Thomas Jefferson

I

Introduction

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third president of the United States (1801-1809) and author of the Declaration of Independence. He was one of the most brilliant individuals in history. His interests were boundless, and his accomplishments were great and varied. 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.

As president, Jefferson strengthened the powers of the executive branch of government. He was the first president to lead a political party, and through it he exercised control over the Congress of the United States. He had great faith in popular rule, and it is this optimism that is the essence of what came to be called Jeffersonian democracy.

Jefferson swore his hostility, he said, to “every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” During his lifetime he sought to develop a government that would best assure the freedom and well-being of the individual.

II

Early Life

Thomas Jefferson's father, Peter Jefferson, was a prosperous Virginia planter. His mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, was a member of the old and distinguished Randolph family of Virginia. In 1743 the Jeffersons moved to western Goochland County, where Peter Jefferson had acquired 162 hectares (400 acres) of undeveloped land. He named his estate Shadwell. At first the family lived in a simple wood-frame house.

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Thomas Jefferson was born in this house on April 13, 1743. A year after his birth, Albemarle County was formed from the western portion of Goochland County. Peter Jefferson soon became a leader in the new county. He was a justice of the peace, a magistrate, and commander of the county militia. Although young Jefferson was accepted into the Virginia aristocracy through his mother's family, it was his father, a self-made man, whom he especially admired.

In 1745, William Randolph, a cousin of Mrs. Jefferson and a close friend of the family, died. His will requested that Peter Jefferson move to his estate, manage the house and land, and supervise the education of Randolph's four children. The Jeffersons remained at Randolph's estate, known as Tuckahoe, for seven years.

A

Education

Thomas was five years old when he began his education under the family tutor at Tuckahoe. In 1752 the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell and again started work on a plantation home. Thomas, however, spent little time at Shadwell. Almost immediately he was sent to Northam in St. James Parish, Virginia, where he studied Latin with the Reverend William Douglas until 1757, when his father died. He was then sent to the school of the Reverend James Maury in Fredericksville Parish, Virginia, and spent two years studying Greek and Latin classics, history, literature, geography, and natural science.

Jefferson was a tall, slender boy with sandy hair of a reddish cast and fair skin that freckled and sunburned easily. A serious student, he also enjoyed the lighter aspects of the education of a Virginia gentleman. He learned to dance and play the violin and became an excellent horseman. Weekends and holidays he spent either at Shadwell entertaining guests or at his friends' plantations.

In March 1760 Jefferson entered the College of William and Mary in Virginia's capital city, Williamsburg, and soon came under the influence of Dr. William Small. Jefferson became a favorite of the doctor, who taught mathematics, natural history, metaphysics, and moral philosophy. Jefferson also continued his study of classical literature.

B

Lawyer

After two years at William and Mary, Jefferson left to study law with Dr. Small's friend George Wythe, the most learned lawyer in Virginia. Jefferson was very fond of Wythe and called him “my second father.” Even while reading law, Jefferson had many other interests. He studied French, Italian, and English history and literature. He was keenly interested in the new scientific theory of inoculation and traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to have himself inoculated against smallpox.

In 1767, after five years of work and study under Wythe, Jefferson was admitted to the practice of law in Virginia. He was reasonably successful as a lawyer, but he did not earn enough to support a Virginia gentleman. Jefferson's main source of income, like that of most other Virginia lawyers, was his land.

Throughout his years of law practice, Jefferson spent much time supervising the Shadwell plantation. In this occupation, as in his studies, he was most methodical. He observed the growth of his plants and trees, keeping records of them in a special garden book. A careful observer of his environment, he kept a lifelong record of such things as temperature, weather, expenses, recipes, and anything else that struck him as noteworthy. “There is,” he once wrote, “not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.”

The year of his admission to practice law, Jefferson began work on his mountaintop estate, Monticello, near what is now Charlottesville, Virginia. Jefferson designed the mansion himself in the classical style of architecture.

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