Revealed: The Italian Hand In America's Founding!

Before America had a Constitution, it needed words, ideas, and a vision of what a republic could look like. 

These Italians gave it all three.

Filippo Mazzei lived next door to Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, and the two men spent years exchanging ideas about liberty and government. Mazzei's own writing, "all men are by nature equally free and independent," is widely credited as the inspiration behind Jefferson's "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence.

While Mazzei gave the founders their words, Gaetano Filangieri gave them a framework. His major work, "The Science of Legislation," reached Benjamin Franklin directly, and his ideas on law and government shaped political thought during the founding era.

Andrea Palladio never set foot in America. He lived two centuries before the Revolution. But his classical architectural style became the visual language of the young republic. Jefferson studied his work closely, and that influence can still be seen in Monticello, the University of Virginia, and the federal buildings that define American government today.

Words, ideas, and vision. Italians and Italian Americans helped shape this nation from its very first chapter.

The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is a proud Supporting Partner of America250 honoring the generations of Italians and Italian Americans who have shaped our nation.