Meet the Author
Thomas Jefferson
American · 1743–1826 · Statesman and third U.S. president
Portrait: Rembrandt Peale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Virginian who drafted the Declaration of Independence at 33 and later became the third president, while enslaving hundreds of people.
1 StoryBites Edition1 Speech or essay
Why read Thomas Jefferson?
Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration for a committee of five, and Congress cut and revised it before adopting it. Its most quoted sentence claims that all men are created equal, with rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, words that later movements turned back on the nation. Read it for its structure, from principles to a long list of grievances, and for the gap between its promise and its author’s life.
A life in six dates
- 1743Born at Shadwell, in colonial Virginia
- 1769Takes his seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses
- 1776Drafts the Declaration of Independence
- 1785Has Notes on the State of Virginia privately printed in Paris
- 1801Inaugurated as the third president
- 1819Founds the University of Virginia
- 1826Dies at Monticello on July 4, the Declaration’s 50th anniversary
Themes across the work
The StoryBites Editions
Context that actually matters
The Second Continental CongressCongress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, and approved the Declaration’s final wording on July 4.
Enlightenment political thoughtThe idea that governments get their power from the consent of the governed draws on writers such as John Locke.
Slavery in VirginiaJefferson enslaved people all his life, and a passage in his draft attacking the slave trade was cut by Congress.