Thomas Jefferson As A Leader
...individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society". This powerful advocate of liberty was born on April 13th, 1743 in Shadwell what is now known as Albemarle County, Virginia. It was a significant location for an aristocratic youth in the sense that it lay within the sparsely populated Piedmont Region, between the gentrified Tidewater coastline and the Blue Ridge Mountains of the frontier. In keeping with his borderland origins, Jefferson would throughout his long life occupy a political and psychological space that balanced the responsibilities of establishment privilege with the lures of open, unexplored territory. His father, Peter Jefferson, a self-educated jack of all trades, moved from the Tidewater to the sparsely populated Piedmont in his youth, where he made a name for himself as a cartographer and surveyor. His prominence in affairs of state later led to his appointments as sheriff, colonel, and ultimately, representative to the House of Burgesses. His mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson came from a leading Tidewater family, and had a noble bloodline ranging back to various locations in England and Scotland. Peter Jefferson died when Jefferson was only 14 years old. Hoping for a successful future, Mr. Jefferson had adamantly insisted in his son's education. When Jefferson's father died, he left very valuable land and over 200 slaves behind him to be given to his son later. When Thomas was older, he decided to be a lawyer. He studied at the college of William and Mary (1760-62) at Williamsburg, which at that time was the capital of Virginia. He then studied law at George Wythe. On Jan. 1, 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton. They had six children but only two of them Martha and Mary survived into adulthood. Thomas Jefferson is remembered in history not only for the offices he held, but...
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