Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson began writing the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago this week, and his finest feat was to so perfectly inhabit our collective voice.

Introducing a month-long celebration of great Americans, starting with the author of the Declaration of Independence.

Amid contention, criticism, and compromise, a divided nation had to present a unified front. It came at a cost.

Thomas Jefferson endured deep personal loss and political strife, yet held faith in future generations to fulfill America’s ideals despite his flaws.

The Founding Father desired to be remembered by history.

The Declaration drew on Enlightenment ideas to assert equality, justify independence, and inspire lasting debates over rights and slavery.

Though his writings grappled with the contradiction between bondage and liberty, Thomas Jefferson’s life was indebted to those he enslaved.

A great-great-grandson pushed to portray Jefferson as an abolitionist, leaving a misleading impression about his actions on equality and slavery.

Violence has marred the American constitutional order since the founding. Is it inevitable?

As a new book on their travels together shows, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's friendship went beyond politics.

The nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, depicts a wounded, fearful society, teetering on the brink of disaster. Sound familiar?

Thomas Jefferson's limited government ideal quickly conflicted with the U.S. Constitution and the dominant Federalist Party, prompting a radical proposal.

To reduce Virginia’s use of the death penalty, Thomas Jefferson proposed using permanent disfigurement as a punishment for rape, polygamy, and sodomy.

The third president knew that the whims of nature shaped Americans’ daily lives as farmers and enslavers.

A story of math and political stasis.

The black naturalist, astronomer, surveyor, and almanac-writer Benjamin Banneker took issue with Thomas Jefferson’s attitude toward “those of my complexion.”

The voice of Doctor Johnson, archcritic of the American Revolution, was constantly in mind for the Declaration of Independence’s drafter.

Portraying a 19th-century president.

Jefferson’s system depended on shoring up the bulwarks of race and basing the law on a theory of government that withdrew protection from unfavored groups.

Is Jefferson's Bible evidence that the Founding Fathers engaged with scripture to birth a Christian nation? Or that they sought to foster a new secular order?