Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in a house in Virginia. At the time Virginia was one of the thirteen American colonies that belonged to England. When Thomas was fourteen, his father Peter Jefferson, died. He left his son more than two thousand acres of land. He took control of the property after he turned 21. After he finished college, Jefferson studied in a law office of a friend. Then he later became a lawyer too. In 1767 he designed and began to build a house for himself that he called Monticello, on a small mountain in Virginia. Monticello means 'little mountain' in Italian. A few years later Thomas fell in love and got married to Martha Skelton in 1772. Together they had one son and five daughters. Only two of their daughters, Mathra and Mary lived to be adults. Their other four children died young. In 1768 Thomas was elected to the Virginia legislature,the House of Burgesses. Around this time Members of the Virginia House of Burgesses and law makers in other colonies were beginning to speak out againest England. In April, 1775 the Revolotionary War between England and the American colonies began.The war lasted eight years. In June, 1776 one year after the fighting started, leaders of the colonies asked Thomas Jefferson tp put into words the reasons for the revolution. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. What he wrote in the declaration are amoung the most famous and most important words ever written in American history. He wrote about how all people are created equal and have the right to be free. The leaders of the colonies approved the declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. During the war, Thomas Jefferson was elected governor of Virginia for two terms and was also elected to the Continental Congress. After the war and while Jefferson was in France as a representative of the new United States, the goverment of America was set up and a constitution was written. Also Geroge Washington was elected the first president of the United States and asked Jefferson to be his secretary of State. In 1796 John Adams became the secound president of the United States and Thomas Jefferson was vice president. Four years later, in 1800 Thomas was elected the third president of America . He was a popular president and was reelected for a second term. On July 4, 1826, Thomas Jefferson died exactly fifty years after the Declaration of Independence had been approved. He was one of America's great leaders. He believed that all people had a right to be free. He believed that people should govern themselves. That is why he has been called the Father of Our Democracy. Important Dates
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Thomas Jefferson© 2012 Claire Anglin