Delegates to the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 56 delegates who signed the formal break from Britain are all considered Founding Fathers.
Virginia had seven delegates, but most notably was Thomas Jefferson, who is credited with drafting the declaration. His signature is at the bottom of the document, third column from the left.
Jefferson was born April 13, 1743, on a plantation near Shadwell, Virginia. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a farmer and surveyor, and his mother was Jane Randolph. He had nine siblings. He attended boarding school until he was 16, when he decided to enroll in college.
Jefferson was accepted to the College of William and Mary in Virginia, where he studied mathematics, history, philosophy, Latin, Greek and French. In 1762, he studied law and began practicing in 1767. Two years later, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
In 1770, the governor of the Virginia colony appointed Jefferson as a militia colonel, a rank and position he kept throughout the Revolutionary War, 15 years later.
In 1772, he married Martha Wayles, and they had six children. She died in 1782.
As the main drafter of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was inspired by ideals from philosophers of the enlightenment. The phrase, "all men are created equal," is one of the most well-known phrases of the declaration.
Although Jefferson publicly advocated for the abolition of slavery, he in fact owned hundreds of slaves at various times.
He served as the governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781. After the war, he was minister to France and was then appointed secretary of state by President George Washington, a position he held for three years. From 1797 to 1801, Jefferson served as vice president to John Adams, whom he later defeated to become the third U.S. president, serving two terms from 1801 to 1809.
Perhaps the most consequential act of his presidency was the $15 million Louisiana Purchase from France in April 1803. Acquiring the region between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains approximately doubled the size of the United States.
Two months later, he appointed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead an expedition west to scout out the new land.
During Jefferson's first presidential term, pirates from the Barbary States of Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers in northwest Africa began raiding U.S. merchant ships in the Mediterranean. In 1805, a joint Navy and Marine Corps fleet was sent to that area to restore freedom of navigation.
This led to the Marines' hymn including the stanza "…to the Shores of Tripoli."
As a lifelong proponent of education, Jefferson was instrumental in the 1819 founding of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He also assisted in the design of its stately campus, which was inspired by Greek and Roman architecture.
Jefferson died July 4, 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, just a few hours before his friend and sometimes rival, Adams. He is buried on his family property in Monticello, Virginia, along with his wife.
In 1926, Congress authorized the construction of the Jefferson Memorial near the Tidal Basin in Washington. It was dedicated April 13, 1943, on Jefferson's 200th birthday. He is also on the $2 bill and the nickel, and he is one of the four figures on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
Jefferson has also been memorialized on postage stamps, schools, streets and other buildings throughout the country he helped found.
This is the eighth installment in a series of articles about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. The 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, representing the 13 colonies, are all considered Founding Fathers.