Famous writer, architect, remarkable inventor and 3rd president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, whose face is on the front of our nickel, was fluent in five languages and able to read two.  Writing over 16 thousand letters, he had relationships with almost every influential person in America in his time. (2008)

Born in 1742 in Virginia, son and third child to be born of Peter and Jane (Randolph), Thomas Jefferson started his education by tutoring.   At the early age of fourteen his father died but not before he, young Thomas, lived with a Scottish clergyman to soon learn the languages of Latin, French, and Greek beginning at  age nine.  Thomas Jefferson was the eldest boy in the family and had to temporarily put his education on hold to become the head of the family.  His father left behind 1500 hundred acres and approximately twenty slaves.   

James Maury an Anglican clergyman continued Jefferson’s education as he began his studies at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg at sixteen.  Graduating with honors, he started his law education and admitted to the bar in 1767 at age twenty-five.  Included in his many accomplishments, Jefferson wrote the Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, the Bill for Establishing a Public Library. (Virginia Education, 2008)

This bill helped to establish elementary for “all free children, male and female”. (US History, 2008)   Offering three years of education which included Grecian, Roman, English and American history, this formal education offered the generals; reading, writing and arithmetic.  This would be the extent of a child’s education and was offered to boys only to prepare them for a university later.   Thomas Jefferson had very liberal views and this education was not extended to blacks, Native Americans, or women.  Thomas Jefferson did not feel woman, even his daughters required education and his wife and other mothers were educated enough to pass this down to the daughters.  He also felt, and had higher expectation for the Native Americans, but first they must learn Euro-American culture and to do this, they must give up their own beliefs in their own culture before education would be offered to them.  Blacks were disregarded altogether with the thoughts of not needing any education due to the fact that they did not have the mental capacity and also because he felt they would also need caregivers.

At age twenty-six, Jefferson started building Monticello, which was located near Charlottesville, Virginia and was his principal estate.  He had inherited the land from his father, Peter Jefferson, who was a planter and surveyor; with the land he also inherited 25 slaves, overall in the coming years he owned about 200 slaves yearly.  Monticello was featured on the reverse side of the nickel that was coined from 1938 to 2003, and on the reverse side of the two dollar bill that was printed from 1928 to 1966.  Living at Monticello was the 75 out of the 200 slaves. The others lived adjacent Albemarle County plantations at Poplar Forest estate.  In his lifetime, Jefferson freed two slaves and five in his will; two escaped and he did not pursue them.  When Jefferson died, Martha Jefferson Randolph inherited Monticello but because of financial distress, she sold it to James T. Barclay. (City of Monticello, 2008)

Thomas Jefferson is most remembered for his contribution to the Declaration of Independence with being the writer of the rough draft and to have only minor corrections made to it by James Madison.  This document offered to congress on the 1st day of July, was modified with abbreviations but then later adopted on the 4th of July, 50 years to the day, prior of Thomas Jefferson’s death. (Government Archives, 2008)

The level of acknowledgement that Thomas Jefferson received throughout his life was not only from his famous words of “all men are created equal”, but as the founder of the University of Virginia.  He also wrote an article establishing the standard weights, measures, and currency units for the United States. (Declaration of Independence, 2008)

As an inventor, Thomas Jefferson thought up the swivel chair, the dumbwaiter and the revolving book stand.  Being very well educated, he was recognized as a lawyer, musician, scientist, author, architect, agronomist, philosopher and statesman. After defeating most of his compassions with notable history making events, can we say that Thomas Jefferson paved the way for his successors; our current architects, inventors, writers and politicians?  Had he simply laid a foundation for these professionals to base their work on to then be able to contribute to the vast knowledge learned from others in history to add to their own works of art?  How much did Jefferson learn from his predecessors, and can we say that some of the words that he stated are original thoughts or did he too base his work, thoughts and actions and own knowledge from those of his predecessors, after all, he did refuse to claim any originality with the thoughts or ideas he conveyed writing our founding document.

Being accused of being a democrat when that term was equal to “mob” rule, and accused of atheism by the public because of thoughts of Christ to be no more than a moral teacher, historians believe Jefferson was a radical in his time.  Although he was a great thinker, and had many followers believing in him, he also had many criticizing him.  He may have been a man who staunchly defended liberty and equality for all men, but he also was a hypocrite for his ownership of slaves.  Some people believe that we need to view him within a certain context, and we also need to remember to extract and appreciate the contributions of our forefathers.  After all, he did marvel in higher education, he manifested his vision into a place where faculty and students were closely involved and was an academic scholar himself.  How can we fault a man for feeding, clothing, protecting his slaves from illness and providing a roof over their heads, in exchange for labor? 

Over the span of his life, the struggles he faced were foremost the obvious apparent contradiction with his immortal passage from the Declaration of Independence principally his ownership of slaves.  The passing of his wife, when he was 39, pushed him into a great depression and it has been said that he never recovered after her passing. 

Shortly after the passing of his eldest daughter, just 4 years after the death of his wife, rumors had spread of a romantic relationship with a married Italian artist, Maria Cosway.  These rumors were formed after he wrote “The Dialogue of the Head vs. Heart” to Mrs. Cosway.  Historians now believe that because of her strong belief in Catholicism, the romantic involvement was more on Thomas Jefferson’s side of the relationship. (PBS, 2008)

Thomas Jefferson died on the 4th day of July as the nation celebrated 50 years from the day the Declaration of Independence was first placed in congress.  His last request was to only be remembered for the author of the Declaration of Independence and founder of the University of Virginia.

References

Government Archives (2008) The Declaration of Independence Retrieved March 7, 2008 from website http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html

PBS (2008) Head and Heart Letter Retrieved March 7, 2008 from website http://www.pbs.org/Jefferson

/archives/documents/frame_ih195811.htm

The City of Monticello (2008) Monticello History Retrieved March 7, 2008 from website http://www.cityofmonticello.net/cms/publish/monticello.shtml

US History (2008) Signers of the Declaration of Independence Retrieved March 7, 2008 from website http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/signers/jefferson.htm

Virginia Education (2008) Short History of U.VA. The Founding Retrieved March 7, 2008 from website http://www.virginia.edu/uvatours/shorthistory/