Thomas Jefferson Research Paper

On April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia Thomas Jefferson was born. He was a draftsman of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the nation's first secretary of state, the second vice president, also the president of the U.S, and the statesman responsible for the Louisiana Purchase.

Early Life

Jefferson was born into one of the most important families of Virginia's planter elite. His mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson and his father, Peter Jefferson, the young Jefferson was the third born of ten kids.

As a boy, Thomas Jefferson's favorite pastimes were playing in the woods, practicing the violin and reading, he began his formal education at the age of nine, studying Latin and Greek at a local private school. In 1757, at the age of 14, he took

As the author of the Declaration of Independence, the foundational text of American democracy and one of the most important documents in world history, Thomas Jefferson will be forever revered as one of the great American Founding Fathers. Jefferson was the spokesman of liberty and a racist slave owner, the champion of the common people and a believer in limited government, a quiet man who disapproved politics and the most dominant political figure of his generation. The tensions between Jefferson's principles and practices make him all the more suitable symbol for the nation he helped create a nation whose ideals have always been complicated by a

He went further starting locally and globally. He became the governor of Virginia then was appointed a minister to France among those who swayed France to the side of the American cause during the Revolutionary War. By the time he returned to the United States, he had been appointed Secretary of State under Washington and he became Vice President then of course went on to be elected twice as