Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

The third president of the United States, a diplomat, statesman, architect,

scientist, and philosopher, Thomas Jefferson is one of the most eminent

figures in American history. No leader in the period of the American

Enlightenment was as articulate, wise, or conscious of the implications and

consequences of a free society as Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, a tobacco

plantation in Virginia. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a self-made

success, and although uneducated he was a very intelligent man. His mother,

Jane Randolph was a member of one of the most distinguished families in

Virginia . Peter Jefferson died when Thomas was 14 and left him valuable

lands and property. Denied a formal education himself, he directed that his

son be given complete classical training. He studied with Reverend Mr.

Maury, a classical scholar, for two years and in 1760 he attended William

and Mary College.

After graduating from William and Mary in 1762, Jefferson studied law for

five years under George Wythe. In January of 1772, he married Martha Wayles

Skelton and established a residence at Monticello. When they moved to

Monticello, only a small one room building was completed. Jefferson was

thirty when he began his political career. He was elected to the Virginia

House of Burgess in 1769, where his first action was an unsuccessful bill

allowing owners to free their slaves.

The impending crisis in British-Colonial relations overshadowed routine

affairs of legislature. In 1774, the first of the Intolerable Acts closed

the port of Boston until Massachusetts paid for the Boston Tea Party of the

preceding year. Jefferson and other younger members of the Virgini...

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...ound it very interesting that of all the

accomplishments that Jefferson listed on his headstone he apparently did

not think it important enough to mention that he had been twice elected and

served as president of the United States.

Bibliography

Daugherty, Sonia. Thomas Jefferson: Fighter for Freedom and Human

Rights. New York:

Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1961.

Koch, Adrienne, and William Peden. The Life and Selected Writings

Of Thomas Jefferson.

New York: Random House Publishers, 1993.

McLaughlin, Jack. Jefferson and Monticello The Biography Of A

Builder. 1st ed. New

York: Henry Holt and Company Publishers, 1988.

Randall, Willard Sterne. Thomas Jefferson A Life. 1st ed. New York: Henry Holt and

Company Publishers, 1993.

Smith, Page. Jefferson A Revealing Biography. New York: American

Heritage Publishing Company, 1976.