Thomas Jefferson ~ April 13, 1743 - July 4, 1826

3rd President, 1801-1809 

Jefferson was born on the Shadwell Plantation (Virginia), which no longer exists but there is a marker.
Some of his early childhood was spent at the Tuckahoe Plantation in Richmond, Virginia.
But the home most associated with Jefferson is, of course, Monticello. We first visited in 2021 but could not get tour tickets. So we strolled the grounds.
In 2022, we purchased tour tickets in advance and got into the house.
There is an African-American cemetery near the house.
Thomas Jefferson rests a short walk away in a family cemetery.
Jefferson has been keeping Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln company on Mount Rushmore since 1941.
Vice Presidential portrait from a 2023 exhibit at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Thomas Jefferson was a remarkable and complex man and it's very telling that his gravestone does not mention his presidency, as per his wishes. These were the things of which he was most proud:
"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson,
Author of the Declaration of American Independence,
Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and
the Father of the University of Virginia."

On a side note, this gravesite obelisk is a replica; the original currently resides on the Campus of the University of Missouri.
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."

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