Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743. He was born in a house called Shadwell in Virginia. Later he moved to a house called Tuckahoe because his uncle died, and his family had to take care of the kids. Thomas learned to have a love for reading and writing. That's how the Continental Congress decided he should write the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson had two older sisters, four younger sisters and a brother. To avoid all the noise that kids make, Thomas read books.From 1760 - 1762 Thomas became interested in education and went to the College of William and Mary. He went on to study law and passed his bar examination. When he finished law school he started construction on his home, Monticello. Monticello is Italian for "little mountain" and was 857 feet tall. Thomas became a hard working lawyer with powerful ideas.Thomas Jefferson started his political life by serving in the Virginia House of Burgesses after his father from 1769-1775. During this time in 1772 he married a lady named Martha Wayles Skelton. While he served, Thomas and some other Burgesses started fighting against England and their taxes. Burgesses started sending notes to England complaining about their taxes. Jefferson's next political level was a Virginia Delegate in the First Continental Congress. Thomas was sick for the first meeting and sent in a pamphlet. This pamphlet was called A Summary Review of the Rights of British America. Delegates became impressed with his persuasive writing. This lead to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas finished writing the Declaration of Independence in three days. There were only 23 corrections. Thomas made 16 of them himself. While this was going on the Revolutionary War had begun as America fought England for independence. During this war, the House of Burgesses became the House of Delegates, fighting King George III. Thomas Jefferson became one of these Delegates. Thomas helped rewrite the Virginia law, after his experience as a lawyer, and gave religious freedom to the people.In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas included the phrase,"all men are created equal". He wanted slaves to work but be free and educated. Some Delegates didn't like this idea. Thomas had many slaves but tried to educate them and keep them free.In politics, Jefferson became the Governor of Virginia, to start with, which led him on to his political life of leadership. This governorship began in 1779 and ended 1781. He continued on his political journey by becoming the minister to France from 1785-1789. In 1882, Thomas Jefferson's wife died, which was very hard on him. Thomas started his national career in politics by joining George Washington's Cabinet, as Secretary of State from 1790-1793. After John Adams became President, Thomas Jefferson became Vice President in 1797 which ended in 1801.After serving as Vice President, Thomas Jefferson became the third President of the United States of America. This lasted from 1801 to 1809 because he got elected for two terms. During his role as President, Thomas Jefferson bought a big part of the United States, the Louisiana Purchase; he bought it from France for $15,000,000.Thomas Jefferson did make famous quotes; he quoted "I cannot live without books," and "Read good books because they will encourage as well as direct your feelings," also, "No society is as precious as that of ones family."So as you can see, Thomas Jefferson did many great things and played a big part in United States history. He helped form our country with his ideas. |