Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia.

He was the eldest son of Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph Jefferson and had six siblings.

His father was a successful surveyor, which means he measured land for those wanting to buy it.

Thomas looked up to his father who taught him the importance

of reading, hard work, and a good education. Growing up Tom spent time with his cousins,

which his parents helped raise. They spent time traveling between his home of Shadwell and

his cousin's estate of Tuckahoe. In Shadwell, the Jefferson family lived near the woods,

so there Tom spent his time learning to ride a horse, fish, hunt,

and explore the land around their estate.

He enjoyed being active and learning all about the wilderness near them. During this time, most of the landowners in Virginia had enslaved people.

Enslaved people were bought as sold-like property, and often treated very harshly by their masters.

Tom grew up seeing these people work on his family property and watching his father buy and

sell them to work on their land and help around their house.

Slavery in the South was an ugly part of American history, which led to the suffering

of many African Americans at the time. The tragedy of slavery would be a part of Thomas

Jefferson's life, and later divide the entire country until the end of the Civil War.

When Tom was nine, he was sent back to Tuckahoe to be tutored by Reverend William Douglas.

There he learned many subjects and spent a lot of time reading.

He soon learned that he loved to read and spent many hours with his nose in a book. It was

at this time that Tom was also growing very tall. He was also thin and had red hair and freckles.

Others around him called him tall Tom.

Eventually he would grow to be six feet two inches, which was tall for his time.

...