The core facts about Thomas Jefferson, stated up front and sourced: he was born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, Virginia, and died at Monticello on July 4, 1826; he was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776; he served as the third president of the United States from 1801; and he held more than 600 people in slavery over the course of his life — all per the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello (Brief Biography). This page is a fact file, not a listicle: every entry cites the institution that documents it, and the "fun facts only" tone is deliberately absent — Jefferson's facts require moral range.
Public record
- Declaration of Independence, 1776. Jefferson was its primary author, drafting it as a member of the Second Continental Congress (Monticello). The adopted text is preserved at Founders Online, National Archives.
- Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Jefferson drafted the 1779 bill that became the statute — one of the three achievements he later chose for his epitaph (Founders Online).
- Third president, 1801. He took office after a contested election that ended in a peaceful transfer of party power (Monticello).
- Louisiana Purchase, 1803. Among the central achievements of his first term; his administration also supported the Lewis and Clark expedition (Monticello).
- University of Virginia. In retirement he founded it: charter secured, buildings designed by his own hand, first rector (Monticello).
- The library. After the British burned the Capitol and Library of Congress in 1814, Congress purchased Jefferson's 6,487-volume library in 1815 (Library of Congress).
Slavery and Sally Hemings
Sharp sourcing matters most exactly here, so these entries quote the scholarship closely.
- More than 600 people enslaved. Jefferson championed liberty while holding more than 600 people in slavery over the course of his life (Monticello).
- He named the crime and continued it. His rough draft of the Declaration condemned the slave trade as violating "its most sacred rights of life & liberty"; Congress removed the passage (Founders Online). Monticello's scholarship records that he never reconciled his public ideals with his private dependence on enslaved labor (Liberty & Slavery).
- Sally Hemings. Monticello's current historical interpretation states that Jefferson fathered at least six of Sally Hemings's children, four of whom survived to adulthood (The Life of Sally Hemings). Hemings was an enslaved member of his household; the relationship existed within slavery and within an extreme imbalance of power.
Death
- Jefferson died at Monticello on July 4, 1826 — the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence — only hours before John Adams (Monticello). Documented detail, not folklore; see the death page.
Jefferson Memorial
Searchers often want the monument, so its facts get their own section rather than contaminating the biography's.
- The memorial's exterior is a circular colonnade of 26 Ionic columns — a design fact, not a coded symbol.
- Dedicated April 13, 1943, Jefferson's 200th birthday; the bronze statue inside was installed in 1947.
- Admission is free. The National Park Service lists no fees or reservations for a visit; parking, permits, or special activities may carry separate charges.
- The National Park Service frames the memorial around Jefferson as the Declaration's author, a statesman, and a founder whose architectural taste shaped its classical design; its Tidal Basin site sits among the cherry trees.
Claims we decline to print
A fact file earns trust by what it refuses. No authoritative evidence links Marilyn Monroe to Jefferson's family line — the recurring rumor fails on basic genealogy (Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles in 1926; Jefferson's documented lineage is eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Virginia). And nearly a dozen famous "Jefferson quotes" — "eternal vigilance," "dissent is the highest form of patriotism," "government big enough to give you everything" — have no evidence in his papers. Monticello's debunking files for all eleven are collected on our quotes page.
Continue
Biography for the narrative these facts hang on · Quotes for the verified-versus-spurious ledger · Death for July 4, 1826. Or test the file conversationally: our Jefferson AI persona — a clearly labeled reconstruction — will walk you through any of it from his study at Monticello.