Thomas Jefferson

Born April 13, 1743 — Died July 4, 1826

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the third President of the United States, and one of the most consequential thinkers in American history. A Virginia planter, lawyer, architect, and philosopher, he embodied the Enlightenment ideals that shaped a new nation.

Early Life and Education

Born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell plantation in Albemarle County, Virginia, Jefferson was raised in the gentry class of colonial Virginia. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a surveyor and planter of modest standing; his mother, Jane Randolph, came from one of the colony's most prominent families. When his father died in 1757, the fourteen-year-old Jefferson inherited five thousand acres and dozens of enslaved people, giving him the economic foundation that would support his lifelong intellectual pursuits.

Jefferson attended the College of William & Mary from 1760 to 1762, where he fell under the influence of professor William Small, who introduced him to the Scottish Enlightenment and kept him reading voraciously in philosophy, mathematics, and natural science. He then read law under the eminent George Wythe and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1767. By his mid-twenties Jefferson had assembled one of the largest private libraries in British North America, a collection that would eventually number nearly 6,500 volumes.

The Declaration of Independence

Jefferson entered the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769 and quickly established himself as a forceful advocate for colonial rights. His 1774 pamphlet A Summary View of the Rights of British America argued that Parliament had no legitimate authority over the colonies, earning him a continental reputation. When the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in 1775, Jefferson arrived as one of its youngest delegates.

In June 1776, Congress appointed a Committee of Five — including Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin — to draft a declaration of independence. Adams deferred to Jefferson as the primary author, recognizing his "happy talent of composition." Jefferson worked in relative privacy for seventeen days, producing a document that drew on John Locke's natural-rights philosophy while adding the radical democratic claim that "all men are created equal." Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776. The text would become the most quoted founding document in American and world history.

Presidency and Later Years

After serving as Virginia's governor, minister to France, Secretary of State under George Washington, and Vice President under John Adams, Jefferson won the bitterly contested election of 1800 — a peaceful transfer of power he called the "Revolution of 1800." His two terms as President (1801–1809) were defined by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition that mapped the vast new territory.

In retirement at his Monticello estate, Jefferson founded the University of Virginia, which opened in 1825, designed its iconic Rotunda building, and organized its curriculum — all part of his lifelong commitment to public education. He died on July 4, 1826, at age 83. His legacy is complex: he articulated ideals of liberty that have inspired movements worldwide while himself enslaving more than 600 people over his lifetime. Books such as American Sphinx by Joseph Ellis explore this enduring contradiction at the heart of Jefferson's life and legacy.