Worldof Jefferson part one

THE JEFFERSON IMAGE THE WORLD OF THOMAS JEFFERSON PART ONE OF TWO PARTS

1743 In the South Western Mountains east of Charlottesville near the Rivanna River lies Shadwell.

Thomas Jefferson is born here, on the edge of Virginia’s western frontier, the son of Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph. When Peter Jefferson dies in 1757, Shadwell passes to Thomas, his eldest son, but his mother has a life estate and will continue to live here until it burns to the ground in 1770.

1745 On the death of William Randolph, cousin of Jefferson's wife Jane, Peter Jefferson moves his family to Tuckahoe Plantation, west of Richmond on the north bank of the James River. Randolph had requested in his will that his “dear and loving friend” Peter, remain here until William's son, Thomas Mann Randolph, is grown. Peter Jefferson only stays six or seven years, not the length requested in the will. Thomas Jefferson begins his early education here before the return to Shadwell when he was nine years old. He continues his studies under William Douglas and later boards at the school of Reverend James Maury in the Fredericksville Parish.

1754 Sent out by Governor Dinwiddie to seize the Forks of the Ohio (junction of Allegheny and Monongahela rivers), 21-year-old George Washington finds the French already there building Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh). After a skirmish, Washington is forced to surrender starting the hostilities between England and France known in America as the French and Indian war. In 1756 the war spreads to Europe and is later called the Seven Years War. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the conflict and the French give all Canada and all territory east of the Mississippi (except the city of New Orleans) to England.

1760 George III is crowned King of Great Britain and will rule until 1820. Jefferson enters the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, Virginia where he studies for two years. George Wythe becomes his preceptor and guided Jefferson’s legal studies. In 1767, he is admitted to the General Court and will practice law until 1774.

in dire financial straits. Parliament begins imposing a series of taxes on the colonists but resistance of the colonists is dramatic. Greatly influenced by Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke, concepts of natural rights and the source of governmental authority are widely discussed in the colonies. In The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved, James Otis raises the argument that there can be no taxation without representation.

1769 Jefferson takes his seat as representative from Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Burgesses.

1770 Shadwell burns and most of Jefferson's personal and legal papers are destroyed. He begins the construction of Monticello and will redesign and change it over the next 40 years. It sits on a mountaintop (Monticello means “little mountain” in Italian) near Charlottesville, Virginia, on land Jefferson inherited from his father. He was greatly influenced

by Andrea Palladio, the 16th century Italian architect, and by the classic architecture of Rome and Greece which he studies on his travels in Europe.

1772 Jefferson marries a young widow Martha Wayles Skelton who brings to the marriage the inheritance from her father of slaves and property, including Poplar Forest. Jefferson and his wife will have six children, only two of whom will live to adulthood. Martha will die of complications from her last child birth in 1782.

1773 England attempts to save the distressed British East India Tea Company from bankruptcy by removing the payment of duties so that East India can undercut legitimate merchants as well as the price of smuggled tea. A band of men, dressed as Mohawk Indians, boards the Dartmouth and dumps its tea into Boston Harbor.

1774 Parliament passes the first of what are called the “Coercive Acts” (also called the Intolerable Acts) by closing the port of Boston until the East India

1765 Due to the French and Indian war, England is Cont’d on page 4

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WORLD OF JEFFERSON cont’d from page 3

Company is paid for the lost tea. A new Quartering Act requires citizens to provide for British soldiers in their homes. The First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia and condemns the British parliament for its economic oppression and sends George Washington to Boston to take command of the colonial forces. Jefferson writes A Summary View of the Rights of British America in which he denies the authority of Parliament over the colonies.

1775 Patrick Henry, in St. Paul's Church in Richmond, Virginia, before the Virginia Convention, challenges British authority in a phrase that rings throughout the colonies, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

1776 Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense with its call to the colonies to separate from Britain and “begin the world over again.”

Richard Henry Lee, acting on instructions from the Virginia government, moves a resolution in Congress “that these colonies are and of a right ought to be, free and independent states.” Congress appoints a committee to prepare a “declaration of independence” which includes Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Jefferson is selected to draft the document. Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

1777 The Articles of Confederation are adopted in York, Pennsylvania and recognize the sovereignty of each of the thirteen states, although they are referred to as the “United States of America.” It is essentially a treaty between the states to provide for the contribution of men and money for the war of independence against England. It is not intended to establish a national government and its major weakness is the lack of authority to collect money from the states to pay the cost of the war. Ratification by the states is completed in 1781.

1781 The British under Lord Cornwallis surrender to George Washington at Yorktown. The assistance of men and money from France is vital to the victory. Jefferson serves as governor Virginia during the war and narrowly avoids capture at Monticello by a detachment of British cavalry.

1783 The Treaty of Paris is negotiated by peace commissioners John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Henry Laurens. Jefferson is elected to Congress.

1784 Jefferson submits to Congress his plan for the entrance of new states to the western territory cede

by Virginia, New York and Connecticut. He proposes that slavery be abolished in new states by 1800 but Congress rejects this part of the Ordinance of 1784.

Jefferson is selected to assist Benjamin Franklin and sails for France with his oldest daughter Martha (Patsy). While there he sends plans and a model for a new Virginia Capitol based on the Maison Carée, a Roman temple in Nîmes, France. Jefferson's decision to use the “cubic architecture” of the Maison Carrée introduces the classical form for public buildings to America. He is greatly impressed by the Pantheon in Rome and it will become a model for the Rotunda at the University of Virginia.

1786 John Adams writes his concerns to Jefferson about “Shays Rebellion,” an uprising by Massachusetts farmers against heavy taxation, to which Jefferson responds: “I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.”

1787 Delegates to the Great Convention in Philadelphia gather to amend the Articles of Confederation to provide more power to the Congress for taxing and trade, but they adopt a completely new constitution. Jefferson, still in France, receives a copy from James Madison and urges the inclusion of a Bill of Rights and a limitation on the terms a president may serve.

1789 Jefferson prepares to return home as the French Revolution unfolds. Outraged citizens of Paris have stormed the Bastille. The French National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Jefferson meets with Lafayette and the extent of his influence can be seen in the phrases that “mankind is born free and equal,” and that man has natural rights of “liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.”

1790 Jefferson reluctantly accepts his appointment as Secretary of State under George Washington, first president of the United States.

1793 Louis XVI dies at the guillotine and Jefferson’s fervor for the revolution is muted as the Reign of Terror begins and any hope that France might evolve into a democracy evaporates.

1794 Jefferson’s concept of a country of yeoman farmers independent of government and large cities clashes with Alexander Hamilton’s plan for a strong central government and an economic system based on manufacturing and trade. Jefferson resigns from Washington’s cabinet and returns to Monticello.

(The World of Thomas Jefferson will continue in the next issue of Jefferson Notes)

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