their Legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”  Complete transcription of letter.

Have the students research the issue of “a wall of separation of Church and State”. Form teams and have the students debate the pros and cons. Students should include in their debate any Supreme Court decisions they feel assist in their point of view.

Click here to view information on the Positions of the Separation Debate
 

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