Thomas Jefferson was
born on April 13, 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia. One of eight
children, his father was a wealthy surveyor who owned many
slaves and his mother came from a prominent Virginia family.
Jefferson had six sisters and one brother.
In the spring of
1775, Jefferson was selected to represent Virginia at the
Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He was asked to join five other men in writing a paper to
express the colonies' views about their right to break with
Britain and govern themselves. It only took a few days but
Jefferson wrote the first draft of what would eventually
become the Declaration of Independence. The document said
that all men were equal and that God had put them on Earth
with certain rights. Those rights included life, freedom and
the pursuit of happiness. It went on to say that men created
governments in order to make sure all men had these rights
and that governments received their power from those
men.
"We hold
these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure
these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed."
(Declaration of Independence, 1776)
After reworking some
portions of the paper, the Continental Congress signed the
Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
Thomas Jefferson
died at Monticello on July 4, 1826, 50 years after the
signing of the Declaration of Independence.
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