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To look at David Barton, you would think he is a reasonable fellow, but then he opens his mouth and you wonder where on earth his ideas come from. His notion that the Jefferson Bible was some attempt to simplify the Bible for the Indians is a joke. One can draw on Jefferson's own letters to see he had a hard time coming to terms with the Bible, preferring to cull from it what he considered relevant to a discussion on ethics. "The whole history of these books [the Gospels] is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, January 24, 1814 Jefferson was a classicist, with a huge library at Monticello devoted to his studies. He had little interest in converting the "natives." He was more concerned with elevating the intellectual life of America, which is why he established the University of Virginia. Mr. Barton would like us to believe in "Lie #2" that Jefferson did not intend this to be a secular school, but rather faith-based, which better suits Barton's own religious temperament. He discards all the classical references which abound in any conventional telling of the founding of the university, choosing instead to focus exclusively on religious aspects. You would think you were reading about Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. We all know that Barton has an agenda, which includes reshaping the founding fathers in his evangelical religious view of the world. There are so many anthologies available of Jefferson's writings that one doesn't need Barton to interpret them for you. Thomas Jefferson : Writings : Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters (Library of America) is a good place to start, or you can check any number of online sources, such as the Jefferson collection at the University of Virginia. As for the Sally Hemings story, there is no clear consensus on whether Jefferson fathered children by her, and besides this is the least of the disconcerting "myths" that surround Jefferson. His biggest problem was that he was persistently in debt and had to use his slaves as collateral to keep Monticello going. This is well documented in his own farm records. In the end, his estate along with the vast majority of his slaves had to be sold at auction to cover his debts. Only a handful of slaves saw freedom, despite having offered manumission in his will. Better to read Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder Of course, this isn't new for Barton. After all, this is the author of The Bulletproof George Washington. His "unconfirmed quotations," in which he literally put words in the founding fathers' mouths, have gone viral. He defends himself by saying that these unconfirmed quotes are "consistent" with the "views" of the founding fathers. David Barton is no historian. You can check him out at Wallbuilders, an apt title. He is a Texas evangelist, whose sum total of education is a degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University. He isn't concerned with facts, but rather with reshaping history to suit his religious conservative agenda. He comes from a long line of such "scholars," dating back to Samuel Wordsworth Bailey, author of Homage of Eminent Persons to the Book, from which Barton draws for a few of his "quotes" on Jefferson. Bailey was a mid-19th century evangelist, an early "wallbuilder," who had a habit of putting words in the mouths of eminent persons.