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Biography of Thomas Jefferson

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Although Thomas Jefferson has some dark history that includes slave ownership and relocation of native Americans, he deserves to be called one of the great founding fathers of the United States as an author of the declaration of independence, a fighter for equal rights, and a polymath. As the main author of the declaration of independence he made sure that the words "all men are created equal” (Freidel and Sidey) were included. As a fighter for equal rights, in his first Inaugural address Thomas Jefferson stated: “All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.” (A&E Networks Television) A polymath is “a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas” (dictionary.com), which is definitely a definition of Thomas Jefferson. Polymaths are known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems.
Thomas Jefferson also had some dark history. Thomas Jefferson owned many slaves. When Thomas was 14 his father died and left him a 3,000 acre slave plantation with about 30 slaves. At one point he owned up to 600 slaves. There are many people that say Mr. Jefferson may have had a long term relationship with one of his female slaves, Sally Hemmings. It seems that most people agree that they had several children together. It is hard now to imagine what it would have been like to grow up on a slave plantation and to inherit ownership of slaves. Thomas Jefferson must have had many feelings of slavery through the years. Maybe some of the things that he saw on his own plantatio...

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"Thomas Jefferson biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. ."Thomas Jefferson biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .
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