Thomas Jefferson: Early Life 1743-1766 Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743 to Peter and Jane Randolph Jefferson on their estate at Shadwell, in what is today Albermarle County, Virginia, along the banks of the Rivanna River. 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. 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. Jane Randolph Jefferson came from a leading Tidewater family, and had a noble bloodline ranging back to various locations in England and Scotland.
John Adams John Adams (October 30 [O.S. October 19] 1735 – July 4, 1826) was the second president of the United States (1797–1801),[2] having earlier served as the first vice president of the United States. An American Founding Father,[3] Adams was a statesman, diplomat, and a leading advocate of American independence from Great Britain. Well educated, he was an Enlightenment political theorist who promoted republicanism, as well as a strong central government, and wrote prolifically about his often seminal ideas, both in published works and in letters to his wife and key adviser Abigail Adams, as well as to other Founding Fathers. Adams' revolutionary credentials secured him two terms as George Washington's vice president and his own election in 1796 as the second president. In 1800, Adams was defeated for re-election by Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts. Early life Susanna Boylston Adams was a member of one of the colony's leading medical families, the Boylstons of Brookline.[9][10]
Thomas Jefferson's Views on Women by Thomas O. Jewett Thomas Jefferson stands as an infallible oracle to today's society. Both ends of the political spectrum quote him as evidence for their causes. While Jefferson's words seem to have credence for contemporary events, it must be remembered that he wrote them for the eighteenth century. As Joseph Ellis so eloquently stated in his book the American Sphinx, "Lifting Jefferson out of that context and bringing him into the present is like trying to plant cut flowers." Jefferson lived, chronologically, midway between the Age of Reason with its trust in science, and the Romantic Era with its uninhibited emotionalism. As a young man, Jefferson rejected the Stoic ideal of disdain for human passion, desire, and enjoyment of things usually accounted good in this world...Jefferson found himself drawn to the Epicurean ethic, which, while admitting the reality and the necessity of the passions, sought to control them by the exercise of reason. Thomas Jefferson Bibliography
James Madison James Madison, Jr. (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, political theorist and the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817). He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for being instrumental in the drafting of the United States Constitution and as the key champion and author of the United States Bill of Rights.[2] He served as a politician much of his adult life. After the constitution had been drafted, Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify it. In 1789, Madison became a leader in the new House of Representatives, drafting many basic laws. Early life and education From ages 11 to 16, the young "Jemmy" Madison was sent to study under Donald Robertson, an instructor at the Innes plantation in King and Queen County, Virginia in the Tidewater region. At age 16, he returned to Montpelier, where he began a two-year course of study under the Reverend Thomas Martin in preparation for college. Religion Early political career
Guide to Thomas Jefferson's Love Life Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, the first Secretary of State, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, as well as the founder of the University of Virginia. Serving the United States for over five decades, Thomas Jefferson was consistently opposing slavery as he believed every person had the right to personal liberty. From the inception of his political career, Jefferson began proposing legislation that would protect Africans from being imported to the US and gradually emancipating slaves. Martha Wayles Skelton had already been married and widowed prior to courtship with Jefferson and was described as having a slender build, auburn hair and hazel eyes. Sally Hemings was a slave at Jefferson’s residence of Monticello who had at least 6 children that are claimed to be fathered by the President. President Jefferson is the perfect example that time heals all.
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732 [O.S. February 11, 1731][Note 1][Note 2] – December 14, 1799) was the first President of the United States (1789–1797), the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the United States Constitution, which replaced the Articles of Confederation and which remains the supreme law of the land. Washington was elected President as the unanimous choice of the electors in 1788, and he served two terms in office. Washington was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia; his wealthy planter family owned tobacco plantations and slaves. Because of his strategy, Revolutionary forces captured two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. Washington proclaimed the United States neutral in the wars raging in Europe after 1793. Early life (1732–1753) Washington's birthplace Braddock disaster 1755
Thomas Jefferson - Autobiography With the Declaration of Independence January 6, 1821 At the age of 77, I begin to make some memoranda and state some recollections of dates & facts concerning myself, for my own more ready reference & for the information of my family. The tradition in my father's family was that their ancestor came to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of Snowdon, the highest in Gr. Br. My father's education had been quite neglected; but being of a strong mind, sound judgment and eager after information, he read much and improved himself insomuch that he was chosen with Joshua Fry professor of Mathem. in W. & M. college to continue the boundary line between Virginia & N. In 1769, I became a member of the legislature by the choice of the county in which I live, & continued in that until it was closed by the revolution. On the 1st of January, 1772 I was married to Martha Skelton widow of Bathurst Skelton, & daughter of John Wayles, then 23. years old. Mr. On the 22d of July Dr.
James Monroe Facing little opposition from the fractured Federalist Party, Monroe was easily elected president in 1816, winning over 80 percent of the electoral vote and becoming the last president during the First Party System era of American politics. As president, he bought Florida from Spain and sought to ease partisan tensions, embarking on a tour of the country that was generally well received. With the ratification of the Treaty of 1818, under the successful diplomacy of his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the United States extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, giving America harbor and fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest. The United States and Britain jointly occupied the Oregon Country. Monroe supported the founding of colonies in Africa for free African Americans that would eventually form the nation of Liberia, whose capital, Monrovia, is named in his honor. Early life His paternal great-grandfather Andrew Monroe emigrated to America from Scotland in the mid-17th century.
Sweet Search John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams Bemis argues that Adams was able to: gather together, formulate, and practice the fundamentals of American foreign-policy – self-determination, independence, noncolonization, nonintervention, nonentanglement in European politics, Freedom of the Seas, [and] freedom of commerce.[4] Adams was the son of former President John Adams and Abigail Adams. As a diplomat, Adams played an important role in negotiating key treaties, most notably the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. Adams is best known as a diplomat who shaped America's foreign policy in line with his ardently nationalist commitment to America's republican values. Adams was elected a U.S. Early life, education, and early career[edit] Adams first learned of the Declaration of Independence from the letters his father wrote his mother from the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Early political career (1796–1817)[edit] Washington administration[edit] Massachusetts politics[edit] Harvard professor[edit]
Google Scholar Andrew Jackson Jackson was nicknamed Old Hickory because of his toughness and aggressive personality; he fought in duels, some fatal to his opponents.[2] He was a wealthy slaveholder. He fought politically against what he denounced as a closed, undemocratic aristocracy, adding to his appeal to common citizens. He expanded the spoils system during his presidency to strengthen his political base. Early life and education Jackson was born on March 15, 1767. His parents were Scots-Irish colonists Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Presbyterians who had emigrated from Ireland two years earlier.[5][6] Jackson's father was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, in current-day Northern Ireland, around 1738.[7] Jackson's parents lived in the village of Boneybefore, also in County Antrim. When they emigrated to America in 1765, Jackson's parents probably landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1824, Jackson wrote a letter saying that he was born at an uncle's plantation in Lancaster County, South Carolina.