Why Is Thomas Jefferson Important

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Thomas Jefferson believed to be one of the most complicated, contradictory Presidents America has seen. In fact even in this day and age we are still amazed by and infatuated with trying to figure him out. He was considered to be a little unorthodox.Thomas Jefferson was born on April thirteenth, 1743 and later died on July fourth, 1826. Jefferson was one of the famous American Founding Fathers, the third President of the United States and was one of the authors of The Declaration of Independence. He was a republican that preached individual rights for all the people of the United States of America in which he inhabited. Thomas Jefferson was a symbol for optimism in America when America needed him the most.

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After peace negotiations with France, the Republicans reduced military forces. Years later he waged a naval attack against the Barbary Coast states in North Africa to defend American shipping. His second term was rather rocky and controversial, like the attempted treason trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr. As a reaction to British threats to American shipping he signed the commerce embargo laws of 1807, which coincidentally did not work well on American foreign trade. In 1807, he signed into law the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves that banned slave importation into the United States. He founded the University of Virginia after he was president. Jefferson was an excellent writer and worked with several people in America and Europe that had more than just a minor influence on American history. Jefferson had sexual relations with female slave Sally Hemings shortly after the death of his beloved wife and first lady Martha. It is believed that they had children who ended up still being slaves and worked for Jefferson. He consistently voiced an opposition to slavery, yet owned hundreds of slaves and freed only a few of them which has considered to ironic and hypocritical. Jefferson is one of the most successful presidents in