Thomas Jefferson

Revered as the author of the Declaration of Independence yet condemned as a slave owner, Thomas Jefferson has entered a new era of controversy. Jefferson was a young man from the Virginia wilderness, transformed by the philosophical fire of the American Revolution. Torn between his career and family life at Monticello, he suffered heartrending personal loss even as he was formulating brilliant ideas about democratic government.

Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743, in Shadewell, Virginia. He married Martha Skelton on January 1 1772.(There are no known pictures of Martha Skelton Jefferson.) They had one son and two daughters. Jefferson was in office from 1801 through 1809. He died July 4, 1826 and was buried in Montecello, Virginia.

Visit the award winning web site created by the Library of Congress called the American Memory Project. They have archived online the Thomas Jefferson Papers. The papers document Thomas Jefferson's life, 1743 - 1826: Virginia governor, secretary of state, president, and founder of the University of Virginia. 27,000 documents from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress are digitized and available online. This web site also includes a timeline of Jefferson's life