THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)
by Bill Barker
Sponsored by Noble Energy, Inc.
Thomas Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Virginia, a few miles east of Charlottesville. The eldest son of a prominent Albemarle County planter, Jefferson was one of 10 children. His father died when he was fourteen, and later he set out to pursue an education in Williamsburg, the colonial capital of Virginia. There he attended William and Mary College and studied law under the tutelage of the famed legal scholar, George Wythe. He was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1767 and practiced law for seven years until the Courts of Justice in Virginia were closed down by the British Parliament.
In 1769, at the age of 26, Jefferson entered public service when elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. He represented that colony in the Continental Congress (1775-1776), where he drafted the Declaration of Independence. He was appointed the author of the Declaration in large measure because of his reputation as the eloquent author of A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774).
In the House of Burgesses he supported measures to guarantee “a government truly republican,” including the abolition of entails and primogeniture, the separation between church and state, the creation of a public school system, and the restriction of the international slave trade.
Jefferson served as governor of Virginia between 1779 and 1781, and after the Revolution was elected to the U.S. Congress where he helped to write the Land Ordinance of 1784 that provided a format for creating new western territories and states. Between 1785 and 1789 he discharged his duties as U.S. Minister to France. He became George Washington's first Secretary of State and acted in that capacity for three years before resigning.
His political career continued to expand after 1790: he became one of the leaders of the Anti-Federalist movement, was elected Vice-President in John Adams' administration, and then was himself elected President in 1801. His presidency (1801-1809) witnessed an adherence to economy; a successful war against the Barbary pirates; purchase of the Louisiana Territory; promotion of the Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike exploratory western expeditions; and aggressive protection of American self-sufficiency, neutral rights, and a less invasive Federal government.
Following his presidency Jefferson founded the University of Virginia and worked to complete his home at Monticello. Throughout Jefferson’s long life, conventional wisdom regarding religious, political, economic, racial, and philosophical issues challenged and stimulated in him a lifetime of intellectual questioning and alternate proposals. He died at Monticello on July 4 at the age of 83.
RECOMMENDED READING
Jefferson, Thomas. Thomas Jefferson: Writings: Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia
/ Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters. Library of America, 1984.
Malone, Dumas. Thomas Jefferson and His Times. University of Virginia Press, 2007.
Nock, Albert Jay. Mr. Jefferson. Hallberg Pub Corp, 1983.
Padover, Saul K. The Complete Jefferson. Tudor Publishing Company, 1943.
Randall, Willard Sterne. Thomas Jefferson: A Life. Harper Perennial, 1994.
BILL BARKER
Bill has portrayed Thomas Jefferson in a variety of settings for nearly thirty years. He first came to Colonial Williamsburg in the spring of 1993 and continues to assist in the development of further Jefferson programs.
Born and reared in Philadelphia, Bill received a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in history, from Villanova University and attended the University of Pennsylvania for a brief time before entering the theatre. Attracted to the stage at an early age, he became a professional actor, director, and producer. He was cast as Jefferson in many different venues including the musical 1776. Bill is the same height, weight, and general appearance as Mr. Jefferson.
Over the years, Mr. Barker has evolved a repertoire of Jefferson presentations. He has performed as Jefferson at Monticello; Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest; The White House; U.S. Capitol; National Archives; F.B.I. Headquarters; NASA Headquarters; the Palace of Versailles; and throughout the United States, Great Britain, and France. He presents for various Chautauqua programs, including the alliance between Colonial Williamsburg and the National Chautauqua at Jamestown, N.Y. and continues to bring “Mr. Jefferson” to the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies in Grand Rapids, Michigan, The National Park Service, and The White House Historical Society.
Bill has been featured as Jefferson in several magazines, including Time, People, Mid Atlantic, Philadelphia, Southern Living, Old House Journal, Reader’s Digest, Virginia Living Magazine and the Colonial Williamsburg Journal. Bill has been cited in various newsletters and reports, among them those of Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, The Remnant Trust, The Jefferson Legacy Foundation, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He has appeared as Jefferson in programs aired on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, C-SPAN and Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert Report and this past winter in the PBS special on the history of Freedom for Religion.
He is the Jefferson image in the Visitor's Center videos at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., Monticello and the Virginia State Capitol. He was the model for the statues of Mr. Jefferson in the Jefferson Library at West Point and in the Visitor's Center of the Virginia State Capitol Building. Bill has received commendations from the Hellenic Ideals Foundation, United States Department of Defense, The Jefferson Legacy Foundation and the cities of Philadelphia, St. Louis, and New Orleans.
He enjoys historical research, working on his family's ancestral farm, and traveling.
QUOTES
“I have sworn upon the altar of almighty God eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny over the mind of man.”
“That nation which expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization expects what never was and never shall be.”
“A child of fourteen cannot wear the same clothes at the age of forty. So our laws and institutions must grow as we grow.”
“As God is a just God he cannot but abhor the institution of slavery. When do we begin to tremble in recognition that his justice will not sleep forever?”
“I hold that a little rebellion now and again is as natural in the political world as storms and tempests are in the physical . . . the tree of liberty needs to be continually refreshed with the blood of patriots as well as tyrants.”
“If I could only get into heaven by way of a party then I would not go there at all.”
“The money one will spend for education will never be more than the thousandth part of what they will pay unto monarchs, priests and noblemen who will rise up amongst us should we leave ourselves in ignorance.”
“I am no genius.”
TIMELINE
April 2, 1743 Born at Shadwell Plantation, Albemarle County, Virginia
1745 - 1755 Lives at Tuckahoe Plantation, Hanover County, Virginia and attends Latin School conducted by Rev. William Douglas
1757 - 1759 Attends Rev. James Maury's Classical Academy, Albemarle County, Virginia
1759 - 1762 Attends The Royal College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
1762 - 1765 Reads law with George Wythe in Williamsburg, Virginia
1766 - 1774 Practices law both before the County and General Courts in Colonial Virginia
1769 - 1776 Is seated in his first public office in the Virginia House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, Virginia, representing Albemarle County, Virginia
1769 - 1775 Is a member of various associations, Committees of Correspondence, Committees of Safety & Defence defending the Rights of British America
January 1, 1772 Marries Martha Wayles Skelton, who bears six children over the next ten years before she dies in September, 1782
Summer, 1774 Writes and publishes "The Summary View of the Rights of British America" in Williamsburg,Virginia
1774 - 1776 Member of the Second Continental Congress
June 1775 Writes "The Necessity For Taking Up Arms" and “The Olive Branch Petition"
June 1776 Writes "The Declaration of American Independence" and various drafts for a Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia
1776 - 1779 Member of the Virginia House of Delegates
1779 - 1780 Second Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia
1783 - 1784 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
1784 - 1789 Second U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Louis XVI of France
1790 - 1793 First U.S. Secretary of State
1793 - 1796 Retires from government, though helping to organize the opposition to the Federalist factions
1796 - 1800 Second Vice President of the United States
1801 - 1809 Third President of the United States
1809 - 1826 Retires. As a private citizen, he remodels Monticello, builds Retreat House, Poplar Forest, designs University of Virginia curriculum and buildings
July 4, 1826 Passes away on the same day as John Adams: the Fiftieth Anniversary of the resolution over the Declaration of American Independence