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142-465: Jeffersonian refers to several fields upon which the U.S. President Thomas Jefferson had an impact: In fiction: In transportation: Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, planter, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He

284-723: A slave rebellion . President Washington gave the slave owners in Saint Domingue (Haiti) $ 400,000 as repayment for loans the French had granted to the Americans during the American Revolutionary War . On September 15, 1800, Virginia governor James Monroe sent a letter to Jefferson, informing him of a narrowly averted slave rebellion by Gabriel Prosser . Ten of the conspirators had already been executed, and Monroe asked Jefferson's advice on what to do with

426-561: A "natural right" to liberty is one he would later incorporate as he set about authoring the Declaration of Independence. He also took on 68 cases for the General Court of Virginia in 1767, in addition to three notable cases: Howell v. Netherland (1770), Bolling v. Bolling (1771), and Blair v. Blair (1772). Jefferson wrote a resolution calling for a "Day of Fasting and Prayer" and a boycott of all British goods in protest of

568-591: A Continental Congress delegate from Massachusetts and an emerging leader in the Congress. 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

710-629: A Y-DNA match with the male Jefferson line. In 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) assembled a team of historians whose report concluded that, together with the DNA and historic evidence, there was a high probability that Jefferson was the father of Eston and likely of all Hemings' children. W. M. Wallenborn, who worked on the Monticello report, disagreed, claiming the committee had already made up their minds before evaluating

852-679: A capital close to the major commercial centers of the Northeast , while Washington, Jefferson, and other agrarians wanted it further south. After lengthy deadlock, the Compromise of 1790 was struck, permanently locating the capital on the Potomac River , and the federal government assumed the war debts of all original 13 states . Jefferson's goals were to decrease American dependence on British commerce and to expand commercial trade with France. He sought to weaken Spanish colonialism of

994-445: A cause around which to rally his party and organized a national opposition from Monticello. The treaty, designed by Hamilton, aimed to reduce tensions and increase trade. Jefferson warned that it would increase British influence and subvert republicanism, calling it "the boldest act [Hamilton and Jay] ever ventured on to undermine the government". The Treaty passed, but it expired in 1805 during Jefferson's presidential administration and

1136-693: A common interest in the playing of the violin. Jefferson entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia , in 1761, 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

1278-582: A concubine and had six children with her during his last 12 years. These additional forced laborers made Jefferson the second-largest slaveholder in Albemarle County. In addition, he held nearly 16,000 acres (6,500 ha) of land in Virginia. He sold some people to pay off the debt of Wayles' estate. From this time on, Jefferson owned and supervised his large chattel estate, primarily at Monticello, although he also developed other plantations in

1420-649: A contest." From the 1770s on, Jefferson wrote of supporting gradual emancipation, based on slaves being educated, freed after 18 for women and 21 for men (later he changed this to age 45, when their masters had a return on investment), and transported for resettlement to Africa. All of his life, he supported the concept of colonization of Africa by American freedmen. The historian Peter S. Onuf suggested that, after having children with his slave Sally Hemings, Jefferson may have supported colonization because of concerns for his unacknowledged "shadow family". In addition, Onuf asserts that Jefferson believed at this point that slavery

1562-419: A federal crime to import or export slaves from abroad. By 1808, every state but South Carolina had followed Virginia's lead from the 1780s in banning importation of slaves. By 1808, with the growth of the domestic slave population enabling development of a large internal slave trade, slaveholders did not mount much resistance to the new law, presumably because the authority of Congress to enact such legislation

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1704-574: A few weeks in 1777; Mary "Polly" (1778–1804); Lucy Elizabeth (1780–1781); and another Lucy Elizabeth (1782–1784). Only Martha and Mary survived to adulthood. Martha's father John Wayles died in 1773, and the couple inherited 135 enslaved people, 11,000 acres (45 km ; 17 sq mi), and the estate's debts. The debts took Jefferson years to satisfy, contributing to his financial problems. 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

1846-471: A firm supporter of the French Revolution while opposing its more violent elements. Soon after returning from France, Jefferson accepted President Washington's invitation to serve as Secretary of State . Pressing issues at this time were the national debt and the permanent location of the capital. He opposed a national debt, preferring that each state retire its own, in contrast to Secretary of

1988-502: A girl. A few months after the birth of her last child, she died on September 6, 1782, 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. 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

2130-480: A gradual emancipation scheme or a bill to allow individual masters to free their slaves." He refused to add gradual emancipation as an amendment when others asked him to; he said, "better that this should be kept back." In 1785, Jefferson wrote to one of his colleagues that black people were mentally inferior to white people, claiming the entire race was incapable of producing a single poet. On March 1, 1784, in defiance of southern slave society, Jefferson submitted to

2272-594: A hereditary aristocracy and took the lead in abolishing what he called "feudal and unnatural distinctions." He targeted laws such as entail and primogeniture by which a deceased landowner's oldest son was vested with all land ownership and power. Jefferson was elected governor for one-year terms in 1779 and 1780. He transferred the state capital from Williamsburg to Richmond , and introduced additional measures for public education, religious freedom, and inheritance. During General Benedict Arnold 's 1781 invasion of Virginia , Jefferson escaped Richmond just ahead of

2414-558: A law to make it a crime. He told Congress in his 1806 annual message, such a law was needed to "withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights ... which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country have long been eager to proscribe." Congress complied and on March 2, 1807, Jefferson signed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves into law; it took effect 1 January 1808 and made it

2556-520: 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 (1785). He compiled the book over five years, including reviews of scientific knowledge, Virginia's history, politics, laws, culture, and geography. The book explores what constitutes a good society, using Virginia as an exemplar. Jefferson included extensive data about

2698-529: A letter to Supreme Court Justice William Johnson, Jefferson wrote "this case is not dead, it only sleepeth. the Indian chief said he did not go to war for every petty injury by itself; but put it into his pouch, and when that was full, he then made war." In 1798, Jefferson's friend from the Revolution, Tadeusz Kościuszko , a Polish nobleman and revolutionary, visited the United States to collect back pay from

2840-759: A lifelong correspondence. During the summer of 1786, 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 1787. She

2982-399: 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". During his first year at the college, Jefferson spent considerable time attending parties and dancing and

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3124-425: A million slaves free was worth the financial and emotional costs. At his death, Jefferson was greatly in debt, in part due to his continued construction program. The debts encumbered his estate, and his family sold 130 slaves, virtually all the members of every slave family, from Monticello to pay his creditors. Slave families who had been well established and stable for decades were sometimes split up. Most of

3266-462: A neoclassical mansion known as Monticello , which overlooked the hamlet of his former home in Shadwell . As an attorney, Jefferson represented people of color as well as whites. In 1770, he defended a young mixed-race male slave in a freedom suit , on the grounds that his mother was white and freeborn. By the colony's law of partus sequitur ventrem , that the child took the status of the mother,

3408-502: A petition to the state legislature to allow the freedmen to remain in Virginia to be with their families, who remained enslaved under Jefferson's heirs. Jefferson freed Joseph Fossett in his will, but Fossett's wife ( Edith Hern Fossett ) and their eight children were sold at auction. Fossett was able to get enough money to buy the freedom of his wife and two youngest children. The remainder of their ten children were sold to different slaveholders. The Fossetts worked for 23 years to purchase

3550-411: A profiteering scheme involving the sale of confiscated Loyalist lands. 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 . In 1780, Jefferson received from French diplomat François Barbé-Marbois

3692-484: A prominent slaveholder and land speculator in Virginia, and Jane Randolph , granddaughter of English and Scots gentry. In 1757, when Jefferson was 14, his father died, and so he inherited 5,000 acres (20 km ) of land, 52 slaves, livestock, his father's notable library, and a gristmill . This property was initially under control of his guardian, John Harvie Sr. He assumed full control over these properties at age 21. In 1768, Thomas Jefferson began construction of

3834-758: 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 , to be used for meetings by Lafayette and other republicans. He was in Paris during the storming of the Bastille and consulted with Lafayette while

3976-422: A repudiation of those who may believe that the Declaration was not including slaves with the word "Mankind". That same year, Jefferson submitted a draft for the new Virginia Constitution containing the phrase "No person hereafter coming into this country shall be held within the same in slavery under any pretext whatever." His proposal was not adopted. In 1778 with Jefferson's leadership and probably authorship,

4118-450: A solution to some of the United States' problems. He hoped that "Haiti would eventually demonstrate the viability of black self-government and the industriousness of African American work habits, thereby justifying freeing and deporting the slaves" to that island. This was one of his solutions for separating the populations. In 1824, book peddler Samuel Whitcomb, Jr. visited Jefferson in Monticello, and they happened to talk about Haiti. This

4260-693: 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 1784 , 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

4402-540: A violent burst of grief". After serving as U.S. Secretary of State from 1790 to 1793 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 1809. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence . At age 33, he

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4544-534: 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 1807, Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act to defend

4686-470: Is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another. The Continental Congress, however, due to Southern opposition, forced Jefferson to delete

4828-420: 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. However, Jefferson's underlying intellectual argument that all people were entitled by their creator to what he labeled

4970-491: The Anglican Church , but both were later revived by James Madison . In 1778, Jefferson was given the task of revising the state's laws. He drafted 126 bills in three years, including laws to streamline the judicial system. He proposed statutes that provided for general education, which he considered the basis of "republican government". Jefferson also was concerned that Virginia's powerful landed gentry were becoming

5112-760: The British Parliament passing the Intolerable Acts in 1774. 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 . In 1768, Jefferson began constructing his primary residence, Monticello, whose name in Italian means "Little Mountain", on a hilltop overlooking his 5,000-acre (20 km ; 7.8 sq mi) plantation. He spent most of his adult life designing Monticello as an architect and

5254-896: The Daughters of the Revolution (DAR) honored Mary Hemings as a Patriot , making her female descendants eligible for membership in the heritage society. In June 1781, the British arrived at Monticello. Jefferson had escaped before their arrival and gone with his family to his plantation of Poplar Forest to the southwest in Bedford County ; most of those he held as slaves stayed at Monticello to help protect his valuables. The British did not loot or take prisoners there. By contrast, Lord Cornwallis and his troops occupied and looted another planation owned by Jefferson, Elkhill in Goochland County, Virginia , northwest of Richmond. Of

5396-617: 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 . Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 (April 2, 1743, Old Style , Julian calendar ), at the family's Shadwell Plantation in the British Colony of Virginia ,

5538-861: The Louisiana territory and New Orleans from the Spanish, he declared the neutrality of the US in the Caribbean conflict. While refusing credit or other assistance to the French, he allowed contraband goods and arms to reach Haiti and, thus, indirectly supported the Haitian Revolution. This was to further US interests in Louisiana. That year and once the Haitians declared independence in 1804, President Jefferson had to deal with strong hostility to

5680-769: The Mexican–American War . In 1860, Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln cited it to make his case that banning slavery in the federal territories was constitutional. But the effect of Jefferson's nearly accomplished plan to ban slavery outright in any new state would have been a huge and likely fatal blow to the institution. In 1785, Jefferson published his first book, Notes on the State of Virginia . In it, he argued that blacks were inferior to whites and this inferiority could not be explained by their condition of slavery. He also stated that these arguments were not certain (see section on this book below). Jefferson stated emancipation and colonization away from America would be

5822-475: The U.S. government for $ 23,950, 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." By the time of his death a decade later, the library had grown to nearly 2,000 volumes. Jefferson

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5964-575: The Virginia Constitution , George Mason 's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights , and other sources. Other committee members made some changes, and a final draft was presented to Congress on June 28, 1776. The declaration was introduced on Friday, June 28, and Congress began debate over its contents on Monday, July 1, resulting in the removal of roughly a fourth of Jefferson's original draft. Jefferson resented

6106-574: The trans-Appalachian West and British control in the North, believing this would aid in the pacification of Native Americans. Jefferson and political protegé Congressman James Madison founded the National Gazette in 1791, along with author Phillip Freneau , to counter Hamilton's Federalist policies, which Hamilton was promoting through the influential Federalist newspaper the Gazette of

6248-490: The 23-year-old widow of Bathurst Skelton. 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. Martha read widely, did fine needlework, and was a skilled pianist; Jefferson often accompanied her on the violin or cello. During their ten years of marriage, Martha bore six children: Martha "Patsy" (1772–1836); Jane Randolph (1774–1775); an unnamed son who lived for only

6390-581: The 30 enslaved people they took as prisoners, Jefferson later claimed that at least 27 had died of disease in their camp. While claiming since the 1770s to support gradual emancipation, as a member of the Virginia General Assembly Jefferson declined to support a law to ask that, saying the people were not ready. After the United States gained independence, in 1782 the Virginia General Assembly repealed

6532-562: The British forces, which razed the city. He sent emergency dispatches to Colonel Sampson Mathews and other commanders in an attempt to repel Arnold's efforts. 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

6674-672: The British to vacate their posts in the Northwest and to compensate the U.S. for enslaved people whom the British had freed at the end of the war. Jefferson sought a return to private life, and resigned from the cabinet position in December 1793; he may also have wanted to bolster his political influence from outside the administration. After the Washington administration negotiated the Jay Treaty with Britain in 1794, Jefferson saw

6816-451: The British. Dunmore's action led to a mass exodus of tens of thousands of forced laborers from plantations across the South during the war years; some of the people Jefferson held as slaves also took off as runaways. The colonists opposed Dunmore's action as an attempt to incite a massive slave rebellion . In 1776, when Jefferson co-authored the Declaration of Independence , he referred to

6958-779: The Continental Congress the Report of a Plan of Government for the Western Territory . "The provision would have prohibited slavery in all new states carved out of the western territories ceded to the national government established under the Articles of Confederation." Slavery would have been prohibited extensively in both the North and South territories, including what would become Alabama , Mississippi , and Tennessee . His Ordinance of 1784 would have prohibited slavery completely by 1800 in all territories, but

7100-647: The Lord Governor when he wrote, "He has excited domestic insurrections among us," though the institution of slavery itself was never mentioned by name at any point in the document. In the original draft of the Declaration, Jefferson inserted a clause condemning King George III for forcing the slave trade onto the American colonies and inciting enslaved African Americans to "rise in arms" against their masters: He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in

7242-490: The President's House, James, Maria, and a child who did not survive to adulthood. Fanny had one child there. Their children were kept with them at the President's House. After Toussaint Louverture had become governor general of Saint-Domingue following a slave revolt, in 1801 Jefferson supported French plans to take back the island. He agreed to loan France $ 300,000 (~$ 6.69 million in 2023) "for relief of whites on

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7384-526: The Rights of British America , which was submitted to the First Continental Congress . In it, he argued Americans were entitled to all the rights of British citizens, and denounced King George for wrongfully usurping local authority in the colonies. In regard to slavery, Jefferson wrote "The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state. But previous to

7526-562: The Senate, he assumed a more passive role than his predecessor John Adams. He allowed the Senate to freely conduct debates and confined his participation to procedural issues, which he called an "honorable and easy" role. Jefferson had previously studied parliamentary law and procedure for 40 years, making him quite qualified to serve as presiding officer. In 1800, he published his assembled notes on Senate procedure as A Manual of Parliamentary Practice . He cast only three tie-breaking votes in

7668-523: The Senate. In four confidential talks with French consul Joseph Létombe in the spring of 1797, Jefferson attacked Adams and predicted that his rival would serve only one term. He also encouraged France to invade England, and advised Létombe to stall any American envoys sent to Paris. This toughened the tone that the French government adopted toward the Adams administration. After Adams's initial peace envoys were rebuffed, Jefferson and his supporters lobbied for

7810-556: The Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, maintain that the evidence is insufficient to conclude Thomas Jefferson's paternity, and note the possibility that other Jeffersons, including Thomas's brother Randolph Jefferson and his five sons, who were alleged to have raped enslaved women, could have fathered Hemings' children. Jefferson allowed two of Sally's children to leave Monticello without formal manumission when they came of age; five other slaves, including

7952-525: The Treasury Alexander Hamilton , who desired consolidation of states' debts by the federal government. Hamilton also had bold plans to establish national credit and a national bank, but Jefferson strenuously opposed this and attempted to undermine his agenda, which nearly led Washington to dismiss him from the cabinet. He later left the cabinet voluntarily. The second major issue was the capital's permanent location. Hamilton favored

8094-430: The United States . The National Gazette made particular criticism of the policies promoted by Hamilton, often through anonymous essays signed by the pen name Brutus at Jefferson's urging, which were written by Madison. In Spring 1791, Jefferson and Madison took a vacation to Vermont ; Jefferson had been suffering from migraines and was tiring of the in-fighting with Hamilton. In May 1792, Jefferson became alarmed at

8236-426: The United States and the colonization of Africa by freed African Americans. However, he opposed some other measures to restrict slavery within the United States, and also was against voluntary manumission . Thomas Jefferson was born into the planter class of a "slave society", as defined by the historian Ira Berlin , in which slavery was the main means of labor production. He was the son of Peter Jefferson ,

8378-501: The Virginia General Assembly banned importing people to be used as slaves into Virginia. It was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to ban the international slave trade, and all other states except South Carolina eventually followed prior to the Congress banning the trade in 1807. As governor of Virginia for two years during the Revolution, Jefferson signed a bill to promote military enlistment by giving white men land, "a healthy sound Negro ... or £60 in gold or silver." As

8520-508: The abolition of the international slave trade. In 1819, Jefferson strongly opposed a Missouri statehood application amendment that banned domestic slave importation and freed slaves at the age of 25 believing it would destroy or break up the union. By 1820, Jefferson, objected to what he viewed as "Northern meddling" with Southern slavery policy. On April 22, Jefferson criticized the Missouri Compromise because it might lead to

8662-513: The bequest. In 1852 the U.S. Supreme Court awarded the estate, by then worth $ 50,000, to Kościuszko's heirs in Poland, having ruled that the will was invalid. Jefferson continued to struggle with debt after serving as president. He used some of his hundreds of slaves as collateral to his creditors. This debt was due to his lavish lifestyle, long construction and changes to Monticello, imported goods, art, and lifelong issues with debt, from inheriting

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8804-485: The best policy on how to treat blacks and added a warning about the potential for slave revolutions in the future: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such

8946-597: The breakup of the Union. Jefferson said slavery was a complex issue and needed to be solved by the next generation. Jefferson wrote that the Missouri Compromise was a "fire bell in the night" and "the knell of the Union". Jefferson said that he feared the Union would dissolve, stating that the "Missouri question aroused and filled me with alarm." In regard to whether the Union would remain for a long period of time Jefferson wrote, "I now doubt it much." In 1823, in

9088-449: The changes, but he did not speak publicly about the revisions. On July 4, 1776, 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 . Jefferson's preamble is regarded as an enduring statement on individual and human rights, and

9230-422: The claim that Thomas Jefferson fathered children by his slave, Sally Hemings , has been a matter of discussion and disagreement. In 1802, the journalist James T. Callender , after being denied a position as postmaster by Jefferson, published allegations that Jefferson had taken Hemings as a concubine and had fathered several children with her. John Wayles held her as a slave, and was also her father, as well as

9372-500: The clause in the final draft of the Declaration. Jefferson did manage to make a general criticism against slavery by maintaining "all men are created equal." Jefferson did not directly condemn domestic slavery as such in the Declaration, as Jefferson himself was a slaveowner. According to Finkelman, "The colonists, for the most part, had been willing and eager purchasers of slaves." Researcher William D. Richardson proposed that Thomas Jefferson's use of "MEN" in capital letters would be

9514-594: The colony. Slavery supported the life of the planter class in Virginia. In collaboration with Monticello, now the major public history site on Jefferson, the Smithsonian opened on the National Mall an exhibit, Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: The Paradox of Liberty , (January – October 2012) at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. It covered Jefferson as a slaveholder and

9656-558: The debt of father-in-law John Wayles to signing two 10,000 notes late in life to assist dear friend Wilson Cary Nicholas, which proved to be his coup de grace. Yet he was merely one of numerous others who suffered crippling debt around 1820. He also incurred debt in helping support his only surviving daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph , and her large family. She had separated from her husband, who had become abusive from alcoholism and mental illness (according to different sources), and brought her family to live at Monticello. In August 1814,

9798-532: 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. Jefferson consulted with his fellow committee members, but mostly wrote the Declaration of Independence in isolation between June 11 and 28, 1776, in a home he was renting at 700 Market Street in Center City Philadelphia . Jefferson drew considerably on his proposed draft of

9940-403: The enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa; yet our repeated attempts to effect this by prohibitions, and by imposing duties which might amount to a prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by his majesty's negative: Thus preferring the immediate advantages of a few African corsairs to the lasting interests of the American states, and to

10082-424: The evidence, was a "rush to judgement", and that the claims of Jefferson's paternity were unsubstantiated and politically driven. Since the DNA tests were made public, most biographers and historians have concluded that the widower Jefferson had a long-term relationship with Hemings, and fathered at least some and probably all of her children. A minority of scholars, including a team of professors associated with

10224-401: The father of Jefferson's wife Martha. Sally was three-quarters white and strikingly similar in looks and voice to Jefferson's late wife. In 1998, in order to establish the male DNA line, a panel of researchers conducted a Y-DNA study of living descendants of Jefferson's uncle, Field, and of a descendant of Sally's son, Eston Hemings . The results, published in the journal Nature , showed

10366-457: The federal concentration of power, whereas Hamilton sought more power for the federal government. Jefferson supported France against Britain when the two nations fought in 1793, though his arguments in the Cabinet were undercut by French Revolutionary envoy Edmond-Charles Genêt 's open scorn for Washington. In his discussions with British Minister George Hammond , he tried in vain to persuade

10508-416: The federal government for $ 12.50 and that these slaves be sent to Santo Domingo. Jefferson admitted that his plan would be liberal and may even be unconstitutional, but he suggested a constitutional amendment to allow congress to buy slaves. He also realized that separating children from slaves would have a humanitarian cost. Jefferson believed that his overall plan was worth implementing and that setting over

10650-482: The freedom of their remaining children. Born and reared as free, not knowing that I was a slave, then suddenly, at the death of Jefferson, put upon an auction block and sold to strangers. In 1827, the auction of 130 slaves took place at Monticello. The sale lasted for five days despite the cold weather. The slaves brought prices over 70% of their appraised value. Within three years, all of the "black" families at Monticello had been sold and dispersed. For two centuries

10792-506: The government for his military service. He entrusted his assets to Jefferson with a will directing him to spend the American money and proceeds from his land in the U.S. to free and educate slaves, including Jefferson's, and at no cost to Jefferson. Kościuszko revised will states: "I hereby authorise my friend Thomas Jefferson to employ the whole thereof in purchasing Negroes from among his own or any others and giving them Liberty in my name." Kosciuszko died in 1817, but Jefferson never carried out

10934-467: The grave, I have no right to meddle with these things." In 1821, Jefferson wrote in his autobiography that he felt slavery would inevitably come to an end, though he also felt there was no hope for racial equality in America, stating "Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people [negros] are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in

11076-411: The high point of Jefferson's opposition to slavery, which is more muted thereafter." In 1786, Jefferson bitterly remarked "The voice of a single individual of the state which was divided, or of one of those which were of the negative, would have prevented this abominable crime from spreading itself over the new country. Thus we see the fate of millions unborn hanging on the tongue of one man, & heaven

11218-405: The island." Jefferson wanted to alleviate the fears of southern slave owners, who feared a similar rebellion in their territory. Prior to his election, Jefferson wrote of the revolution, "If something is not done and soon, we shall be the murderers of our own children." By 1802, when Jefferson learned that France was planning to re-establish its empire in the western hemisphere, including taking

11360-654: The latter drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen . Jefferson often found his mail opened by postmasters, so he invented his own enciphering device, the " Wheel Cipher "; he wrote important communications in code for the rest of his career. Unable to attend the 1787 Constitution Convention, Jefferson supported the Constitution but desired the addition of the promised Bill of Rights. Jefferson left Paris for America in September 1789. He remained

11502-422: The legislation's passage, but it faced strong opposition in a state whose economy was largely agrarian. Jefferson took seven cases of freedom-seeking enslaved people and waived his fee for one he claimed should be freed before the minimum statutory age for emancipation. 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

11644-455: The letter lamenting "I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves, by the generation of '76. to acquire self government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be that I live not to weep over it." Following the Missouri Compromise, Jefferson largely withdrew from politics and public life, writing "with one foot in

11786-501: The man should never have been enslaved. He lost the suit. In 1772, Jefferson represented George Manly, the son of a free woman of color , who sued for freedom after having been held as an indentured servant three years past the expiration of his term. (The Virginia colony at the time bound illegitimate mixed-race children of free women as indentured servants: until age 31 for males, with a shorter term for females.) Once freed, Manly worked for Jefferson at Monticello for wages. In 1773,

11928-428: The mansion, mill, and nailery reported to one general overseer appointed by Jefferson, and he hired many overseers, some of whom were considered cruel at the time. Jefferson made meticulous periodical records on his slaves, plants and animals, and weather. Jefferson, in his Farm Book journal, visually described in detail both the quality and quantity of purchased slave clothing and the names of all slaves who received

12070-542: The military, levied new taxes, and enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts . Jefferson believed these laws were intended to suppress Democratic-Republicans, rather than prosecute enemy aliens, and considered them unconstitutional. To rally opposition, he and James Madison anonymously wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions , declaring that the federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it by

12212-576: The nation's first secretary of state, where he served from 1790 to 1793. During this time, in the early 1790s, 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 1796 U.S. presidential election between

12354-480: 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

12496-955: 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 1787 and became the law for the entire Northwest Territory . On May 7, 1784, Jefferson was appointed by the Congress of the Confederation 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. With his young daughter Patsy and two servants, he departed in July 1784, arriving in Paris

12638-483: The new nation by his southern-dominated Congress. He shared planters' fears that the success of Haiti would encourage similar slave rebellions and widespread violence in the South. Historian Tim Matthewson noted that Jefferson faced a Congress "hostile to Haiti", and that he "acquiesced in southern policy, the embargo of trade and nonrecognition, the defense of slavery internally and the denigration of Haiti abroad." Jefferson discouraged emigration by American free blacks to

12780-424: The new nation. European nations also refused to recognize Haiti when the new nation declared independence in 1804. In his short biography of Jefferson in 2005, Christopher Hitchens noted the president was "counterrevolutionary" in his treatment of Haiti and its revolution. Jefferson expressed ambivalence about Haiti. During his presidency, he thought sending free blacks and contentious slaves to Haiti might be

12922-679: 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 . No man can replace him." During his five years in Paris, Jefferson played a leading role in shaping U.S. foreign policy . In 1786, he met and fell in love with Maria Cosway , an accomplished—and married—Italian-English musician of 27. She returned to Great Britain after six weeks, but they maintained

13064-473: The number of voting citizens was smaller than that of other states. It was due only to this population advantage that Jefferson won the election. Jefferson brought slaves from Monticello to work at the White House . He brought Edith Hern Fossett and Fanny Hern to Washington, D.C., in 1802 and they learned to cook French cuisine at the President's House by Honoré Julien. Edith was 15 years old and Fanny

13206-638: The persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he

13348-530: 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 2008, represents "the most potent and consequential words in American history". At the start of the Revolution, Colonel Jefferson was named commander of the Albemarle County Militia on September 26, 1775. He

13490-619: The planter Edward Coles and Jefferson corresponded about Coles' ideas on emancipation. Jefferson urged Coles not to free his slaves, but the younger man took all his slaves to the Illinois and freed them, providing them with land for farms. In April 1820, Jefferson wrote to John Holmes giving his thoughts on the Missouri compromise. Concerning slavery, he said: there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would, to relieve us from this heavy reproach [slavery] ... we have

13632-599: The political rivalries taking shape; he wrote to Washington, imploring him to run for reelection that year as a unifying influence. He urged the president to rally the citizenry to a party that would defend democracy against the corrupting influence of banks and monied interests, as espoused by the Federalists. Historians recognize this letter as the earliest delineation of Democratic-Republican Party principles. Jefferson, Madison, and other Democratic-Republican organizers favored states' rights and local control and opposed

13774-542: The prospect held up." The U.S. Congress finally implemented colonization of freed African American slaves by passing the Slave Trade Act of 1819 signed into law by President James Monroe . The law authorized funding to colonize the coast of Africa with freed African American slaves. In 1824, Jefferson proposed an overall emancipation plan that would free slaves born after a certain date. Jefferson proposed that African-American children born in America be bought by

13916-536: The release of papers related to the incident, called the XYZ Affair after the letters used to disguise the identities of the French officials involved. However, the tactic backfired when it was revealed that French officials had demanded bribes, rallying public support against France. The U.S. began an undeclared naval war with France known as the Quasi-War . During the Adams presidency, the Federalists rebuilt

14058-433: The remaining ones. Jefferson sent a reply on September 20, urging Monroe to deport the remaining rebels rather than execute them. Most notably, Jefferson's letter implied that the rebels had some justification for their rebellion in seeking freedom, stating "The other states & the world at large will for ever condemn us if we indulge a principle of revenge, or go one step beyond absolute necessity. They cannot lose sight of

14200-560: The rights of human nature, deeply wounded by this infamous practice." In 1775, Thomas Jefferson joined the Continental Congress as a delegate from Virginia when he and others in Virginia began to rebel against the Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore . Trying to reassert British authority over the area, Dunmore issued a Proclamation in November 1775 that offered freedom to slaves who abandoned their Patriot masters and joined

14342-425: The rights of the two parties, & the object of the unsuccessful one." By the time Monroe received Jefferson's letter, twenty of the conspirators had been executed. Seven more would be executed after Monroe received the letter on September 22, including Prosser himself, but an additional 50 defendants charged for the failed rebellion would be acquitted, pardoned, or have their sentences commuted. In 1800, Jefferson

14484-616: The roughly 600 enslaved people who lived at Monticello over the decades, with a focus on six enslaved families and their descendants. It was the first national exhibit on the Mall to address these issues. In February 2012, Monticello opened a related new outdoor exhibition, Landscape of Slavery: Mulberry Row at Monticello, which "brings to life the stories of the scores of people—enslaved and free—who lived and worked on Jefferson's 5,000-acre [2,000 ha] plantation." Shortly after ending his law practice in 1774, Jefferson wrote A Summary View of

14626-410: The same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them. It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation, and deportation, peaceably, and in such slow degrees, as that the evil will wear off insensibly; and their places be, pari passu , filled up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at

14768-427: The slave law of 1723 and made it easier for slaveholders to manumit slaves. Unlike some of his planter contemporaries, such as Robert Carter III , who freed nearly 500 people held slaves in his lifetime, or George Washington , who freed all the enslaved people he legally owned in his will of 1799, Jefferson formally freed only two people during his life, in 1793 and 1794. Virginia did not require freed people to leave

14910-631: The sold slaves either remained in Virginia or were relocated to Ohio. Jefferson freed five slaves in his will, all males of the Hemings family. Those were his two natural sons, and Sally's younger half-brother John Hemings , and her nephews Joseph (Joe) Fossett and Burwell Colbert. He gave Burwell Colbert, who had served as his butler and valet, $ 300 for purchasing supplies used in the trade of " painter and glazier ". He gave John Hemings and Joe Fossett each one acre (4,000 m ) on his land so they could build homes for their families. His will included

15052-527: The state until 1806. From 1782 to 1810, as numerous slaveholders freed enslaved people, the proportion of free blacks in Virginia increased dramatically from less than 1% to 7.2% of blacks. Some historians have claimed that, as a Representative to the Continental Congress , Thomas Jefferson wrote an amendment or bill that would abolish slavery . But according to Finkelman, "he never did propose this plan" and "Jefferson refused to propose either

15194-527: 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. He also wrote of his views on the American Indians, equating them to European settlers. Notes was first published in 1785 in French and appeared in English in 1787. Biographer George Tucker considered

15336-608: 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 . He served as the second governor of revolutionary Virginia from 1779 to 1781. In 1785, Congress appointed Jefferson U.S. minister to France , where he served from 1785 to 1789. President Washington then appointed Jefferson

15478-425: The state. It permitted re-enslavement of freedmen who remained in the state for more than 12 months. This forced newly freed black people to leave enslaved kin behind. As slaveholders had to petition the legislature directly to gain permission for manumitted freedmen to stay in the state, there was a decline in manumissions after this date. In 1808, Jefferson denounced the international slave trade and called for

15620-556: The states. The resolutions followed the " interposition " approach of Madison, that states may shield their citizens from federal laws that they deem unconstitutional. Jefferson advocated nullification , allowing states to invalidate federal laws altogether. He warned that, "unless arrested at the threshold", the Alien and Sedition Acts would "drive these states into revolution and blood". Thomas Jefferson and slavery Privately, one of Jefferson's reasons for not freeing more slaves

15762-407: The terms of the will: At age 77, he pleaded an inability to act as executor due to his advanced age and the numerous legal complexities of the bequest—the will was contested by several family members and was tied up in the courts for years, long after Jefferson's death. Jefferson recommended his friend John Hartwell Cocke , who also opposed slavery, as executor, but Cocke likewise declined to execute

15904-554: The third of ten children. He was of English and possibly Welsh descent, and was born a British subject . His father, Peter Jefferson , was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen; his mother was Jane Randolph . Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 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 1753. Peter died in 1757, and his estate

16046-543: The two remaining sons of Sally, were freed by his will upon his death. Although not legally freed, Sally left Monticello with her sons. They were counted as free whites in the 1830 census. Madison Hemings, in an article titled, "Life Among the Lowly", in small Ohio newspaper called Pike County Republican, claimed that Jefferson was his father. Jefferson ran every facet of the four Monticello farms and left specific instructions to his overseers when away or traveling. Slaves in

16188-452: The two, Jefferson came in second, which made him Adams' vice president under the electoral laws of the time. Four years later, in the 1800 presidential election , Jefferson again challenged Adams and won the presidency. In 1804 , 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

16330-511: The west. When the General Assembly reconvened in June 1781, it conducted an inquiry into Jefferson's actions which eventually concluded that Jefferson had acted with honor—but he was not re-elected. 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. In 1782, Jefferson refused a partnership offer by North Carolina Governor Abner Nash , in

16472-456: The wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other. Jefferson may have borrowed from Suetonius , a Roman biographer, the phrase "wolf by the ears", as he held a book of his works. Jefferson characterized slavery as a dangerous animal (the wolf) that could not be contained or freed. He believed that attempts to end slavery would lead to violence. Jefferson concluded

16614-414: 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"; Merrill D. Peterson described it as an accomplishment for which all Americans should be grateful. Jefferson was appointed a Virginia delegate to the Congress of the Confederation organized following the peace treaty with Great Britain in 1783. He

16756-402: The year after Jefferson married the young widow Martha Wayles Skelton , her father died. She and Jefferson inherited his estate, including 11,000 acres (4,500 ha), 135 slaves, and £4,000 of debt. With this inheritance, Jefferson became deeply involved with interracial families and financial burden. As a widower, his father-in-law John Wayles had taken his mixed-race slave Betty Hemings as

16898-722: Was "equal to tyranny". The historian David Brion Davis stated that in the years after 1785 and Jefferson's return from Paris, the most notable thing about his position on slavery was his "immense silence". Davis believed that, in addition to having internal conflicts about slavery, Jefferson wanted to keep his personal situation private; for this reason, he chose to back away from working to end or ameliorate slavery. As U.S. Secretary of State, Jefferson issued in 1795, with President Washington's authorization, $ 40,000 in emergency relief and 1,000 weapons to French slave owners in Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti ) in order to suppress

17040-513: Was 18. Margaret Bayard Smith remarked of the French fare, "The excellence and superior skill of his [Jefferson's] French cook was acknowledged by all who frequented his table, for never before had such dinners been given in the President's House". Edith and Fanny were the only slaves from Monticello to regularly live in Washington. They did not receive a wage, but earned a two-dollar gratuity each month. They worked in Washington for nearly seven years and Edith gave birth to three children while at

17182-495: Was a member of the committee setting foreign exchange rates and recommended an American currency based on the decimal system that was adopted. 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 1783–1784 session, Jefferson acted as chairman of committees to establish

17324-576: 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 16-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

17466-572: Was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1767, and lived with his mother at Shadwell. He represented Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1769 until 1775. He pursued reforms to slavery, including writing and sponsoring legislation in 1769 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

17608-608: Was customary, he brought some of the household workers he held in slavery, including Mary Hemings , to serve in the governor's mansion in Richmond. Facing a British invasion in January 1781, Jefferson and the Assembly members fled the capital and moved the government to Charlottesville, leaving the workers enslaved by Jefferson behind. Hemings and other enslaved people were taken by the British as prisoners of war; they were later released in exchange for captured British soldiers. In 2009,

17750-484: Was destroyed in a fire at his Shadwell home. His second library replenished the first. It grew to 1,250 titles by 1773, and to nearly 6,500 volumes by 1814. Jefferson organized his books into three broad categories corresponding with elements of the human mind: memory, reason, and imagination. After British forces burnt the Library of Congress during the 1814 Burning of Washington , Jefferson sold his second library to

17892-462: Was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph . John Harvie Sr. became 13-year-old Thomas' guardian. Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres (2,000 ha; 7.8 sq mi), which included Monticello , and he assumed full legal authority over the property at age 21. Jefferson began his education together with the Randolph children at Tuckahoe under tutors. Thomas' father Peter, who

18034-463: Was elected as President of the United States over John Adams . In addition to winning the popular vote, Jefferson won more electoral votes than Adams, aided by southern power. The Constitution provided for the counting of slaves as three fifths of their total population, to be added to a state's total population for purposes of apportionment and the electoral college. States with large slave populations, therefore, gained greater representation even though

18176-613: Was expressly authorized by the Constitution, and was fully anticipated during the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The end of international trade also increased the monetary value of existing slaves. Although Jefferson did not lead the campaign to prohibit the importation of slaves, Historian John Chester Miller rated Jefferson's two major presidential achievements as the Louisiana Purchase and

18318-513: 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. Jefferson treasured his books and amassed three sizable libraries in his lifetime. He began assembling his first library, which grew to 200 volumes, in his youth. It included books inherited from his father and left to him by Wythe. In 1770, however, Jefferson's first library

18460-429: Was his considerable debt, while his more public justification, expressed in his book Notes on the State of Virginia , was his fear that freeing enslaved people into American society would cause civil unrest between white people and former slaves. Jefferson consistently spoke out against the international slave trade and outlawed it while he was president. He advocated for a gradual emancipation of all slaves within

18602-462: Was not renewed. Jefferson continued his pro-France stance; during the violence of the Reign of Terror , he declined to disavow the revolution: "To back away from France would be to undermine the cause of republicanism in America." In the presidential campaign of 1796 , Jefferson lost the electoral college vote to Federalist John Adams 71–68 and was thus elected vice president. As presiding officer of

18744-531: 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. While at William & Mary, Jefferson became a member of the Flat Hat Club . Jefferson concluded his formal studies in April 1762. He read the law under Wythe's tutelage while working as a law clerk in his office. Jefferson

18886-499: Was on the eve of the greatest emigration of U.S. Blacks to the island-nation . Jefferson told Whitcomb that he had never seen Blacks do well in governing themselves, and thought they would not do it without the help of Whites. In 1806, with concern developing over the rise in the number of free black people, the Virginia General Assembly modified the 1782 slave law to discourage free black people from living in

19028-461: Was one of the youngest delegates to the Second Continental Congress beginning in 1775 at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War , where a formal declaration of independence from Britain was overwhelmingly favored. Jefferson was inspired by the Enlightenment ideals of the sanctity of the individual, and the writings of Locke and Montesquieu . Jefferson sought out John Adams ,

19170-631: Was quoted as saying, "Architecture is my delight, and putting up, and pulling down, one of my favorite amusements." Construction was done mostly by local masons and carpenters, assisted by Jefferson's slaves. He moved into the South Pavilion in 1770. Turning Monticello into a neoclassical masterpiece in the Palladian style was his perennial project. On January 1, 1772, Jefferson married his third cousin Martha Wayles Skelton ,

19312-474: Was rejected by the Congress by one vote due to an absent representative from New Jersey . On April 23, Congress accepted Jefferson's 1784 Ordinance, but removed the clause prohibiting slavery in all the territories. Jefferson said that southern representatives defeated his original proposal. Jefferson was only able to obtain one southern delegate to vote for the prohibition of slavery in all territories. The Library of Congress notes, "The Ordinance of 1784 marks

19454-429: Was self-taught and regretted not having a formal education, entered Thomas into an English school at age five. In 1752, 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. He

19596-615: Was silent in that awful moment!" Jefferson's Ordinance of 1784 did influence the Ordinance of 1787 , that prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory . It would also serve as inspiration and citation for future attempts to restrict slavery's domestic expansion. In 1848, senator David Wilmot cited it while trying to build support for the Wilmot Proviso , which would have banned slavery in territory captured during

19738-592: Was taught from 1758 to 1760 by the Reverend James Maury near Gordonsville, Virginia , where he studied history, science, and the classics while boarding with Maury's family. 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. In Williamsburg, the young Jefferson met and came to admire Patrick Henry , eight years his senior, and shared

19880-433: Was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence . Following the American Revolutionary War and before becoming president in 1801, 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

20022-504: Was then elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for Albemarle County in September 1776, when finalizing the state constitution was a priority. 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. The bill failed to pass, as did his legislation to disestablish

20164-535: 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. Wythe was so impressed with Jefferson that he later bequeathed his entire library to him. On July 20, 1765, Jefferson's sister Martha married his close friend and college companion Dabney Carr , which

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