Jane Randolph married Peter Jefferson on October 3, , in Goochland County, and afterward managed the household , bore ten children, and raised eight of them to adulthood. The home contained books , musical instruments, silver, and imported household goods and textiles. Dozens of slaves were on hand to work the land, plant the gardens , and care for Jefferson and his siblings.
Shadwell was modest compared with some Virginia plantations of the mid-eighteenth century, but the Jeffersons lived well and comfortably there. At the time of his death, in , Peter Jefferson had become a man of property and standing, leaving a sizable unencumbered estate for the benefit of his large family, personal slaves to each of his children, and his books, desk, and bookcase to Jefferson.
The two may have spent little time together. Nor do any letters remain extant between the son and his mother. Some historians have argued that this absence of documents indicates that there was a corresponding absence of affection as well.
But it is at least as likely that such letters existed and were destroyed in the fire that burned Shadwell to the ground. The couple met two years earlier and shared an affinity for music and literature and a family heritage that linked them both to the prestige and wealth of Virginia planter society. By all accounts they were well matched and deeply in love. Years later Jefferson described his wife as lively, good-natured, and wise, and encouraged his daughters and granddaughters to look to her example when shaping their own behavior.
When her father died, she inherited vast stretches of land and more than slaves, all of whom passed along to Thomas Jefferson under the common law of coverture. Among these slaves were Elizabeth Hemings and her ten children, six of whom, according to Hemings family tradition, had been fathered by John Wayles. The Hemings women served as chambermaids and seamstresses, were clothed in Irish linen and calico rather than the usual slave attire of rough osnaburg, and were always exempted from field work.
The men acted as butlers and personal manservants or became highly skilled craftsmen, and they were allowed to hire themselves out and keep their own wages when Jefferson was away for lengthy periods. Monticello, though its buildings were not as large as they would later become, was nevertheless a sizable and busy plantation when Martha Jefferson lived there. Their first child, Martha, was born late in September , and there were five more births and possibly two miscarriages.
But Martha Jefferson suffered severely in pregnancy, and with each successive one her health deteriorated. After the birth of their daughter Lucy Elizabeth in the spring of , Martha languished until her death in September of that year. Jefferson was inconsolable. Their last child, Lucy Elizabeth, died of whooping cough in October By December Jefferson was working once again, and he and his daughter Martha were living in Philadelphia, where she continued her education under the direction of tutors while he served in the Confederation Congress.
In , when Jefferson sailed to France, first to negotiate commercial treaties and then as minister plenipotentiary on behalf of the newly independent United States, twelve-year-old Martha Jefferson accompanied him. She was comfortable in her life with the Eppeses and looked upon her aunt, uncle, and cousins as her family, being far more familiar with them than with her own father and older sister.
For her part, Martha had grown accustomed to having her father to herself, at least when he was not occupied with business or his own travels around Europe. Primary Source References Robert Skipwith, brother-in-law. Jefferson: The Road to Glory, to See pp.
Library of Congress. Thomas Jefferson Papers, Series 7, Vol. Includes records of visits to Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson.
PTJ , vols. Transcription available at Founders Online. Thomas Jefferson Foundation. The Monticello Classroom. Rayford W.
Logan Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, , See also Bear, Jefferson at Monticello , 5. Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Henry S. Randall, March 31, , Ellen Coolidge Letterbook , pp. Extracts available at Jefferson Quotes and Family Letters. Robinson, , During courtship Jefferson had ordered a German clavichord for Martha, then changed his order to a pianoforte, "worthy the acceptance of a lady for whom I intend it.
William T. Hutchinson and William M. Isaac Granger Jefferson, Memoirs , Margherita Marchione, ed. Jefferson was distraught and never remarried. Although he was an advocate for individual liberty and at one point promoted a plan for gradual emancipation of slaves in America, he owned slaves throughout his life. Jefferson inherited some slaves from his father and father-in-law and owned an estimated slaves over the course of his life. He freed only a small number of them in his will; the majority were sold following his death.
In , with the American Revolutionary War recently under way, Jefferson was selected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. The Declaration of Independence, which explained why the 13 colonies wanted to be free of British rule and also detailed the importance of individual rights and freedoms, was adopted on July 4, In the fall of , Jefferson resigned from the Continental Congress and was re-elected to the Virginia House of Delegates formerly the House of Burgesses.
He considered the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which he authored in the late s and which Virginia lawmakers eventually passed in , to be one of the significant achievements of his career.
It was a forerunner to the First Amendment to the U. From to , Jefferson served as governor of Virginia, and from to , did a second stint in Congress then officially known, since , as the Congress of the Confederation. In , he succeeded Benjamin Franklin as U. In this post, Jefferson clashed with U. In the presidential election of , Jefferson ran against John Adams and received the second highest amount of votes, which, according to the law at the time, made him vice president.
Jefferson ran against Adams again in the presidential election of , which turned into a bitter battle between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson defeated Adams; however, due to a flaw in the electoral system, Jefferson tied with fellow Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr The House of Representatives broke the tie and voted Jefferson into office. In order to avoid a repeat of this situation, Congress proposed the Twelfth Amendment to the U. Constitution, which required separate voting for president and vice president.
The amendment was ratified in Jefferson was sworn into office on March 4, ; his was the first presidential inauguration held in Washington , D. George Washington was inaugurated in New York in ; in , he was sworn into office in Philadelphia, as was his successor, John Adams, in When Jefferson became president in , he had been a widower for 19 years.
He was as capable of handling social affairs as political matters. Occasionally he called on Dolley Madison and other spouses of Cabinet members for assistance. Click here to learn more about the enslaved household of the Jefferson family. Thomas Jefferson. Next Conversations from History Happy Hour.
Since the first cherry blossom planting in by First Lady Helen Herron Taft, Washingtonians have celebrated the scenic beauty and While there has yet to be a female president, women have played an integral role in shaping the White House Constitutional guidelines for inaugurations are sparse, offering
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