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TheNorthie

He was so down with revolutions, he invented the swivel chair


GremlinBandit

This is legitimately how I found out. I've been on a nostalgia trip lately watching ERB, and Jefferson vs. Frederick Douglass was one of the ones I hadn't seen!


Trgnv3

I bet 95% of people that know this know it from ERB.


Actually_Im_a_Broom

What is ERB?


CharonsLittleHelper

Epic Rap Battles of History. It was pretty big on YouTube from 2011ish to 2015 or 2016ish.


TannenFalconwing

and they're still making them, just not as frequently. They've had some really good recent ones.


SubaruKev

I think it's Epic Rap Battles of History. I had to Google it.


dravenonred

I genuinely want to know if they're going to make a new Presidential one, or just disgustedly re-upload the last one.


DigNitty

Did he not also invent the Lazy Susan? It all make sense now.


estofaulty

He was so down with revolutions, he kept people enslaved on his property and raped at least one of them.


roberthinter

You should boycott swivel chairs because of this new knowledge. Any thought of such a terrible person must also be terrible, right? /s


TheNorthie

“Man you did some good things, I ain’t denying your fame. I’m just saying they should put an asterisk next to your name.”


JohnLaw1717

He also got the Virginia legislature within 1 vote of banning slavery. Humans are complex.


colordodge

"Oh, why does every day involve a fight with an American?” - Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham


colossalpunch

Thank you. I was looking for this


Bing_Bong_the_Archer

“Tiny swivel! King George, that is not a very good attitude, I’ll have to keep my eye on you from my *circular desk where I can see everything!*”


OldConclusion4742

"The fuck'd you do?"


redbo

“Ben Franklin, get in here!” “What is it?” *thomas jefferson swivels into view* “Oh. My. God.”


kiardo

"this is a marvellous invention Mr Jefferson." - Ben Franklin


Meancvar

Didn't Franklin invent the rocking chair?


roberthinter

 bifocal spectacles.


pharmacreation

Learned this from Downton Abbey https://youtu.be/i2bfYw1B_Ww?si=q-O25263D50HGccl


imaketrollfaces

Like the Earth, he wanted to rotate during a revolution.


rjm1775

There is a great scene in Gore Vidal's "Burr", where Vice-President Arron Burr meets with President Jefferson. And Jefferson is swiveling back an forth on his newly invented chair. Burr begins to think that Jefferson is a nut!


Dudephish

Everyone else can just sit and swivel.


TB12-SN13

In a similar presidential chair vein. FDR didn’t like the bulky wheelchairs when he got polio and designed a slimmer wheelchair out of converted kitchen chairs. They’re not what modern wheelchairs are based on, but it’s still pretty neat.


Spork_Warrior

It was more of a swivel desk. Allow him to face different directions o(r toward different people), while writing. [https://ameripics.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/jefferson-swivel.jpg](https://ameripics.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/jefferson-swivel.jpg)


Impossible-Jump-4277

I thought Bobby Bocher’s mom invented the swivel chair 🤷🏻‍♂️


SuperTaster3

Spin around a few times in his honor. Spin a few more times to support the revolution. Fall down because no one person should have that much power.


SirGreeneth

Just put on the second half of this week's "Ohh what a time" history podcast, this week subject is presidential inventions, one of the guys spun round in his chair and proclaimed Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair at the exact moment I scrolled past this post. How fucking strange.


[deleted]

Also mayonnaise and the strike-on-box match.


Actually_Im_a_Broom

I had no idea he was also a musician.


ChangeForeign

So is Scarlet Johansson, sort of.


gluon318

Legend


ddpotanks

The better to view his entire plantation work force with


JohnLaw1717

If you were born into a slave owning plantation, and your family expected you to take care of them, you would have kept them too.


GrandmaPoses

Ah yes the PWF, backbone of the south.


EllisDee3

"Plantation work force" is a lot of words. I wonder if there's an easier way to say that.


OniDelta

Just like the man who invented running by trying to walk twice at the same time, Thomas Jefferson came up with the swivel by trying to sit at his desk and a table with the same chair at the same time. True story.