What you may not have known about Thomas Jefferson

                                 Thomas Jefferson

         What you may not have known about Thomas Jefferson

Martha Wayles was born on her father's plantation near Williamsburg, Virginia. She married Mr. Skeleton but was widowed by the age of 22. She married Thomas Jefferson in 1771 and moved to his home, Monticello.

Martha's father was a large slaveholder, and Martha inherited 135 slaves when her father died. They came to Monticello, including the slave girl Sally Hemings.

Thomas and Martha became the parents of six children. Three died in infancy. Sally became responsible for the children's care after Martha died in 1782.

In 1785, Thomas Jefferson became the minister to France, bringing his daughter Mary and the slave Sally with him. Sally was now 15. While in France, Thomas became intimate with Sally.

After he moved back to Monticello in Virginia, he had five children with the teenage slave. He became president, and the rumors started. He did not confirm or deny the allegations.

Before his wife Martha died, he promised he would give Sally her freedom when he died. He did. 

Why did Martha want Sally to have her freedom? Because Sally was Martha's half-sister. Martha's father, John Wayles, was Sally's father, and her mother was a slave named Elizabeth Hemings.

Thomas Jefferson's concubine was his sister-in-law.

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Thomas Jefferson chose Monticello, his home, to be his burial place. He designed his grave marker, a simple stone obelisk. The inscription was to be chiseled into the granite.

People wondered whether it would show that he was the 3rd president of the United States and that he had been vice president from 1797 to 1801. He had many disagreements with President John Adams. As Jefferson was from the South, he helped Adams win, as he was from the North. 

Jefferson was the first Secretary of State under George Washington. He was the minister to France and the governor of Virginia.

Jefferson died on July 4th, 1826, and when the marker was revealed, it read:

"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Liberty, and Father of the University of Virginia."

He wanted to be remembered for independence, religious liberty, and education.

From Shocking Secrets of American History By Bill Coate