(bright rousing music) - My name is Robert Weathers.

I portray George Wythe, the nation builder George Wythe, the gentleman who is famous for being the tutor of Thomas Jefferson.

He's also a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

And he becomes the first law professor in all of North America.

He's the most important man you've never heard of.

He is a gentleman of the Enlightenment.

He is regarded to be the foremost legal and classical scholar of his age.

And his influence is so incredible that I can guarantee you his influence is affecting you right now.

(bright rousing music) (hooves clopping) My name is George Wythe.

I've been active in Williamsburg politics for some years now, but I will confess it to you, the greatest office that I have ever held was as an educator of young men in the law.

It is my students who are my legacy; that I might utilize my efforts and my knowledge to improve their lives.

It is my belief and still my hope that they will do the same for others.

And it has been my business to pass on to them an understanding that their education is unending.

That no man holds the answer to all things.

(dramatic music) He comes to really care and love those who are reading with him.

Jefferson is the first to come into the household, his most famous student, no doubt.

But by the time Jefferson leaves the house, they are fast friends.

They are buddies.

And Jefferson will later in life refer to him as his mentor in youth and friend throughout life.

And Wythe will return that verbiage by calling him his best friend.

And so without a doubt, when you are studying with George Wythe as Thomas Jefferson in the 1760s, and you're learning about these natural rights that have been granted to us, not by any human authority, but by that which is supreme to all things, and you see those infringements over the course of time, it naturally will incline you to question those things, those actions in particular, and to question whether or not those men who have held that supposedly natural authority over Virginia for 150 years, genuinely, are holding up their end of the bargain.

Our rights are not granted by any monarch or by any human authority whatsoever, but rather they are granted by nature.

Hence, natural right.

And so as a result, when we look at our natural rights and we say, "Well, people are naturally entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit and acquisition of property," or as Jefferson would write, "the pursuit of happiness," it is without a doubt that the crown and parliament of Great Britain from the 1760s into the 1770s infringes on every single one of these, these being mind you, the most basic rights.

(dramatic music) I should like to see the republic subsist.

It will be necessary, though, to instill those notions of virtue upon the public.

The sovereign must be concerned with the liberty of every individual within the jurisdiction.

(tense rousing music) If you are a fan of true crime, you're gonna love the story of the demise of George Wythe.

Wythe was living in Richmond in 1806 and living with him was his great nephew, a man by the name of George Wythe Sweeney.

He's named for him.

Can you believe it?

Sweeney has this terrible debt.

He needs to have it solved.

He forges a couple hundred dollars checks, and that's not enough.

And then he decides to go forward with the poisoning.

Mr.

Sweeney one morning comes into the kitchen, and Lydia Broadnax was a formerly enslaved woman of George Wythe who does continue to serve him.

And she's how we know what happened that day.

Lydia is in the kitchen making Wythe's breakfast.

Sweeney comes in, he sits down, has a cup of coffee out of the pot, drinks his coffee, and then Lydia sees him fiddling with the pot in some fashion.

Wythe drank from the pot.

Michael Brown, who was living with Wythe at the time, drinks from the pot.

And Lydia drinks from the pot.

All three of them fall ill.

And it's a significant illness.

While he's laying on his deathbed, Wythe changes his will.

He writes out George Wythe Sweeney, leaves the bulk of his estate to his other great nieces and nephews, and leaves parts of his estate also to Michael Brown and to Lydia Broadnax.

Well, unfortunately, Michael Brown succumbs to the poisoning about a week into it.

Wythe will linger for two weeks.

But Lydia will survive.

Sweeney is taken up.

He's taken up and charge with murder of his great uncle.

The principal piece of evidence against Sweeney is Lydia's testimony, but there's a problem.

In 1806, a Black person cannot testify against a white person in a Virginia court.

So Sweeney walks.

He is acquitted.

(dramatic music) George Wythe dies at 1806, and his influence is so incredible that when he passes, the President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General of the United States, the Attorney General of Virginia, the President of the College of William & Mary, two United States senators are all students of George Wythe.

- [Announcer] This has been Revolution 250: Stories From The First Shore.

To learn more about this and other events of the Revolutionary Age of America, visit whro.org/usa250.