Thomas Jefferson's Major Accomplishments

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Virginia to Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph (Tucker). He was the third of ten children. He grew up in Tuckahoe, on a family friend’s plantation and began his childhood education there, studying Greek, Latin and French, and learned horse riding and began his nature studies (Tucker). A few years later, Jefferson’s father died in 1757 and left his estate to be divided among his two sons. Jefferson came into control of his property at the age of 21 (Malone). After his father’s death, Jefferson returned to Virginia in 1752, where he studied history, science and the classics under Reverend James Maury. Later, he studied mathematics, metaphysics and philosophy from Professor William Small and law under

Jefferson had six children from Martha, of whom only two, Martha Jefferson and Mary Jefferson, survived infancy (White House).

Jefferson has played a very important role in the creation of the United States of America. He was appointed in the Committee of Five that was formed to write the Declaration of Independence, and one of his biggest accomplishments is that he was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson’s words in the preamble “all men are created equal” has become one of the most famous sentence in the English language (Lucas). Another of Jefferson’s great contributions is his ‘Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom’ (Tucker). Even though it did not pass at that time, it was later passed by James Madison, and therefore, this is the basis of the religious freedom in America (Peterson). After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation was created, to which Jefferson was appointed as the Virginia delegate (Tucker). He also acted as the American ambassador to Europe in

He fights for laws to abolish slavery in the North, yet wants it to continue in the South, he writes letters to his friends lamenting the institution of slavery, yet publicly agrees that there is indeed a need for slavery in America. Early in his life, when he practiced law, Jefferson fought the famous case where he defended a slave, and when his client lost the case, he offered him money, which presumably helped him escape. Jefferson may have advocated strongly for the freedom of slaves in his early years, and he may have written the famous line, ‘all men are created equal’ but that does not mean that he believed that African Americans were equal to the white Americans. His proclamation only stands for European and American people. He believed that African Americans were inferior to the Europeans and they could not be freed, otherwise they would create havoc that would be impossible to solve. He never freed any slaves in his life, not even Sally Hemmings, who is believed to be his slave and concubine for 38 years, as well as the mother of several of his children. He did not publicly acknowledge his relationship with Sally Hemmings, nor did he free her, even after his death. Sally Hemmings was later freed by Jefferson’s descendants, as well as those children that he fathered from her. He only freed two slaves in his lifetime, which are believed to be his children from Sally Hemmings. He claimed that the reason