Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

The author of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson. He was born April,13 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia he died July 4, 1826 in his lovely Monticello home.

He was born into a wealthy family. Peter Jefferson his father was a successful planter and

well known surveyor. Thomas Jefferson mother belonged to one of the most distinguished families in Virginia. His father left him the inheritance of land. where he began to build Monticello when he was just 26 years old. Three years later he married Martha Wayles . His wife had six children, 4 of them died, so only 2 survived his wife soon died later of unknown causes. Thomas never found it in his heart to remarry. So in the meantime he kept his house in Monticello. He never felt entirely comfortable with his house so he always changed it around.

Well soon after Jefferson inherited slaves from his father and father in law. In a regular year he had 200 slaves most who were under the age of sixteen. About 80 of his slaves lived in Monticello the others lived on adjacent Albermale County plantations, and some on his forest estate. Jefferson roughly freed about three slaves in his lifetime and about five more in his will when he died he also let two slaves escape. All slaves were members of the Hemings family.

The seven slaves he did free became skilled tradesman. Jefferson attended a college by the name of William and Mary, Jefferson took up law and served on local government as a councilman. This was in his early professional life as a well known member of the continental congress he was selected in 1776 to pick the Declaration of Independence. Which has been known ever since as a charter of American independence. The document proclaims that all men are equal in rights, regardless of birth, wealth, or status, and that the government is the servant, not the master, of the people.

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