Thomas Jefferson wrote the principal draft of the Declaration of Independence and later became the third president of the United States. His part in the American Revolution also included legislative work, the governorship of Virginia, and efforts to change the state’s laws. His language about equality needs to be understood alongside his ownership of enslaved people and the racial views expressed in his writings.
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Family, education, and books
Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, Virginia, to Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph Jefferson. He was the third of ten children. His father was a planter and surveyor whose estate included land and enslaved people. When Peter died in 1757, property passed to Thomas and his younger brother Randolph, not “Randall.” Thomas’s inheritance included land on which he later built Monticello.
Jefferson studied with tutors and at the school of the Reverend James Maury before entering the College of William and Mary in 1760, shortly before his seventeenth birthday. He studied there until 1762 and then read law with George Wythe. He entered legal practice in 1767. Monticello’s account explains that he did not earn a college degree; finishing that course of study was not the same as graduating with one.
Books remained central to Jefferson’s life. A fire at Shadwell in 1770 destroyed an early library, but he continued collecting. In 1815, after British troops burned the Capitol and its library, Congress purchased his collection of 6,487 volumes. He then began building another library. His reading shaped his political thought, architecture, and interest in natural history.
![[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:House_of_Burgesses_in_the_Capitol_Williamsburg_James_City_County_Virginia_by_Frances_Benjamin_Johnston.jpg)
Law, politics, and slavery
As a lawyer, Jefferson handled a range of cases, including a freedom suit for Samuel Howell in 1770. Howell’s claim concerned a particular Virginia law governing descendants of white women and enslaved men; it was not a general rule that all enslaved people became free at thirty-one. Jefferson’s argument failed, and speculation about money given to finance an escape is not a sound basis for recounting the case.
Jefferson entered the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769. He supported some restrictions on slavery and the slave trade while remaining a slaveholder himself. His positions changed over time and included serious contradictions. Opposition to particular laws or practices should not be mistaken for personal adherence to racial equality or a general program of immediate emancipation.
Planning and construction of Monticello began in the late 1760s. On January 1, 1772, Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton, the widow of Bathurst Skelton. Music, reading, household responsibilities, and public life formed part of their marriage. Their plantation household also depended on the labor of enslaved people.
Thomas and Martha had six children, of whom Martha and Mary survived to adulthood. Martha Jefferson died in September 1782, after ten years of marriage. Thomas did not remarry. Accounts of her final illness and of promises made at her bedside should be distinguished from what surviving records establish with confidence.
The Declaration and the Virginia governorship
Jefferson represented Virginia in the Continental Congress in 1775 and 1776. In June 1776, Congress appointed a committee of five to prepare a declaration; Jefferson wrote the principal draft, which the committee and Congress revised. He then returned to Virginia public service. He served two one-year terms as governor of the independent state, from 1779 to 1781—not one term as a colonial governor before writing the Declaration.
British raids exposed the difficulties of governing Virginia during the war. Jefferson fled Richmond during Benedict Arnold’s campaign in January 1781. Later that year, British cavalry under Banastre Tarleton threatened Charlottesville and Monticello. These were separate episodes. Jack Jouett’s warning helped Jefferson and legislators escape the June raid. Jefferson’s wartime leadership drew criticism as well as support.
Jefferson’s writings and historical legacy
During the war, Jefferson began the work that became Notes on the State of Virginia. The book addresses geography, natural history, government, and society. It also expresses racist judgments about Black people; it does not argue that Black and white people were equal in every respect. His public language of natural rights and his beliefs and practices concerning slavery cannot be made consistent simply by omitting one side of the record.
Jefferson’s later career included service as minister to France, secretary of state, vice president, and president. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation concludes that he fathered at least six children with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Monticello. Calling this merely a “probable affair” understates the historical evidence and the unequal conditions of slavery. He died on July 4, 1826. His revolutionary work remains consequential, but its meaning is clearer when examined with those contradictions in view.
Learn More
Jefferson’s Formal Education — Monticello
Thomas Jefferson — White House Historical Association
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings — Monticello
Declaration of Independence Timeline — National Park Service
John Adams in the American Revolution
