Our Independence

For hundreds of years our independence has been owed to a man and his intelligence. A man by the name of Thomas Jefferson, proved to us Americans that he could make a difference, a better change for our country, and for him all it took was a document called the Declaration Of Independence.

Thomas Jefferson our third president was one of the most brilliant individuals in history. He was a philosopher, educator, naturalist, politician, scientist, architect, inventor, pioneer in scientific farming, musician, and writer, and he was the foremost spokesman for democracy of his day. He was born on April 13, 1743, in Albemarle County, Virginia. He died on July 4, 1826, the fifteenth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was a Virginia delegate. Jefferson was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. This was the lower chamber of the Virginia legislature, which was called the General Assembly. He was elected into assembly in 1768 and took his seat at Williamsburg in the spring of 1769. On June 21, 1775, Jefferson took his seat at the second Continental Congress. Jefferson being one of the five-man committee was chosen to write the first draft of the Declaration of Independence.

The declaration was used by the 13 British North American colonies to declare their independence from Great Britain and King George. The Declaration of Independence was adopted in final form on July 4, 1776. The document transformed the colonists’ struggle with Great Britain from a defense of their rights as Englishmen to a revolution aimed at overthrowing the existing form of government.