Jefferson was nine years old when he began his formal studies, boarding with a minister-teacher nine months out of the year. He continued boarding school until age sixteen, and excelled in classical languages. In 1760, Jefferson enrolled at the College of William and Mary, taking classes in science, mathematics, rhetoric, philosophy, and literature. Jefferson pursued legal studies under George Wythe. Under Wythe's tutelage, Jefferson emerged as perhaps the nation's best-read lawyer upon his admission to the Virginia bar in April 1767. For Jefferson, the study of law was more than just a means of earning a living. Jefferson believed that examining legal issues enabled one to consider the aspects of society, including its history, politics, culture, institutions, and the moral conscience of its people.

In the 1700, few Americans could afford the education that Jefferson received. He owed his good fortune to the financial success of his father, Peter Jefferson who was a wealthy planter . By the time of his fathers death in 1757, the elder Jefferson owned 7,000 acres of land in western Virginia. Thomas was only fourteen years old when his father died, so the young Jefferson looked to his teachers for fatherly advice and direction.

As a young country lawyer, Jefferson practiced law on a circuit, following the meetings of the colonial court as it traveled to various district seats throughout Virginia. It was during these unsettled years that he met and fell in love with twenty-three-year-old Martha Wayles Skelton, a wealthy widow and daughter of a prominent Virginia lawyer and landowner. Martha and Thomas married and moving into a stark one-room brick house at Jefferson's Virginia plantation, which he called Monticello. Over the years, the house would become an architectural gem designed and built by Jefferson and his slave laborers. Much of Jefferson's fine furniture was built by his slaves, who were highly skilled designers and craftsmen.

Monticello

Jefferson was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1769 to 1774 and played an active role in the organization of the Virginia Committee of Correspondence. Colonial resentment against Britain was fomenting and this committee represented an underground group of political agitators which worked to oppose British domination of the colonies. In presenting his arguments, Jefferson wrote "Summary View of the Rights of British America" in 1774. This document propelled him into the larger spotlight. He became known as a man of immense abilities in articulating the colonial position for independence. He was known as one of the leading radicals who argued that the British Parliament had no authority at all to make laws for the colonies.

When the revolutionary Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in 1776, Jefferson found himself appointed with four other delegates to write a declaration of independence. This group of five men was destined to lead the new nation. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were the other four members and they deferred to Jefferson to draft the document. Jefferson's selection was based upon his powerful writing style and the fact that he represented the interests of Virginia, the most influential southern colony. Virginia's leadership in stating the colonial cause was a key in creating a united front against Britain. The respected Benjamin Franklin backed off from penning a first draft, saying that he would never write anything for others to edit. John Adams handed the task over to Jefferson, expressing his admiration of Jefferson's superior writing skills. Adams said that Jefferson was unmatched in his eloquence and his penetrating mind.

Jefferson wrote the draft and presented it to the committee as a simple piece designed to present in plain and firm terms the "common sense" of independence. The document's structure included a statement of principles and then a list of grievances. After debating the issues of substance for three days, Congress approved "The Unanimous Declaration of the 13 United States of America" on July 4th, 1776. The Continental Congress never officially called it the Declaration of Independence.

The document asserted of fundamental human rights and provided a compact statement of a government that underlies the Republic. In Jefferson's mind, the Declaration of Independence would provide the foundation for the creation of an American society truly representative and egalitarian. Because Jefferson authored this important document, it positioned him as one of the new nation's most important Founding Fathers. Jefferson would now be equal to Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, and John Adams.

From 1776 to 1779, Jefferson served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, where he successfully sought to abolish legal devices that preserved land estates and passed them on to eldest sons, exclusive of any other family members, upon the father's death. Jefferson's efforts to abolish primogeniture would strike a blow at inherited concentrations of wealth. It was a difficult fight, but Jefferson eventually won. From that time forward, Wills and or the courts would establish ownership after death.

Jefferson also authored the famous Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, which was finally passed into law thanks to the efforts of Jefferson's friend James Madison. Jefferson believed in a divine creator who had set creation in motion according to a set of natural laws that required no further intervention by a deity in the universe. For Jefferson, God was not a personal savior, and he looked upon all established religions as cultural artifacts. He opposed the use of religion by government as a means of granting privileges or imposing duty upon the citizenry. Jefferson argued that such a misuse enslaved the human mind and thus violated the principle of liberty upon which a democracy should rest. Jefferson feared that religion would hinder the development of a national elite, a moral and ethical group of aristocrats who would lead the nation.

Jefferson wanted a system of free public education. All white male Virginians, he argued, should be educated to literacy at lower schools while the naturally superior of mind and talent should be supported in a system of higher education. These intellectually talented men would then become the natural leaders of the nation. Jefferson asserted that the only barrier to a student's admittance to the university should be his own intellectual limits.

During the War, Jefferson served two years as governor of Virginia. The governor had no veto power over legislation and was subject to the decisions of an eight-man council of state that decided policy. When the British overran much of Virginia, the administration was forced to abandon the capitol at Richmond. Jefferson fled from his home at Monticello, barely escaping capture by a British raiding party. Jefferson was portrayed as a coward that refused to stand his ground.

Thomas felt rejected, embarrassed, and was also concerned about the health of his wife, Jefferson retired to Monticello. On November 6th, 1782, Jefferson wife, Martha, died in childbirth. He was completely shattered and threw himself into the solitary world of his writing, penning his only book, entitled Notes on the State of Virginia. Jefferson defended his plans for freedom of religion and universal education while advocating a wide distribution of property as the only means of insuring a free and independent people.

Jefferson believed in the racial inferiority of blacks. Jefferson concluded "that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind."

Virginia sent Jefferson to the Confederation Congress in 1783, where he worked to establish the decimal system as the nation's basis of measurement. In 1784, Jefferson drafted an ordinance providing for the temporary government of western territories under congressional control. The national domain was to be divided into ten districts, and once the population of each district reached 20,000, the residents could call a convention and establish a territorial constitution and government of their own choosing. When the territorial population then reached a size equal to the smallest of the original thirteen states, the residents could petition Congress for statehood.

Jefferson's original proposal included a provision prohibiting slavery in the new states, but Congress rejected this part by a vote of seven to six. In 1784, Jefferson also helped draft an ordinance for surveying and selling congressional lands. Jefferson's ordinance established the basic framework of federal land policy. The 1784 Territorial Government Ordinance was replaced with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which prohibited slavery in those lands organized north of the Ohio River. The ordinance also replaced Jefferson's guarantee of initial self-government with congressionally appointed governors and judges.

Beginning in 1785, Jefferson served as America's minister to France. In this post, he negotiated commercial treaties and closely observed the disorderly events leading up to the French Revolution. As a widower, Jefferson enjoyed his years in France, living there with his two daughters. By the time he left France, he was convinced that French philosophers and artists, would eventually prove the foundation for a new world order that would benefit of all humanity.

While in France, Jefferson corresponded with members of the Constitutional Convention during 1787 and 1788. Jefferson communicated with James Madison about the events surrounding the creation of a new form of government. Jefferson supported the ratification of the U.S. Constitution but emphasized the need for a bill of rights, amendments to the Constitution that would safeguard basic civil liberties, such as the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, religion, the right to bear arms, and the right to have a speedy trial by a jury of one's peers.

Beginning in 1790, Jefferson served as Washington's secretary of state in the nation's first administration. As department head, Jefferson efficiently organized government business, operating with only a handful of employees and a budget of just $10,000. He supported closer relations with France and viewed England with skepticism. England and France were at war, and Hamilton won Washington's agreement to honor a pro-British policy of neutrality rather than the treaty providing for assistance to France, which Jefferson favored.

Jefferson enjoyed Washington's complete confidence but found that the President was increasingly influenced by Alexander Hamilton. As Jefferson's chief rival for the President's attention, Hamilton succeeded in swaying Washington in favor of a strong centralized government. Hamilton's successful policy agenda included federally funding state debts that were incurred during the war with England, creating a national bank, supporting commerce and manufacturing as the economic foundation of the new Republic, and using England as an economic model.

In the election of 1796, Jefferson was the favorite of Democratic-Republican opponents of the Washington administration but Thomas Jefferson came in second to Federalist John Adams in electoral college votes and became Adams's vice president.

In 1800 the political tide had turned against the Federalist Party of Adams and Hamilton. With a tie vote in the electoral college, and a protracted deadlock in the House of Representatives, Jefferson finally emerged as the winner. Jefferson won the close race because of the three-fifths clause of the Constitution, which gave states with large slave populations additional votes. In his inaugural address, Jefferson pled for national unity in an attempt to heal the wounds of a vicious campaign and to gain support from the Federalist-controlled Congress. Due to a relatively placid first term, prosperity, lower taxes, and a reduction of the national debt, Jefferson won a landslide victory in 1804.

Jefferson believed in a "wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another" but which otherwise left them free to regulate their own affairs. He reduced the number of government employees, slashed Army enlistments, and cut the national debt. Jefferson had to deal with the political war waged between his Republican Party and the Federalists. The battles were focused on the nation's judiciary branch and the landmark ruling in Marbury v. Madison, which established the independent power of the Supreme Court, was handed down during Jefferson's presidency.

While President, Jefferson pushed toward Federalist policies that contrasted with his political philosophy. Jefferson attempted to put an end to the bribes that the United States had been paying to the Barbary states for many years. This resulted in a war with Tripoli and Jefferson was forced to use his navy and to rethink his policy of reducing the U.S. military. The United States at first enjoyed an economic boom due to the war between England and France, the British navy's practice of forcing American sailors into British service led to Jefferson's disastrous suspension of trade with both France and England. This trade war devastated the economy and propelled America into war with England.

Jefferson preferred a simple lifestyle during his time in office, he often greeted his dinner guests in old homespun clothes and a pair of worn bedroom slippers. Having lost his, Jefferson relied on his two married daughters and the wife of his secretary of state, Dolley Madison, as his official hostesses. In 1809, Jefferson retired to his Virginia plantation home, Monticello, where he continued pursuing his widely diverse interests in science, natural history, philosophy, and the classics. Jefferson also devoted himself to founding the University of Virginia.

Recent DNA evidence presents a convincing case that Jefferson was the biological father of Sally Heming's children, and most historians now believe that Jefferson and Hemings had a long-term sexual relationship. Sally was one of Jefferson's slaves, after Martha's death. Jefferson was ambivalent about slavery throughout his career. As a young politician, he argued for the prohibition of slavery in new American territories, yet he never freed his own slaves.

After carrying on a long and fascinating correspondence with John Adams while both men were in the twilight of their lives, Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years to the day from the day he signed of the Declaration of Independence.