Thomas+Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was also an important figure in the Enlightenment. He was a politician and an American thinker who composed the Declaration of Independence based on inspiration from the Enlightenment. Well, most people know him as one of our founding fathers or as the third president of the United States (1801-1809).

Thomas Jefferson was born on July 13, 1743 at Shadwell in Albemarle County, Virginia. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a plantation owner, and his mother, Jane Randolph, came from a prominent family in colonial Virginia. He was the third of eight children. From his father and environment, he obtained an immense fascination in geology, botany, cartography, North American exploration, Greek and Latin. In 1752, he attended a local school run by William Douglas, a Scottish minister. When Jefferson turned 14, his father died and he inherited 5,000 acres of land and dozens of slaves. He built a home there that became known as Monticello.

In 1760, Jefferson was admitted to the college of William and Mary in Williamsburg and he studied there for two years graduating with high grades, In William and Mary, he studied dozens of things such as mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy. He studied philosophy under Professor William Small, who introduced Jefferson to the works of the British Empiricists as well as John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Sir Isaac Newton. In 1772, Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton, a 23 year-old widow, and they had six children. Jefferson was a brilliant part of the enlightenment. He read thoroughly about Enlightenment philosophy, 17th century English history, political theory, law and history.

In 1774, he wrote a //“Summary View of the Rights of// //British America////”,// which illustrated the colonies’ complaints against Great Britain. Though this pamphlet was published anonymously, Jefferson’s authorship became known all around. When he wrote the Declaration of Independence in late June 1776, he involved Enlightenment philosophy into it. He announced that the authoritarian acts of the British government gave colonists a right to break the ties that connected them with their mother country. Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826 at age 83 in Charlottesville, Virginia.