On April 13th, 1743, a boy’s name became Thomas
Jefferson because his parents named him that.
His father’s name was Peter Jefferson. Peter was a very rich
man, whose property was very vast. He named the property Shadwell. In 1739,
Peter married Jane Randolph.
Thomas had five sisters and four other brothers named from
youngest to oldest: Randolph, Anna Scott, Lucy, an unnamed son, Peter Field,
Martha, Thomas, Mary, and Jane.
Thomas was a very lively boy. He loved books,
literature, and his fiddle1. The property they lived on had many
buildings on it such as cabins, stables, and barns. He would often hide in the
cabins when he was playing hide and seek or when he wanted to be alone2.
On rainy days, he would have a duet with his sister, Jane. In the duet, Tom
would play his fiddle while Jane was playing her harpsichord.
By the time Tom was 14, his father died. When he died,
Tom became the head of the house.
Thomas studied and took his duties very seriously. Because
of his seriously done school work, by the time he was 16 ,he was ready to go to college. His
college was the William and Mary College, which was in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Tom liked to read and study so he liked college very much. Jefferson was often
invited to the governor’s palace because the governor liked people who were
smart.
Tom was interested into politics, mainly because Mr. Wythe, a famous
lawyer, often came to the governor’s palace to talk about it. Once he finally graduated in
1762, He asked Mr. Wythe to train him to become a lawyer. Tom spent the next
five years with Mr. Wythe studying about martial law, Speaking and reading
well, studying history, and listening in courts.
One day in 1765, when the
revolution was starting to form, Tom was strolling down the street. He was heading
to the capitol building and heard angry voices inside. A heavy tax was put on
the Americans. Americans weren’t allowed to vote on laws so they were just
ordered to pay them. Then Tom’s friend, Patrick Henry stood up and stated that
the men in the colonies were free men and that they had the right to vote on
laws. Thomas agreed with everything that Patrick said and he later wrote the
quote, “The God who gave us life gave us
liberty at the same time.”
Thomas wanted his own house.
He chose the top of a hill where could see green pastures in every direction.
He spent weeks on his drawing board making designs for his future home using
ancient Greek and Roman models.
He after met Martha Skelton
and got married. The happy family lived in a little cottage while their new
home was being built. Later, the mansion was built and it was named it
Monticello.
Soon, America was starting to
prepare for war against England. In a special meeting at the House of
Burgesses, Patrick Henry stood up and spoke the famous quote, “Give me liberty
or give me death.”
In 1776, the second Continental
Congress took place in Philadelphia. Tom went but didn’t want to go because his
wife was under the weather. The ride to Philadelphia took 10 days. When he got
there, they were already quarreling about what to do. Finally, they decided to
declare their independence against Britain.
They decided on making a
Declaration of independence. Thomas wanted John Adams to do it, but John
replied that Tom’s handwriting was 10 times better than his.
Thomas rented a little room to
write the declaration in. On July 4th 1776, the 13 states finally
declared their independence by signing the declaration. On the same day, Thomas
went to a store and bought a doll3 for his daughter, Patsy Jefferson.
Finally in 1781, the Revolutionary
war had ended and the Americans won. At Monticello, Martha was
getting worse from her sickness. About a year after the war ended, Martha died.
Although Tom liked school, his
daughter Patsy did not as much. Thomas had to go to Paris, France to do some
ambassador work. Patsy was to go to a school in Annapolis. But soon, Patsy got
a letter from her father saying that Patsy was going to Paris with him.
When they arrived, Patsy felt
very happy until Tom told her that tomorrow was her first day in a French
School.
Americans didn’t come to France
that often, so many people were asking Thomas and Patsy questions about
America. Those questions were mostly about weird rumors such as, “do monsters
roam the streets?”
In
1796, John Adams was elected as the second president of the U.S.
In the
election of 1800, Adams lost to Thomas Jefferson. Thomas moved into the White
House because it is where the president is supposed to live.
His
daughter, Patsy, now with six children, thought that Tom was very lonely. She
decided to move into the White House to live.
When Thomas was president, he
was trying to decide on what to do with the land to the west of the U.S. The
land was called Louisiana. It was ruled by the Spanish until in 1802; Emperor
Napoleon of France then took Louisiana from Spain for France.
Thomas became paranoid that
Napoleon was going to take the U.S. from him, so he asked an American
Ambassador in France to buy Louisiana from him. Napoleon said “yes” for 15
million dollars, which would be about 140 million dollars in today’s dollars.
Thomas wanted some maps of
Louisiana. He asked Captain Meriwether Lewis to make an expedition in
Louisiana. Lewis went and took with him none other than Lieutenant William
Clark. The expedition lasted about two years. When they got back they told Tom
about everything that happened. They had visited many Indian tribes to convince
them to become citizens of the U.S.
Most of them agreed. The ones
that didn’t, Thomas invited to a feast to show that we would be friendly to
them.
In 1809, Thomas Jefferson
retired to Monticello. Later, he built The University of Virginia. After that
in 1826, he died in Monticello.
1 Cottler, Joseph. Thomas Jefferson. Evanston,
Illinois:
Row, Peterson and Company, 1950.
2Cottler, Joseph. Thomas Jefferson.
Evanston, Illinois:
Row, Peterson and Company, 1950.
3Cottler, Joseph. Thomas Jefferson.
Evanston, Illinois:
Row, Peterson and Company, 1950.
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