Thomas Jefferson, the Third President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, would have most likely been diagnosed in today’s age with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Here are some traits that support this theory:
- He was an unable to deliver speeches or oral arguments as eloquent as he was able to write them
- He avoided looking directly into people’s eye when addressing them, to the point that Alexander Hamilton regarded him as “shifty-eyed”
- He was highly sensitive to loud noises and had difficulty relating to others
- He had a fascination with books and had the largest personal collection of books at the time, almost 6,500 volumes
- He also build and rebuild his Monticello house and kept a record of everything that happened in his property including weather reports.
Neither Asperger’s or Autism terms existed in his time, but it doesn’t mean that there weren’t people who were in the Autism Spectrum already, many of his traits in today’s age would likely have place him in the Autism Spectrum.
References:
https://www.monticello.org/site/blog-and-community/5-surprising-facts-about-thomas-jefferson
http://mentalfloss.com/article/554381/thomas-jefferson-facts
https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/thomas-jefferson
Norm Ledgin, author of Diagnosing Jefferson
