Attorney Thomas
Attorney Thomas Jefferson (born April 13, 1743 – died July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence written in 1776, and considered one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. Attorney Thomas Jefferson envisioned America as the force behind a great “Empire of Liberty”, that would counter the imperialism of the British Empire and promote republicanism.
Historic events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1804 to 1806, as well as escalating tensions with both France and Britian that led to war with Britain in 1812, after he left the presidential office.
As a political philosopher, Attorney Thomas Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders in France and Britain. He distrusted cities and financiers, idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, and was in favor of states’ rights and strictly limited federal government. Thomas Jefferson supported the separation of church and state and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). He was the namesake of Jeffersonian democracy and the cofounder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for twenty-five (25) years. Thomas Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781, the first United States Secretary of State from 1789 to 1793, and the second Vice President from 1797 to 1801.
A polymath, Attorney Thomas Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a political leader, horticulturist, architect, paleontologist, archaeologist, inventor, and the founder of the University of Virginia. To date, Thomas Jefferson is the only president to serve two (2) full terms in office without vetoing a single bill of Congress. Scholars have consistently ranked Attorney Thomas Jefferson as one of the greatest of U.S. presidents.
In 1768 Jefferson started the construction of Monticello, a neoclassical mansion. Thomas Jefferson had wanted to build a beautiful mountaintop home within site of Shadwell since he was a child. Jefferson went deeply in debt on Monticello by spending lavishly on the Monticello Estate creating a neoclassical environment, based on his study of the architect Andrea Palladio and The Orders.
Monticello was also Jefferson’s slave plantation. Throughout a period lasting seventy (70) years, Attorney Thomas Jefferson owned over 600 slaves. Many of the slaves at the plantation intermarried amongst each other and had children. Jefferson paid only a few of his trusted slaves in important positions for work done or for performing difficult tasks such as cleaning chimneys or privies. Although there were no direct workday references, Thomas Jefferson’s slaves probably worked from dawn to dusk, with longer or shorter days according to the season. Fragments of records indicate a rich spiritual life at the Monticello slave quarters, incorporating both African and Christian. Although there are no records that Jefferson instructed slaves in education, several enslaved men at Monticello could read and write.