A Brief Biography of Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia on April 2, 1743, according to Old Style; however it is celebrated on April 13th because of the shift to the Gregorian calendar. He had a total of 9 siblings, he had 6 sisters and 3 brothers, and he was the fourth of the eldest males. (Thomas Jefferson- A biography, 1957 p.10) Thomas Jefferson was chosen to be the author of the Declaration of Independence’s first draft. John Adams appointed him as the writer because of his “happy talent for composition and singular felicity of expression.” In only 17 days, Thomas Jefferson drafted “one of the most beautiful and powerful testaments to liberty and equality in world history.” Thomas Jefferson will be forever honored as one of the great American Founding Fathers. (www.biography.com) Thomas Jefferson was also the third president of the United States and he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with France which doubled the size of the United States.
Education
His early education was from tutors at home and Anglican clergymen. His father enrolled him in different schools so he could learn new languages, “in a letter to Philadelphia publisher Joseph Delaplaine on April 12, 1817, Jefferson claimed to read and write six languages: Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, and English.” (http://en.wikipedia.org) Thomas Jefferson enrolled in the College of William & Mary on March 25, 1760, at the age of sixteen; here he was taught by William Small. He was a very diligent student; he would spend up to fifteen hours a day studying. John Page of Rosewell was his closest friend in college; he said that Jefferson “could tear himself away from his dearest friends, to fly to his studies.” Two years later he finished his studies and since there w...

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...he decided to go ahead with the purchase anyways; his goal was to remove France’s presence in the region and to protect both access to the New Orleans port and free passage on the Mississippi River. (http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/jefferson.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase)
He then retired from office in 1808, but continued working in private and eventually reunited with his friend James Madison to establish the University of Virginia in 1819. He passed away in 1826, shortly before his passing he told Madison that “he wished to be remembered for two things only; as the Author of the Declaration of Independence, and as the founder of the University of Virginia. Jefferson died on the 4th of July, as the nation celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his splendid Declaration. (http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/jefferson.htm)

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