Jefferson on Slavery essays

Jefferson on Slavery essays Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Albermarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He attended the College of William and Mary where he studied law. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello. Jefferson achieved several accomplishments throughout his lifetime. At age 33, he drafted the Declaration of Independence. In years following, he labored to make its words a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election. Through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President. In 1801 Jefferson assumed the Presidency. Once in office, he slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey, yet reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, although the Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his doubts over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803. During Jefferson's second term, he was increasingly preoccupied with keeping the Nation from involvement in the Napoleonic wars, though both England and France interfered with the neutral rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson's attempted solution, an embargo upon American shipping, worked poorly and was very unpopular. When Jefferson was born in 1743, slavery had existed in Virginia for nearly 75 years. He grew up on a plantation with enslaved workers, and as an adult, owned nearly 200 slaves. Jeffersons views on slavery and blacks are co...