Thomas Jefferson Biography Summary

Biography of Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) is an American-born philosopher, writer and politician born to wealthy parents. His childhood life was associated with both the aristocratic and frontier level of society. At the age of fourteen years, he lost his father and later inherited his father’s property that included more than one-hundred slaves and 1,200 ha of land. In 1759, Thomas joined the William and Mary College in Virginia to study law became one of the most renowned lawyers in his colony after graduation. In 1772, Jefferson got married to Martha Wayles Skelton and they had six children. In 1769, an election saw him get into the House of Burgesses where he immediately identified himself with the radical and anti-British

Their coalition government had many challenges and their relationship in the government grew worse for the four years they were in office. He again ran against John Adam in the 1800 Presidential election and won and served for two terms. His term in office was characterised by political neutrality during the war in Europe, successfully and peacefully eliminating French as a potential threat and doubling the size of the United States of America through the Louisiana Purchase. However, his regime abolished many of the basic legal processes as well as inventing the doctrine of “executive privileges”. He became very nervous till he could not read most of his annual State of the Union speech to Congress. His political party, the Democratic-Republican forced opposition, Federalists out of national politics. This saw three Democratic-Republican Presidents controlling the white house for the next twenty years in what has been known as the Virginia

This library was later purchased by the Congress and this formed the basis of the present day Library of Congress. Thomas Jefferson died on 4th July 1826 at the age of 83 years exactly fifty years after the adoption of his Declaration of Independence.

For his own epitaph, Jefferson wrote: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and the father of the University of Virginia.” In summary, Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America (1776), the first secretary of state (1789-1794), second Vice President (1797-1801) and the third President of the United States of