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WHO DOES A PORTRAYAL OF JEFFERSON?
> I was at Williamsburg on Sunday, March the 26th and had the pleasure to hear > a man who portrays Jefferson. I was very impressed. > I have looked on the Williamsburg site to find the man's real name, but I > could not find it. I did find your name listed on answers to questions on > Jefferson and I followed a link to your web site. > I must ask if you are the gentleman who does the Jefferson portrayal ? I am not the person you seek. I have been told that the person who does the portrayal of Jefferson at Williamsburg is a Mr. Bill Barker. I understand there are several people who do portrayals of Thomas Jefferson, but the person best known for that is Clay Jenkinson. He has a website at http://www.th-jefferson.org And I'm sure you could get an email address from that website. > I consider myself a student of Jefferson's life and I find him to be one of > the most brilliant men to have ever lived. On that we agree. I also believe he is unquestionably the GREATEST political thinker by far. > The person that interpreted > Jefferson on the day I was at Williamsburg was excellent and I truly felt I > was in the presence of Mr. Jefferson. Although I have not seen Clay Jenkinson's performance, I did see him on Ken Burn's special on Jefferson, which was on PBS sometime last year. My own feeling is, there are few people indeed who capture the true spirit of Jefferson, based on my own study of his writings. I am especially suspicious of persons, whether historians or portrayers, who present Jefferson as inconsistent or inscrutable. I am convinced that many who present him as such do so because they do not truly understand Jefferson, and therefore he appears that way to them. > I have one or two questions to ask the person that does the character of > Jefferson. I could not ask the questions while at Williamsburg, as he was > in character and I wanted to ask the real person and not Mr. Jefferson. If Bill Barker is not the man you are looking for, it is probable that the staff at the Jenkinson website could direct you to the correct person.