How is this site organized?

The extensive materials that make up the Thomas Jackson Collection have been organized in two separate but related websites.

In this first section (ThomasJacksonHighlights.com), we have put together an introduction to the Highlights of the most interesting and inspiring ingredients that make up the Thomas Jackson Story. Then for those who wish to explore our comprehensive archive of the Entire Collection of materials that we have unearthed that relate to Thomas Jackson, his experiences of the American Civil War and his attitudes to slavery, we offer a separate site (currently thomasjacksonletters.com).

The reason for us presenting a separate introductory section is a reflection of our primary purpose that has been driving our studies over all these years. We have always found that sharing our findings with members of the general public, especially with those who would never consider themselves historians, always generates enthusiastic responses. That may in part be because such people reflect the background of people like us, the Ambassadors of Thomas Jackson.

Frankly, it was almost by chance against our intentions that we stumbled into the task of sorting out the significance of this extensive collection. Yet time and again we discovered all manner of details from life in those days that we never knew about called out to us through our busy modern day lives impacting our hearts and minds in ways that we had never anticipated. Most of all, Thomas Jackson’s experiences made us far more aware and empathetic and be willing to listen and learn as we observed many of the racial issues of contemporary life.

Similarly, we have found that many members of the public who never anticipated that reading these documents would change their lives are the very ones who have been most enthusiastic about encouraging us to make the basics of the Thomas Jackson story readily available digitally so many others may be similarly impacted. With new insights, they too recognize the possible connections between the traumas of Black slaves in America and the racial divides that still exist in contemporary politics.

We have no illusions that having Thomas Jackson’s passionate accounts as a personal guide to life in those times will alter many people’s political opinions in our polarized society (2021). However, we hope to be just one more drop in the ocean making all of us more aware of what folk saw and felt back then and just possibly making us all more mutually accepting.