Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States. A Virginia planter, lawyer, architect and scholar, he championed liberty and religious freedom, while himself holding more than six hundred people in slavery during his life.
Works
The Declaration of Independence
Virginia
Jefferson was born on 13 April 1743 at Shadwell, in Virginia, the son of a surveyor and planter. He studied at the College of William & Mary, then law, and was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769.
He began building Monticello, his house on a hilltop near Charlottesville, which he designed himself and kept remodelling for decades.
Independence
Sent to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Jefferson, aged thirty-three, was chosen in June 1776 to draft the Declaration of Independence, which Congress adopted on 4 July after revisions.
He then served as governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and was minister to France from 1785 to 1789, where he witnessed the beginning of the French Revolution.
President
Secretary of state under Washington and vice-president under John Adams, he was elected president in 1800. In 1803 he bought Louisiana from France, doubling the size of the country, and sent Lewis and Clark to explore the West.
In retirement he founded the University of Virginia. He died at Monticello on 4 July 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration, a few hours before John Adams.
Anecdotes
Same day as Adams
Jefferson and John Adams, rivals and later friends, both died on 4 July 1826. Adams's last words are said to have been 'Thomas Jefferson survives', not knowing that Jefferson had died a few hours earlier.
His own epitaph
Jefferson wrote his own epitaph and listed only three achievements: author of the Declaration of Independence and of the Virginia statute for religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia. His presidency is not mentioned.
Frequently asked questions
Did Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence alone?
He wrote the draft, which was revised by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and then by Congress, which cut about a quarter of it.
What is Monticello?
Jefferson's house and plantation near Charlottesville, Virginia, which he designed himself. It is now a museum and a World Heritage Site.
What was the Louisiana Purchase?
The purchase from France in 1803 of a vast territory west of the Mississippi, which doubled the size of the United States.