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Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia.
He was the eldest son of Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph Jefferson and had six siblings.
His father was a successful surveyor, which means he measured land for those wanting to buy it.
Thomas looked up to his father who taught him the importance of reading, hard work, and a good education.
Growing up Tom spent time with his cousins, which his parents helped raise.
They spent time traveling between his home of Shadwell and his cousin's estate of Tuckahoe.
In Shadwell, the Jefferson family lived near the woods.
So there Tom spent his time learning to ride a horse, fish, hunt, and explore the land around their estate.
He enjoyed being active and learning all about the wilderness near them.
During this time, most of the landowners in Virginia had enslaved people Enslaved people were bought as sold like property and often treated very harshly by their masters.
Tom grew up seeing these people work on his family property and watching his father buy and sell them to work on their land and help around their house.
Slavery in the South was an ugly part of American history. which led to the suffering of many African Americans at the time.
The tragedy of slavery would be a part of Thomas Jefferson's life. and later divide the entire country until the end of the Civil War.
When Tom was nine, he was sent back to Tuckahoe to be tutored by Reverend William Douglas.
There he learned many subjects and spent a lot of time reading.
He soon learned that he loved to read and spent many hours with his nose in a book.
It was at this time that Tom was also growing very tall.
He was also thin, and had red hair and freckles.
Others around him called him Tall Tom. Eventually he would grow to be 6 feet 2 inches, which was tall for his time.
In 1757, when Tom was 15, his father became ill and passed away.
He missed his father because he looked up to him so much.
Because Tom was the oldest son, he inherited his father's estate, which was a lot of land and money.
Not much longer after this, he was finished with tutors and started college in Williamsburg at the College of William and Mary.
There he made new friends, others interested in books and big ideas like him. and thought he'd like to become a lawyer.
This was when he started studying under George Wythe, one of the best lawyers and more knowledgeable people in the colonies.
Tom studied with him for five years, which was much longer than normal, but it was because he wanted to soak up all the knowledge he could from such a talented teacher.
George Wythe wanted Thomas to be a great lawyer too, so he worked him hard sharing as much knowledge as he could.
Later, Tom called George with his second father.
In 1767, Thomas Jefferson passed the law exam and started working full-time.
He was anxious to get to work and took on many cases his first year.
This kept him busy. but the large number of cases helped him learn and grow and become a more experienced attorney.
Tom knew that hard work and determination lead to more knowledge and skills and he wanted to be a lawyer that was as good as his teacher, George Wythe.
It was at this time that Tom also ran for office.
He was interested in politics. He won a seat on the House of Burgesses, which was the state of Virginia's governing body.
He started to help make new laws for Virginia, and it got him thinking about what makes up good and bad government.
In 1770, Tom was told by a messenger that their family home had burned down But fortunately, everyone was safe.
Quickly, Tom and his family got to work building a new 35-room mansion. which he later called Monticello.
Monticello means little mountain, and the home was very beautiful and elegantly designed.
You can still visit Monticello today, and it's interesting to learn about its design and see many interesting artifacts of Jefferson's In 1772, on New Year's Day, Tom married a woman he had fallen in love with named Martha.
They had met in 1770 and soon fell in love.
They both loved music and played the harpsichord and violin together.
Martha moved back to Monticello with Thomas. and over their 10 years of marriage had five daughters and a son.
At the time, many children didn't live very long, so only two of them survived.
Their names were Patsy and Maria. 1772 was a very important time in American history.
Americans were very upset at many of the laws England handmade. which forced them to pay higher taxes for imported goods such as tea, In 1773 in Boston, a group of colonists against the taxes disguised themselves snuck onto a British ship at night. and dump 342 boxes of tea into the ocean to protest the taxes.
This became known as the Boston Tea Party and led to England punishing the colonies even more for actions like this. they thought it would make the colonists submit and start paying taxes, But instead, Americans stopped buying goods from England.
They found ways to make their own clothes and grow their own food.
Because they didn't buy goods from England, this hurt the British.
This was another way they protested the unfair taxes.
The American colonists believed that if laws like this were going to be created, they should be able to vote for their own leads.
But the British didn't allow Americans to be part of their government in England.
Tom Jefferson was watching all of this happen and writing and thinking about He was part of the government of the colonies and knew he must act on what he believed to be right.
He agreed that the British taxes were unfair and banded with the other leaders to find a way to fight back against England.
Many people believed the colonies should be their own, free country, a United States of America.
Thomas and his friends decided all of the colonies, this is what they called states back then, should send leaders or delegates to meet and decide what to do next.
Delegates from the 13 colonies traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1774 and met in what became known as the First Continental Congress.
George Washington was also there, and Patrick Henry, who in a famous speech said, Give me liberty or give me death.
He, like many others, wanted the colonies to form their own government their own country separate from England.
Thomas Jefferson and the First Continental Congress tried to work with England to change its ways but they would not.
On April 19, 1775, a battle took place at Lexington and Concord.
Shots were fired and the war started between the colonies and England which became known as the American Revolution.
There was no turning back now. Thomas realized he was in the middle of one of the great moments of history and was determined to do his part to help the colonies become free.
Thomas didn't talk a lot, but he was an excellent writer.
He started to write down his ideas and hoped he could use them to inspire others to fight against England for their freedoms.
During the Second Meeting of the Colonies, the Second Continental Congress a committee was asked to write a Declaration of Independence.
This group included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams Roger Sherman Roger Livingstone and Thomas Jefferson The group debated and decided that Thomas should write the Declaration of Independence He was known for his skills and writing, so he took up the challenge and got to work.
He explained that how they were being treated was unfair and listed out all of the reasons why.
And as a result, they must break away and become their own country.
And then one of his best known passages, we hold these truths to be self-evident. that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
He also said, Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, It is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.
Then finally, we therefore, the representatives of the United States of America solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are, and of right out to be free and independent states.
When Thomas was finished he shared the Declaration of Independence with the Continental Congress.
They voted on it and it passed, and then after some changes, the final version was approved on July 4th.
This later became America's birthday and a famous holiday.
But interestingly, America wasn't yet a separate country.
But from this date is when it celebrated its independence, even though it was still at war.
Regardless, colonists started celebrating. having hope that at some future date they would be independent.
But the Declaration was powerful in its statement. and gave colonists the words that inspired them to freedom as they had a long fight ahead and it wasn't sure that they would win against the much more powerful and wealthy England and King George.
Tune into the next episode to learn about what happened next in the life of Thomas Jefferson.
