Thomas Jefferson
WHO HE WAS: The writer of the "Declaration of Independence," Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 in Virginia. His father was a farmer and surveyor and the family was not wealthy. Despite this lack of income, Thomas Jefferson was very well-educated and attended the College of William and Mary.
Thomas Jefferson had a love for learning and it has been said that he would sometimes study fifteen hours a day. After college, he became a lawyer and then joined the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was an excellent writer and speaker and started to publish his ideas on how he believed governments should work. He did not think that kings should have the right to rule over people simply because they inherited their position, nor did believe that only very wealthy people should make the laws. He published many of his ideas in a pamphlet called "Summary View of the Rights of British America." In it, he said that the king did not have authority over the colonists.
He also complained that the Great Britain controlled the trading of goods from the colonies. For instance, if the tobacco merchants of Great Britain did not want to purchase all of the tobacco a Virginian farmer raised, the farmer was not free to sell this tobacco to other countries. Thomas Jefferson was a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congress and eventually wrote the Declaration of Independence.
WHAT HE SAID: "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them." -- Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)
