Thomas jefferson biography history for kids
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Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743–July 4, 1826) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He drafted the Declaration of Independence, served as the country’s first secretary of state, and was elected the third U.S. president. As president, Jefferson was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase. He is one of the four presidents represented on Mount Rushmore, in Keystone, South Dakota.
Thomas Jefferson was born into a wealthy plantationplantation a large farm or estate (noun)Her family owned a banana plantation in Guatemala. family in the Virginia colony. Compared to many others in the mid-1700s, he enjoyed a privileged childhood. Alongside his nine siblings, Jefferson explored the woods, read books, and studied. He received instruction from private tutors. He enrolled in the College of William and Mary in 1760. He practiced law and served in local government.
In 1772, Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton, and the couple moved to Mon
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Thomas Jefferson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Thomas Jefferson | |
|---|---|
| 3rd President of the United States | |
| In office March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1809 | |
| Vice President | Aaron Burr; George Clinton |
| Preceded by | John Adams |
| Succeeded by | James Madison |
| 2nd Vice President of the United States | |
| In office March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801 | |
| President | John Adams |
| Preceded by | John Adams |
| Succeeded by | Aaron Burr |
| 1st United States Secretary of State | |
| In office September 26, 1789 – December 31, 1793 | |
| President | George Washington |
| Preceded by | New Office |
| Succeeded by | Edmund Randolph |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1743-04-13)April 13, 1743 Shadwell, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | July 4, 1826(1826-07-04) (aged 83) Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Height | 6 ft 2½ in (189 cm) |
| Spouse | Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson |
| Signature | |
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826
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Jefferson recognized that the principles he included in the Declaration had not been fully realized and would remain a challenge across time, but his poetic framtidsperspektiv continues to have a profound influence in the United States and around the world. Abraham Lincoln made just this point when he declared:
All honor to Jefferson – to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an sammanfattning truth, and so to embalm it there, that to-day and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.7
After Jefferson left Congress in 1776, he returned to Virginia and served in the legislature. In late 1776, as a member of the new House of Delegates of Virginia, he worked closely with James Madison. Their first collaboration, to end the religious establishment in Virginia, became a