Jefferson Born: The Pen Behind American Liberty

Thomas Jefferson wrote "all men are created equal" and spent fifty years contending with a contradiction he never resolved. He was 33 when he drafted the Declaration of Independence in a rented room in Philadelphia in June 1776. He owned more than 600 enslaved people over his lifetime and freed only seven, two during his life and five in his will. He was a polymath who designed his own house, founded a university, catalogued plants, played violin, and wrote a dictionary of a Native American language. Born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell plantation in Albemarle County, Virginia, Jefferson studied at the College of William & Mary and read law under George Wythe. He entered the Virginia House of Burgesses at 26 and quickly emerged as a skilled writer whose pen was sharper than his voice. He was a poor public speaker who communicated best on paper. He doubled the size of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, acquiring 828,000 square miles from France for approximately $15 million, about three cents per acre. He dispatched Lewis and Clark to explore the new territory. He fought the Barbary pirates. He imposed an embargo on British and French trade that damaged the American economy more than it hurt its targets. His relationship with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman who was the half-sister of his deceased wife Martha, produced six children, four of whom survived to adulthood. DNA testing in 1998 confirmed a link between Jefferson's male line and Hemings's descendants, corroborating what his political opponents had alleged since 1802. He founded the University of Virginia in 1819, designing its campus, selecting its curriculum, and recruiting its faculty. He considered it among his greatest achievements. He died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, within hours of John Adams. His last words were reportedly a question: "Is it the Fourth?" Adams, dying in Quincy, Massachusetts the same afternoon, said: "Thomas Jefferson survives." Jefferson had died five hours earlier. His tombstone, which he wrote himself, omits the presidency and lists three achievements: the Declaration, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and the University.