10 interesting facts about thomas jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Founding Father, 3rd U.S. president ( to )
This article is about the third president of the United States. For other uses, see Thomas Jefferson (disambiguation).
Thomas Jefferson | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, | |
| In office March 4, &#;– March 4, | |
| Vice President | |
| Preceded by | John Adams |
| Succeeded by | James Madison |
| In office March 4, &#;– March 4, | |
| President | John Adams |
| Preceded by | John Adams |
| Succeeded by | Aaron Burr |
| In office March 22, &#;– December 31, | |
| President | George Washington |
| Preceded by | John Jay (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Edmund Randolph |
| In office May 17, &#;– September 26, | |
| Appointed by | Confederation Congress |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Franklin |
| Succeeded by | William Short |
| In office May 7, &#;– May 11, | |
| Appointed by | Confederation Congress |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| In office June 6, &#;– May 7, | |
| Preceded by | James Madison |
| Succeeded by | Richard Henry Lee |
| In office June 1, &#;– June 3, | |
| Preceded by | Patrick Henry |
| Succeeded by | William Fleming |
| In office October 7, &#;– May 30, | |
| Preceded by | Charles Lewis |
| Succeeded by | George Gilmer, Jr. |
| In office December 10–22, | |
| Preceded by | Isaac Davis |
| Succeeded by | James Marks |
| In office June 20, &#;– September 26, | |
| Preceded by | George Washington |
| Succeeded by | John Harvie |
| In office May 11, [2]&#;– June 1, [3] | |
| Preceded by | Edward Carter[3] |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Born | ()April 13, Shadwell Plantation, Goochland (now in Albemarle County) Virginia Colony |
| Died | July 4, () (aged&#;83) Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. |
| Resting place | Monticello, Virginia |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Spouse | Martha Wayles &#; &#; (m.&#;; died&#;)&#; |
| Children | |
| Parents | |
| Alma mater | College of William & Mary |
| Occupation | |
| Signature | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | Virginia militia |
| Years&#;of service | – |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Unit | Albemarle County Militia |
| Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War |
Philosophy career | |
| Notable work | |
| Era | Age of Enlightenment |
| Region | |
| School | |
| Institutions | American Philosophical Society |
Main interests | |
Notable ideas | |
Thomas Jefferson (April 13&#;[O.S.
Thomas jefferson biography for kids The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. Thomas Jefferson, a spokesman for democracy, was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and the third President of the United States — This powerful advocate of liberty was born in in Albemarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5, acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. In he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.April 2], – July 4, ) was an American Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from to [6] He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Following the American Revolutionary War and before becoming president in , Jefferson was the nation's first U.S. secretary of state under George Washington and then the nation's second vice president under John Adams.
Jefferson was a leading proponent of democracy, republicanism, and natural rights, and he produced formative documents and decisions at the state, national, and international levels.
Jefferson was born into the Colony of Virginia's planter class, dependent on slave labor. During the American Revolution, Jefferson represented Virginia at the Second Continental Congress.
Thomas jefferson
Thomas Jefferson , author of the Declaration of Independence and the third U. During the American Revolutionary War , Jefferson served in the Virginia legislature and the Continental Congress and was governor of Virginia. He later served as U. During his two terms in office , the U. Although Jefferson promoted individual liberty, he also enslaved over six hundred people throughout his life.He served as the second governor of revolutionary Virginia from to In , Congress appointed Jefferson U.S. minister to France, where he served from to President Washington then appointed Jefferson the nation's first secretary of state, where he served from to During this time, in the early s, Jefferson and political ally James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the nation's First Party System.
Jefferson and Federalist John Adams became both personal friends and political rivals. In the U.S. presidential election between the two, Jefferson came in second, which made him Adams' vice president under the electoral laws of the time. Four years later, in the presidential election, Jefferson again challenged Adams and won the presidency.
In , Jefferson was reelected overwhelmingly to a second term.
As president, Jefferson assertively defended the nation's shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies, promoted a western expansionist policy with the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the nation's geographic size, and was able to reduce military forces and expenditures following successful negotiations with France.
In his second presidential term, Jefferson was beset by difficulties at home, including the trial of his former vice president Aaron Burr. In , Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act to defend the nation's industries from British threats to U.S. shipping, limiting foreign trade and stimulating the birth of the American manufacturing industry.
Jefferson is ranked by both scholars and in public opinion among the upper tier of American presidents. Presidential scholars and historians praise Jefferson's public achievements, including his advocacy of religious freedom and tolerance, his peaceful acquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France, and his leadership in supporting the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
They acknowledge the fact of his lifelong ownership of large numbers of slaves and give differing interpretations of his views on and relationship with slavery.[7]
Early life and career
Main article: Early life and career of Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson was born on April 13, (April 2, , Old Style, Julian calendar), at the family's Shadwell Plantation in the British Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children.[8] He was of English and possibly Welsh descent, and was born a British subject.[9] His father, Peter Jefferson, was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen; his mother was Jane Randolph.[b] Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in on the death of William Randolph III, the plantation's owner and Jefferson's friend, who in his will had named Peter guardian of Randolph's children.
The Jeffersons returned to Shadwell before October [11]
Peter died in , and his estate was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph.[12]John Harvie Sr. became year-old Thomas' guardian.[13] Thomas inherited approximately 5, acres (2,&#;ha; &#;sq&#;mi), which included Monticello, and he assumed full legal authority over the property at age [14]
Education and early family life
Jefferson began his education together with the Randolph children at Tuckahoe under tutors.[15] Thomas' father Peter, who was self-taught and regretted not having a formal education, entered Thomas into an English school at age five.
In , at age nine, he attended a local school run by a Scottish Presbyterian minister and also began studying the natural world, which he grew to love. At this time he began studying Latin, Greek, and French, while learning to ride horses as well. Thomas also read books from his father's modest library.[16] He was taught from to by the Reverend James Maury near Gordonsville, Virginia, where he studied history, science, and the classics while boarding with Maury's family.[16][17] Jefferson came to know various American Indians, including the Cherokee chief Ostenaco, who often stopped at Shadwell to visit on their way to Williamsburg to trade.[18][19] In Williamsburg, the young Jefferson met and came to admire Patrick Henry, eight years his senior, and shared a common interest in the playing of the violin.[20]
Jefferson entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in , at the age of eighteen, and studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy with William Small.
Under Small's tutelage, Jefferson encountered the ideas of the British Empiricists, including John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton. Small introduced Jefferson to George Wythe and Francis Fauquier. Small, Wythe, and Fauquier recognized Jefferson as a man of exceptional ability and included him in their inner circle, where he became a regular member of their Friday dinner parties.
Jefferson later wrote that, while there, he "heard more common good sense, more rational & philosophical conversations than in all the rest of my life".[21]
During his first year at the college, Jefferson spent considerable time attending parties and dancing and was not very frugal with his expenditures; in his second year, regretting that he had squandered away time and money in his first year, he committed to studying fifteen hours a day.[22] While at William & Mary, Jefferson became a member of the Flat Hat Club.[23]
Jefferson concluded his formal studies in April [24] He read the law under Wythe's tutelage while working as a law clerk in his office.[25] Jefferson was well-read in a broad variety of subjects, which, along with law and philosophy, included history, natural law, natural religion, ethics, and several areas in science, including agriculture.
During his years of study under the watchful eye of Wythe, Jefferson authored a Commonplace Book, a survey of his extensive readings.[26] Wythe was so impressed with Jefferson that he later bequeathed his entire library to him.[27]
On July 20, , Jefferson's sister Martha married his close friend and college companion Dabney Carr, which was greatly pleasing to Jefferson.
In October of that year, however, Jefferson mourned his sister Jane's unexpected death at age 25; he wrote a farewell epitaph for her in Latin.[28]
Jefferson treasured his books and amassed three sizable libraries in his lifetime. He began assembling his first library, which grew to volumes, in his youth.
It included books inherited from his father and left to him by Wythe.[29] In , however, Jefferson's first library was destroyed in a fire at his Shadwell home. His second library replenished the first. It grew to 1, titles by , and to nearly 6, volumes by [30] Jefferson organized his books into three broad categories corresponding with elements of the human mind: memory, reason, and imagination.[31] After British forces burnt the Library of Congress during the Burning of Washington, Jefferson sold his second library to the U.S.
government for $23,, hoping to help jumpstart the Library of Congress's rebuilding.
Jefferson used a portion of the proceeds to pay off some of his large debt. However, Jefferson soon resumed collecting what amounted to his third personal library, writing to John Adams, "I cannot live without books."[32][33] By the time of his death a decade later, the library had grown to nearly 2, volumes.[34]
Lawyer and House of Burgesses
Jefferson was admitted to the Virginia bar in , and lived with his mother at Shadwell.[35] He represented Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Burgesses from until [36] He pursued reforms to slavery, including writing and sponsoring legislation in to strip power from the royal governor and courts, instead providing masters of slaves with the discretion to emancipate them.
Jefferson persuaded his cousin Richard Bland to spearhead the legislation's passage, but it faced strong opposition in a state whose economy was largely agrarian.[37]
Jefferson took seven cases of freedom-seeking enslaved people[38] and waived his fee for one he claimed should be freed before the minimum statutory age for emancipation.[39] Jefferson invoked natural law, arguing "everyone comes into the world with a right to his own person and using it at his own will&#; This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the author of nature, because it is necessary for his own sustenance." The judge cut him off and ruled against his client.
As a consolation, Jefferson gave his client some money, which was conceivably used to aid his escape shortly thereafter.[39] However, Jefferson's underlying intellectual argument that all people were entitled by their creator to what he labeled a "natural right" to liberty is one he would later incorporate as he set about authoring the Declaration of Independence.[40] He also took on 68 cases for the General Court of Virginia in , in addition to three notable cases: Howell v.
Thomas jefferson biography childhoods end The native Virginian was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and later held several national offices. During his two-term presidency, Jefferson doubled the size of the United States by successfully brokering the Louisiana Purchase and defeated pirates from North Africa during the Barbary War. In retirement, Jefferson founded the University of Virginia and continued work on his beloved Monticello estate. He died on the 50 th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence at age Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, , at the Shadwell plantation located just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.Netherland (), Bolling v. Bolling (), and Blair v. Blair ().[41]
Jefferson wrote a resolution calling for a "Day of Fasting and Prayer" and a boycott of all British goods in protest of the British Parliament passing the Intolerable Acts in Jefferson's resolution was later expanded into A Summary View of the Rights of British America, in which he argued that people have the right to govern themselves.[42]
Monticello, marriage, and family
In , Jefferson began constructing his primary residence, Monticello, whose name in Italian means "Little Mountain", on a hilltop overlooking his 5,acre (20&#;km2; &#;sq&#;mi) plantation.[c] He spent most of his adult life designing Monticello as an architect and was quoted as saying, "Architecture is my delight, and putting up, and pulling down, one of my favorite amusements."[44] Construction was done mostly by local masons and carpenters, assisted by Jefferson's slaves.[45] He moved into the South Pavilion in Turning Monticello into a neoclassical masterpiece in the Palladian style was his perennial project.[46]
On January 1, , Jefferson married his third cousin[47]Martha Wayles Skelton, the year-old widow of Bathurst Skelton.[48][49] She was a frequent hostess for Jefferson and managed the large household.
Biographer Dumas Malone described the marriage as the happiest period of Jefferson's life.[50] Martha read widely, did fine needlework, and was a skilled pianist; Jefferson often accompanied her on the violin or cello.[51] During their ten years of marriage, Martha bore six children: Martha "Patsy" (–); Jane Randolph (–); an unnamed son who lived for only a few weeks in ; Mary "Polly" (–); Lucy Elizabeth (–); and another Lucy Elizabeth (–).[52][d] Only Martha and Mary survived to adulthood.[55] Martha's father John Wayles died in , and the couple inherited enslaved people, 11, acres (45&#;km2; 17&#;sq&#;mi), and the estate's debts.
The debts took Jefferson years to satisfy, contributing to his financial problems.[48]
Martha later suffered from ill health, including diabetes, and frequent childbirth weakened her. Her mother had died young, and Martha lived with two stepmothers as a girl. A few months after the birth of her last child, she died on September 6, , with Jefferson at her bedside.
Shortly before her death, Martha made Jefferson promise never to marry again, telling him that she could not bear to have another mother raise her children.[56] Jefferson was grief-stricken by her death, relentlessly pacing back and forth. He emerged after three weeks, taking long rambling rides on secluded roads with his daughter Martha, by her description "a solitary witness to many a violent burst of grief".[55][57]
After serving as U.S.
Secretary of State from to during Washington's presidency, Jefferson returned to Monticello and initiated a remodeling based on architectural concepts he had learned and acquired in Europe. The work continued throughout most of his presidency and was completed in [58][59]
Revolutionary War
Declaration of Independence
Main article: United States Declaration of Independence
Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.[61] At age 33, he was one of the youngest delegates to the Second Continental Congress beginning in at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, where a formal declaration of independence from Britain was overwhelmingly favored.[62] Jefferson was inspired by the Enlightenment ideals of the sanctity of the individual, and the writings of Locke and Montesquieu.[63]
Jefferson sought out John Adams, a Continental Congress delegate from Massachusetts and an emerging leader in the Congress.[64] They became close friends, and Adams supported Jefferson's appointment to the Committee of Five, charged by the Congress with authoring a declaration of independence.
The five chosen were Adams, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. The committee initially thought that Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded the committee to choose Jefferson. His choice was due to Jefferson being a Virginian, popular, and being considered a good writer by Adams.[e]
Jefferson consulted with his fellow committee members, but mostly wrote the Declaration of Independence in isolation between June 11 and 28, , in a home he was renting at Market Street in Center City Philadelphia.[60] Jefferson drew considerably on his proposed draft of the Virginia Constitution, George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and other sources.[66] Other committee members made some changes, and a final draft was presented to Congress on June 28, [67]
The declaration was introduced on Friday, June 28, and Congress began debate over its contents on Monday, July 1,[67] resulting in the removal of roughly a fourth of Jefferson's original draft.[68][69] Jefferson resented the changes, but he did not speak publicly about the revisions.[f] On July 4, , the Congress ratified the Declaration, and delegates signed it on August 2; in so doing, the delegates were knowingly committing an act of high treason against The Crown, which was deemed the most serious criminal offense and was punishable by torture and death.[71]
Jefferson's preamble is regarded as an enduring statement on individual and human rights, and the phrase "all men are created equal" has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language".
The Declaration of Independence, historian Joseph Ellis wrote in , represents "the most potent and consequential words in American history".[69][72]
Virginia state legislator and governor
At the start of the Revolution, Colonel Jefferson was named commander of the Albemarle County Militia on September 26, [73] He was then elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for Albemarle County in September , when finalizing the state constitution was a priority.[74][75] For nearly three years, he assisted with the constitution and was especially proud of his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, which prohibited state support of religious institutions or enforcement of religious doctrine.[76] The bill failed to pass, as did his legislation to disestablish the Anglican Church, but both were later revived by James Madison.[77]
In , Jefferson was given the task of revising the state's laws.
He drafted bills in three years, including laws to streamline the judicial system.
Best thomas jefferson biography book: Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States, who also drafted the Declaration of Independence and served as the first secretary of state. As president, he was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase. He was also the founder and architect of the University of Virginia.
He proposed statutes that provided for general education, which he considered the basis of "republican government".[74] Jefferson also was concerned that Virginia's powerful landed gentry were becoming a hereditary aristocracy and took the lead in abolishing what he called "feudal and unnatural distinctions."[78] He targeted laws such as entail and primogeniture by which a deceased landowner's oldest son was vested with all land ownership and power.[78][g]
Jefferson was elected governor for one-year terms in and [80] He transferred the state capital from Williamsburg to Richmond, and introduced additional measures for public education, religious freedom, and inheritance.[81]
During General Benedict Arnold's invasion of Virginia, Jefferson escaped Richmond just ahead of the British forces, which razed the city.[82][83] He sent emergency dispatches to Colonel Sampson Mathews and other commanders in an attempt to repel Arnold's efforts.[84][85]General Charles Cornwallis that spring dispatched a cavalry force led by Banastre Tarleton to capture Jefferson and members of the Assembly at Monticello, but Jack Jouett of the Virginia militia thwarted the British plan.
Jefferson escaped to Poplar Forest, his plantation to the west.[86] When the General Assembly reconvened in June , it conducted an inquiry into Jefferson's actions which eventually concluded that Jefferson had acted with honor—but he was not re-elected.[87]
In April of the same year, his daughter Lucy died at age one.
A second daughter of that name was born the following year, but she died at age two.[88]
In , Jefferson refused a partnership offer by North Carolina Governor Abner Nash, in a profiteering scheme involving the sale of confiscated Loyalist lands.[89] Unlike some Founders, Jefferson was content with his Monticello estate and the land he owned in the vicinity of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.
Jefferson thought of Monticello as an intellectual gathering place for his friends James Madison and James Monroe.[90]
Notes on the State of Virginia
Main article: Notes on the State of Virginia
In , Jefferson received from French diplomat François Barbé-Marbois a letter of inquiry into the geography, history, and government of Virginia, as part of a study of the United States.
Jefferson organized his responses in a book, Notes on the State of Virginia ().[91] He compiled the book over five years, including reviews of scientific knowledge, Virginia's history, politics, laws, culture, and geography.[92] The book explores what constitutes a good society, using Virginia as an exemplar.
Jefferson included extensive data about the state's natural resources and economy and wrote at length about slavery and miscegenation; he articulated his belief that blacks and whites could not live together as free people in one society because of justified resentments of the enslaved.[93] He also wrote of his views on the American Indians, equating them to European settlers.[94][95]
Notes was first published in in French and appeared in English in [96] Biographer George Tucker considered the work "surprising in the extent of the information which a single individual had been thus far able to acquire, as to the physical features of the state";[97]Merrill D.
Peterson described it as an accomplishment for which all Americans should be grateful.[98]
Member of Congress
Jefferson was appointed a Virginia delegate to the Congress of the Confederation organized following the peace treaty with Great Britain in He was a member of the committee setting foreign exchange rates and recommended an American currency based on the decimal system that was adopted.[99] He advised the formation of the Committee of the States to fill the power vacuum when Congress was in recess.[] The committee met when Congress adjourned, but disagreements rendered it dysfunctional.[]
In the Congress's – session, Jefferson acted as chairman of committees to establish a viable system of government for the new Republic and to propose a policy for settlement of the western territories.
He was the principal author of the Land Ordinance of , whereby Virginia ceded to the national government the vast area that it claimed northwest of the Ohio River. He insisted that this territory should not be used as colonial territory by any of the thirteen states, but that it should be divided into sections that could become states.
He plotted borders for nine new states in their initial stages and wrote an ordinance banning slavery in all the nation's territories. Congress made extensive revisions and rejected the ban on slavery.[][] The provisions banning slavery, known as the "Jefferson Proviso", were modified and implemented three years later in the Northwest Ordinance of and became the law for the entire Northwest Territory.[]
Minister to France
On May 7, , Jefferson was appointed by the Congress of the Confederation[h] to join Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in Paris as Minister Plenipotentiary for Negotiating Treaties of Amity and Commerce with Great Britain and other countries.[][i] With his young daughter Patsy and two servants, he departed in July , arriving in Paris the next month.[][] Jefferson had Patsy educated at the Pentemont Abbey.
Less than a year later he was assigned the additional duty of succeeding Franklin as Minister to France. French foreign minister Count de Vergennes commented, "You replace Monsieur Franklin, I hear." Jefferson replied, "I succeed.
Thomas jefferson biography facts Thomas Jefferson , one of America's most revered Founding Fathers, is best remembered for his role in writing the Declaration of Independence and serving as the third president of the United States. However, less is known about his formative years. From his privileged upbringing on a Virginia plantation to his intellectual awakening under the tutelage of Enlightenment -influenced thinkers, Jefferson's early life helped lay the groundwork for his philosophy and political career. It also helps explain the fundamental contradiction between his publicly stated moral convictions and his lifetime of owning, and being cared for, enslaved people. Spanning thousands of acres, it became the largest estate in Albermarle County, supported by the work of at least 60 enslaved laborers.No man can replace him."[] During his five years in Paris, Jefferson played a leading role in shaping U.S. foreign policy.[]
In , he met and fell in love with Maria Cosway, an accomplished—and married—Italian-English musician of She returned to Great Britain after six weeks, but they maintained a lifelong correspondence.[]
During the summer of , Jefferson arrived in London to meet with John Adams, the US Ambassador to Britain.
Adams had official access to George III and arranged a meeting between Jefferson and the king. Jefferson later described the king's reception of the men as "ungracious." According to Adams's grandson, George III turned his back on both in a gesture of public insult. Jefferson returned to France in August.[]
Jefferson sent for his youngest surviving child, nine-year-old Polly, in June She was accompanied by a young slave from Monticello, Sally Hemings.
Jefferson had taken her older brother, James Hemings, to Paris as part of his domestic staff and had him trained in French cuisine.[] According to Sally's son, Madison Hemings, the year-old Sally and Jefferson began a sexual relationship in Paris, where she became pregnant.[] The son indicated Hemings agreed to return to the United States only after Jefferson promised to free her children when they came of age.[]
While in France, Jefferson became a regular companion of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French hero of the American Revolution, and Jefferson used his influence to procure trade agreements with France.[][] As the French Revolution began, he allowed his Paris residence, the Hôtel de Langeac