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Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 [b] – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. [6] He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.
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Thomas Jefferson was the primary draftsman of the Declaration of Independence of the United States and the nation’s first secretary of state (1789–94), its second vice president (1797–1801), and, as the third president (1801–09), the statesman responsible for the Louisiana Purchase.
Where was Thomas Jefferson educated?
As a teenager, Thomas Jefferson boarded with the local schoolmaster to learn Latin and Greek. In 1760 he entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, where he was influenced by, among others, George Wythe, the leading legal scholar in Virginia, with whom he read law from 1762 to 1767.
What was Thomas Jefferson like?
Thomas Jefferson was known for his shyness (apart from his two inaugural addresses as president, there is no record of Jefferson delivering any public speeches whatsoever) and for his zealous certainty about the American cause. He was full of contradictions, arguing for human freedom and equality while owning hundreds of enslaved people.
How was Thomas Jefferson influential?
Albermarle county, where Jefferson was born, lay in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in what was then regarded as a western province of the Old Dominion. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a self-educated surveyor who amassed a tidy estate that included 60 slaves. According to family lore, Jefferson’s earliest memory was as a three-year-old boy “being carried on a pillow by a mounted slave” when the family moved from Shadwell to Tuckahoe. His mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, was descended from one of the most prominent families in Virginia. She raised two sons, of whom Jefferson was the eldest, and six daughters. There is reason to believe that Jefferson’s relationship with his mother was strained, especially after his father died in 1757, because he did everything he could to escape her supervision and had almost nothing to say about her in his memoirs. He boarded with the local schoolmaster to learn his Latin and Greek until 1760, when he entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg.
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By all accounts he was an obsessive student, often spending 15 hours of the day with his books, 3 hours practicing his violin, and the remaining 6 hours eating and sleeping. The two chief influences on his learning were William Small, a Scottish-born teacher of mathematics and science, and George Wythe, the leading legal scholar in Virginia. From them Jefferson learned a keen appreciation of supportive mentors, a concept he later institutionalized at the University of Virginia. He read law with Wythe from 1762 to 1767, then left Williamsburg to practice, mostly representing small-scale planters from the western counties in cases involving land claims and titles. Although he handled no landmark cases and came across as a nervous and somewhat indifferent speaker before the bench, he earned a reputation as a formidable legal scholar. He was a shy and extremely serious young man.
In 1768 he made two important decisions: first, to build his own home atop an 867-foot- (264-metre-) high mountain near Shadwell that he eventually named Monticello and, second, to stand as a candidate for the House of Burgesses. These decisions nicely embodied the two competing impulses that would persist throughout his life—namely, to combine an active career in politics with periodic seclusion in his own private haven. His political timing was also impeccable, for he entered the Virginia legislature just as opposition to the taxation policies of the British Parliament was congealing. Although he made few speeches and tended to follow the lead of the Tidewater elite, his support for resolutions opposing Parliament’s authority over the colonies was resolute.
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- Thomas Jefferson’s Early Years. Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, a plantation on a large tract of land near present-day Charlottesville, Virginia.
- Marriage and Monticello. After his father died when Jefferson was a teen, the future president inherited the Shadwell property. In 1768, Jefferson began clearing a mountaintop on the land in preparation for the elegant brick mansion he would construct there called Monticello (“little mountain” in Italian).
- Thomas Jefferson and the American Revolution. In 1775, with the American Revolutionary War recently underway, Jefferson was selected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
- Jefferson's Path to the Presidency. After returning to America in the fall of 1789, Jefferson accepted an appointment from President George Washington (1732-99) to become the new nation’s first secretary of state.
Apr 3, 2014 · Learn about the life and achievements of Thomas Jefferson, the primary draftsman of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the nation's first secretary of state and the second vice president. Find out how he completed the Louisiana Purchase, founded the University of Virginia and founded a plantation with enslaved people.
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Learn about the life and achievements of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States. Explore his early years, education, political career, family, Monticello, and legacy as a lawyer, scientist, writer, revolutionary, governor, vice-president, president, philosopher, architect, and slave owner.
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Learn about the life and achievements of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States and the author of the Declaration of Independence. Explore his views on democracy, liberty, and foreign policy, as well as his role in acquiring the Louisiana Territory.
Learn about Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, and his major challenges and achievements. Explore his role in the Louisiana Purchase, the Barbary Wars, the Embargo Act, and the Federalist-Republican rivalry.
