Thomas Jefferson

One of America’s Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson is widely considered one of the greatest U.S. presidents of all-time. The son of a planter/surveyor and one of ten children, Jefferson became a lawyer and politician in colonial Virginia. In June 1775, shortly after the American Revolutionary War broke out, Jefferson was appointed to the committee who helped draft the Declaration of Independence, and was elected Governor of Virginia in 1779. Jefferson became the first Secretary of State to President George Washington in 1789 and ran for President himself in 1796. He lost to John Adams, becoming Vice President, but was elected to President in the following term, serving from 1801 to 1809. Key events in Jefferson’s presidency include the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark expedition, and ban of slave importation to the United States.