Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was involved in politics from his early adult years. This article covers his early life and career, through his writing the Declaration of Independence, participation in the American Revolutionary War, serving as governor of Virginia, and election and service as Vice President to President John Adams.
Born into the planter class of Virginia, Jefferson was highly educated and valued his years at the College of William and Mary. He became an attorney and planter, building on the estate and 20–40 slaves inherited from his father.
Jeffersons of Virginia.
His father was Peter Jefferson, a planter, slaveholder, and surveyor in Albemarle County (Shadwell, Virginia). When Colonel William Randolph, an old friend of Peter Jefferson, died in 1745, Peter assumed executorship and personal charge of Randolph's estate in Tuckahoe as well as his infant son, Thomas Mann Randolph. That year the Jeffersons relocated to Tuckahoe, where they lived for the next seven years before returning to their home in Albemarle in 1752. Peter Jefferson was appointed to the colonelcy of the county, an important position at the time. After he died in 1757, his son Thomas Jefferson inherited his estate, including about 20-40 slaves. They comprised the core of his labor force when he started to build Monticello as a young man.
Thomas's paternal grandfather and great-grandfather were also named Thomas. His grandfather, Thomas Jefferson (1677–1731) resided at a settlement called Osbornes in what is now Chesterfield County, Virginia. Jefferson's great-grandfather was a planter of Henrico County and his wife was Mary Branch. Mary was the granddaughter of Christopher Branch, a member of the House of Burgesses. Thomas was a tobacco farmer who owned a couple slaves, surveyor, and "gentleman justice". He purchased land along James River in 1682 and lived in the Flowerdieu, also Flowerdew Hundred of Henrico County. Thomas' grandfather died in 1697.
There is conflicting information about Jefferson's heritage and specifically the parents of Thomas' great-grandfather. There are also unproven allegations that were made about Jefferson's heritage during an 18th-century Presidential campaign.
Within a few generations, the Jeffersons rose from that of middling planters who struggled against low tobaccos prices beginning in the 1680s to that of the country elite and to the very pinnacle of society. The plantation-based economy of the Jeffersons and their peers relied on acquisition of slaves from West Africa and West Central Africa, primarily from the Bight of Biafra and Angola. In 1784, Jefferson published "Notes on the State of Virginia" where he stated that enslaved individuals made up to a third to a half of the inhabitants of most Piedmont counties of Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 (April 2, 1743 O.S.) at the family home in Shadwell, Goochland County, Virginia, now part of Albemarle County. His mother was Jane Randolph, daughter of Isham Randolph, a ship's captain and sometime planter, and his wife. Peter and Jane married in 1739. Thomas Jefferson had appeared to have little interest in and indifference to his ancestry; he stated that he only knew that his paternal grandfather lived.
Before the widower William Randolph, an old friend of Peter Jefferson, died in 1745, he appointed Peter as guardian to manage his Tuckahoe Plantation and care for his four children. That year the Jeffersons relocated to Tuckahoe, where they lived for the next seven years before returning to Shadwell in 1752. Here Thomas Jefferson recorded his earliest memory, that of being carried on a pillow by a slave during the move to Tuckahoe. Peter Jefferson died in 1757 and the Jefferson estate was divided between Peter's two sons; Thomas and Randolph. John Harvie Sr. then became Thomas' guardian. Thomas inherited approximately of land, including Monticello and between 20 and 40 slaves. He took control of the property after he came of age at 21.
On October 1, 1765, when Jefferson was 22, his oldest sister Jane died at the age of 25. He fell into a period of deep mourning, as he was already saddened by the absence of his sisters Mary, who had been married several years to John Bolling III, and Martha, who in July had wed Dabney Carr. Both lived at their husbands' residences. Only Jefferson's younger siblings Elizabeth, Lucy, and the two toddlers, were at home. He drew little comfort from the younger ones, as they did not provide him with the same intellectual engagement as the older sisters had. According to the historian Ferling, while growing up Jefferson struggled with loneliness and abandonment issues that eventually developed into a reclusive lifestyle as an adult.
Education.
Jefferson began his childhood education under the direction of tutors at Tuckahoe along with the Randolph children.
In 1752, Jefferson began attending a local school run by a Scottish Presbyterian minister. It was here at a young age that Jefferson would begin to learn the enlightenment principles through his European teacher by studying Latin, Greek, and French. Jefferson also learned how to ride horses, and began to appreciate the study of nature and gardening. He studied under the Reverend James Maury from 1758 to 1760 near Gordonsville, Virginia. While boarding with Maury's family, he studied history, science and the classics.
At age 16, Jefferson entered the College of William &amp; Mary in Williamsburg, and first met the law professor George Wythe, who became his influential mentor. For two years he studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy under Professor William Small, who introduced the enthusiastic Jefferson to the writings of the British Empiricists, including John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton. He also improved his French, Greek, and violin. A diligent student, Jefferson displayed an avid curiosity in all fields. Jefferson read law while working as a law clerk for Wythe. During this time, he also read a wide variety of English classics and political works. Jefferson was admitted to the Virginia bar five years later in 1767.
Throughout his life, Jefferson depended on books for his education. He collected and accumulated thousands of books for his library at Monticello. When Jefferson's father Peter died Thomas inherited, among other things, his large library. A significant portion of Jefferson's library was also bequeathed to him in the will of George Wythe, who had an extensive collection. Always eager for more knowledge, Jefferson continued learning throughout most of his life. Jefferson once said, "I cannot live without books."
Marriage and family.
After practicing as a circuit lawyer for several years, Jefferson married the 23-year-old widow Martha Wayles Skelton. The wedding was celebrated on January 1, 1772, at Martha's home, an estate called 'The Forest' near Williamsburg, Virginia. Martha Jefferson was described as attractive, gracious and popular with their friends; she was a frequent hostess for Jefferson and managed the large household. They were said to have a happy marriage. She read widely, did fine needle work and was an amateur musician. Jefferson played the violin and Martha was an accomplished piano player. It is said that she was attracted to Thomas largely because of their mutual love of music. One of the wedding gifts he gave to Martha was a "forte-piano". During the ten years of their marriage, she had six children: Martha, called Patsy, (1772–1836); Jane (1774–1775); a stillborn or unnamed son in 1777; Mary Wayles (1778–1804), called Polly; Lucy Elizabeth (1780–1781); and Lucy Elizabeth (1782–1784). Two survived to adulthood.
After her father John Wayles died in 1773, Martha and her husband Jefferson inherited his 135 slaves, 11,000 acres and the debts of his estate. These things took Jefferson and other co-executors of the estate years to pay off, which contributed to his financial problems. Among the slaves were Betty Hemings and her 10 children; the six youngest were half-siblings of Martha Wayles Jefferson, as they are believed to have been children of her father, and they were three-quarters European in ancestry. The youngest, an infant, was Sally Hemings. As they grew and were trained, all the Hemings family members were assigned to privileged positions among the slaves at Monticello, as domestic servants, chefs, and highly skilled artisans.
Later in life, Martha Jefferson suffered from diabetes and ill health, and frequent childbirth further weakened her. A few months after the birth of her last child, Martha died on September 6, 1782. Jefferson was at his wife's bedside and was distraught after her death. In the following three weeks, Jefferson shut himself in his room, where he paced back and forth until he was nearly exhausted. Later he would often take long rides on secluded roads to mourn for his wife. As he had promised his wife, Jefferson never remarried.
Jefferson's oldest daughter Martha (called Patsy) married Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. in 1790. They had 12 children, eleven of whom survived to adulthood. She suffered severe problems as Randolph became alcoholic and was abusive. When they separated for several years, Martha and her many children lived at Monticello with her father, adding to his financial burdens. Her oldest son, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, helped her run Monticello for a time after her father's death. She had the longest life of Jefferson's children by Martha.
Mary Jefferson (called Polly and Maria) married her first cousin John Wayles Eppes in 1797. As a wedding settlement, Jefferson gave them Betsy Hemmings, the 14-year-old granddaughter of Betty Hemings, and 30 other slaves. The Eppes had three children together, but only a son survived. Frail like her mother, Maria died at the age of 25, several months after her third child was born. Who also died, and only her son Francis W. Eppes survived to adulthood, cared for by slaves, his father and, after five years, a stepmother.
Monticello.
In 1768, Jefferson started the construction of Monticello located on 5,000 acres of land on and around a hilltop. What would soon become a mansion started as a large one room brick house. Over the years Jefferson designed and built additions to the house where it took on neoclassical dimensions. The house soon become his architectural masterpiece. The construction was done by Jefferson and his slave laborers, some of whom were master carpenters. Much of the fine furniture in the house was built by his slaves, who were also very skilled designers and craftsmen. Jefferson moved into the South Pavilion (an outbuilding) in 1770, where his new wife Martha joined him in 1772. Monticello would be his continuing project to create a neoclassical environment, based on his study of the architect Andrea Palladio and the classical orders.
While Minister to France during 1784–1789, he had an opportunity to see some of the classical buildings with which he had become acquainted from his reading, as well as to discover the "modern" trends in French architecture then fashionable in Paris. In 1794, following his service as Secretary of State (1790–93), he began rebuilding Monticello based on the ideas he had acquired in Europe. The remodeling continued throughout most of his presidency (1801–09). The most notable change was the addition of the octagonal dome.
Lawyer and House of Burgesses.
Jefferson handled many cases as a lawyer in colonial Virginia, and was very active from 1768 to 1773. Jefferson's client list included members of Virginia's elite families, including members of his mother's family, the Randolphs.
Beside practicing law, Jefferson represented Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Burgesses His friend and mentor George Wythe served at the same time. Following the passage of the Coercive Acts by the British Parliament in 1774, Jefferson wrote a set of resolutions against the acts, which were expanded into "A Summary View of the Rights of British America", his first published work. Previous criticism of the Coercive Acts had focused on legal and constitutional issues, but Jefferson offered the radical notion that the colonists had the natural right to govern themselves. Jefferson argued that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and had no legislative authority in the colonies. The paper was intended to serve as instructions for the Virginia delegation of the First Continental Congress, but Jefferson's ideas proved to be too radical for that body.
Political career from 1775 to 1800.
Declaration of Independence.
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, a formal document which officially proclaimed the dissolution of the American colonies from the British Crown. The sentiments of revolution put forth in the Declaration were already well established in 1776 as the colonies were already at war with the British when the Declaration was being debated, drafted and signed.
Before the Declaration was drafted,