On this episode of Our American Stories, John Ragosta of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello shares the story of how religious persecution in colonial Virginia gave rise to one of America’s defining principles. As Baptist ministers were jailed and dissenters taxed to support the established church, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison joined forces with evangelical Christians to defeat state-supported religion. Their victory, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, helped shape the constitutional separation of church and state. The most astonishing thing about it all, however, was that Jefferson wasn't a normal believer.

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