Thomas Jefferson

The Redheaded Reader

Thomas Jefferson

• 6’2 ½” tall• Slender• Erect• Sinewy• Angular features• Ruddy complexion

Born in Virginia

• Virginia was known as the “Mother of Presidents”

Childhood

• Childhood was divided between Shadwell on the edge of the wilderness and plantation

• Shadwell – learned to swim, fish, and hunt

• Plantation – dance, play violin, conduct self like an English gentlemen

Family Life

• Believed in freedom and was tormented by the fact that he owned slaves

• Had six children with his wife – 1772 Martha– 1774 Jane died 1 year– 1777 still born son– 1778 Mary– 1780 Lucy Elizabeth died 1 year– 1782 Lucy Elizabeth died 3 years

Sally Hemings

• Was a quadroon – a person with three white grandparents and one black grandparent

• Jefferson supposedly had 6 children with her.

Children of Sally Hemings

• Harriet Hemings

• Beverly Hemings (William Beverly Hemings)

• Harriet Hemings

• Madison Hemings (James Madison Hemings)

• Eston Hemings (Thomas Eston Hemings)

• Thomas Woodson Hemings

Evidence

• Hemings was living with Jefferson, either in Paris or at Monticello, at the time of the conceptions of all of her children

• Statements made by Madison Hemings and another former slave from Monticello who agreed with his account

• Hemings' children strongly resembled Jefferson physically

• Hemings' children were either manumitted or allowed to slip away from Monticello by Jefferson's descendants.

• Two of Jefferson's grandchildren stated long after Jefferson's death that the resemblance to Jefferson was because the Hemings children had been fathered by either Samuel or Peter Carr, the sons of Jefferson's sister. One grandchild insisted all of the Hemings children were Samuel's; the other said they were all Peter's

Findings

• In 1998, DNA evidence proved that Elston Hemings was undoubtedly the son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.

Life Motto

• It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Architect designed Monticello and the State Capitol of Virginia

Was Interested in Everything

• Collect prehistoric bones

• Passion for planting flowers and trees

• Violinist

• Inventor

• Wine lover and gourmet

• Founded the University of Virginia

• Loved languages (Latin, Greek, Gaelic, French)

• Very articulate writer• Poor public speaker, mumbled, lisp• Frank• Graceful• Sympathetic to friends, but cold to

strangers• Charming• Intense conviction• Emotionally temperamental

Privacy

• After the death of his wife, he burned all of their letters to each other.

Inventions

• New kind of plow

• Improved sundial

• Cipher wheel

• Device to send coded messages

Library

• Library became the basis for the Library of Congress

• Congress paid $23,950 for his 6,487 books after the British burned Washington D.C. and the Library of Congress in 1814

Declaration of Independence

• Was writer of Declaration of Independence called the “birth certificate of the United States.”

• Took him two weeks to write

• Used no reference books

Committee of Five

• Thomas Jefferson was on the committee chosen by the 2nd Continental Congress to write a document explaining to the world why America was declaring its independence.

• John Adams said, “Mr. Jefferson had the reputation of a masterly pen.”

• Thomas Jefferson– Was from the south– Was a good writer– Was passionate about liberty

Right and Wrong

• Thomas Jefferson believed that individuals have an innate sense of morality that prescribes right from wrong when dealing with other individuals – whether or not they choose to restrain themselves or not, they have an innate sense of the natural rights of others.

Primogeniture

• Thomas Jefferson abolished this practice

• 1st born son inherits everything

Nickel

• Thomas Jefferson on front

• Monticello on back

Burial Place

• Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence of the statue of Virginia for Religious Freedom and the Father of Virginia University

Jefferson Memorial