Jefferson's Second Father

Jefferson's Second Father PDF Author: John Bailey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781743342169
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
"He was my ancient master, my earliest and best friend; and to him I am indebted for first impressions which have had the most salutary influence on the course of my life." -Thomas Jefferson on George Wythe, 1806. This is the story of George Wythe, a man determined, steadfast and courageous, described by Benjamin Rush as possessing "dove-like simplicity and gentleness of manner." From his humble beginnings as a circuit lawyer in Virginia, Wythe was a prominent opponent of slavery and was instrumental in the creation of the constitution. His distinguished career saw him appointed the first professor of law in the United States. Wythe witnessed most of the great events leading to America's independence and formation as a nation and was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence. And then, in 1806, Wythe was murdered. This book tells the story of George Wythe's life, his amazing legacy, his role as second father to the fathers of the nation and offers a solution to the mystery of his bizarre and tragic death.

Jefferson's Second Father

Jefferson's Second Father PDF Author: John Bailey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781743342169
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
"He was my ancient master, my earliest and best friend; and to him I am indebted for first impressions which have had the most salutary influence on the course of my life." -Thomas Jefferson on George Wythe, 1806. This is the story of George Wythe, a man determined, steadfast and courageous, described by Benjamin Rush as possessing "dove-like simplicity and gentleness of manner." From his humble beginnings as a circuit lawyer in Virginia, Wythe was a prominent opponent of slavery and was instrumental in the creation of the constitution. His distinguished career saw him appointed the first professor of law in the United States. Wythe witnessed most of the great events leading to America's independence and formation as a nation and was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence. And then, in 1806, Wythe was murdered. This book tells the story of George Wythe's life, his amazing legacy, his role as second father to the fathers of the nation and offers a solution to the mystery of his bizarre and tragic death.

Jefferson's Second Father

Jefferson's Second Father PDF Author: John Bailey
Publisher: Pan
ISBN: 1743342144
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book Here

Book Description
"He was my ancient master, my earliest and best friend; and to him I am indebted for first impressions which have had the most salutary influence on the course of my life." —Thomas Jefferson on George Wythe, 1806 This is the story of George Wythe, a man determined, steadfast and courageous, described by Benjamin Rush as possessing "dove-like simplicity and gentleness of manner." From his humble beginnings as a circuit lawyer in Virginia, Wythe was a prominent opponent of slavery and was instrumental in the creation of the constitution. His distinguished career saw him appointed the first professor of law in the United States. Wythe witnessed most of the great events leading to America's independence and formation as a nation and was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence. And then, in 1806, Wythe was murdered. This book tells the story of George Wythe's life, his amazing legacy, his role as second father to the fathers of the nation and offers a solution to the mystery of his bizarre and tragic death. Praise for The Lost German Slave Girl "Bailey has the gift of a novelist and a readiness to blend fact and conjecture ... What followed is a mystery, and an entirely fascinating one." - Washington Post "He has crafted a compelling tale of one woman's complex life ... and in the process he has given readers a revealing look at one of the darker periods of American history." - Miami Herald "Bailey, that rare scholar whose writing lives and breathes..." - Boston Globe "Reads like a splendid legal thriller." - Sydney Morning Herald

Confounding Father

Confounding Father PDF Author: Robert M. S. McDonald
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 081393897X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Get Book Here

Book Description
Of all the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson stood out as the most controversial and confounding. Loved and hated, revered and reviled, during his lifetime he served as a lightning rod for dispute. Few major figures in American history provoked such a polarization of public opinion. One supporter described him as the possessor of "an enlightened mind and superior wisdom; the adorer of our God; the patriot of his country; and the friend and benefactor of the whole human race." Martha Washington, however, considered Jefferson "one of the most detestable of mankind"--and she was not alone. While Jefferson’s supporters organized festivals in his honor where they praised him in speeches and songs, his detractors portrayed him as a dilettante and demagogue, double-faced and dangerously radical, an atheist and "Anti-Christ" hostile to Christianity. Characterizing his beliefs as un-American, they tarred him with the extremism of the French Revolution. Yet his allies cheered his contributions to the American Revolution, unmasking him as the now formerly anonymous author of the words that had helped to define America in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, meanwhile, anxiously monitored the development of his image. As president he even clipped expressions of praise and scorn from newspapers, pasting them in his personal scrapbooks. In this fascinating new book, historian Robert M. S. McDonald explores how Jefferson, a man with a manner so mild some described it as meek, emerged as such a divisive figure. Bridging the gap between high politics and popular opinion, Confounding Father exposes how Jefferson’s bifurcated image took shape both as a product of his own creation and in response to factors beyond his control. McDonald tells a gripping, sometimes poignant story of disagreements over issues and ideology as well as contested conceptions of the rules of politics. In the first fifty years of independence, Americans’ views of Jefferson revealed much about their conflicting views of the purpose and promise of America. Jeffersonian America

Thomas Jefferson, Father of Democracy

Thomas Jefferson, Father of Democracy PDF Author: Vincent Sheean
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Children's literature
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Get Book Here

Book Description
This biography of Jefferson centers on his public life and career.

Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation

Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation PDF Author: Merrill D. Peterson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199840520
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1106

Get Book Here

Book Description
The definitive life of Jefferson in one volume, this biography relates Jefferson's private life and thought to his prominent public position and reveals the rich complexity of his development. As Peterson explores the dominant themes guiding Jefferson's career--democracy, nationality, and enlightenment--and Jefferson's powerful role in shaping America, he simultaneously tells the story of nation coming into being.

The Jeffersons at Shadwell

The Jeffersons at Shadwell PDF Author: Susan Kern
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300155700
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 381

Get Book Here

Book Description
Merging archaeology, material culture, and social history, historian Susan Kern reveals the fascinating story of Shadwell, the birthplace of Thomas Jefferson and home to his parents, Jane and Peter Jefferson, their eight children, and over sixty slaves. Located in present-day Albemarle County, Virginia, Shadwell was at the time considered "the frontier." However, Kerndemonstrates thatShadwell was no crude log cabin; it was, in fact, a well-appointed gentry house full of fashionable goods, located at the center of a substantial plantation.Kern’s scholarship offers new views of the family’s role in settling Virginia as well as new perspectives on Thomas Jefferson himself. By examining a variety ofsources,including account books, diaries, and letters, Kern re-creates in rich detail the dailylives of the Jeffersons at Shadwell—from Jane Jefferson’s cultivation of a learned and cultured household to Peter Jefferson’s extensive business network and oversight of a thriving plantation.Shadwell was Thomas Jefferson’s patrimony, but Kern asserts that his real legacy there came from his parents, who cultivated the strong social connections that would later open doors for their children. At Shadwell, Jefferson learned the importance of fostering relationships with slaves, laborers, and powerful office holders, as well as the hierarchical structure of large plantations, which he later applied at Monticello. The story of Shadwell affects how we interpret much of what we know about Thomas Jefferson today, and Kern’s fascinating book is sure to become the standard work on Jefferson's early years.

Friends Divided

Friends Divided PDF Author: Gordon S. Wood
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735224714
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 530

Get Book Here

Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017 A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2017 From the great historian of the American Revolution, New York Times-bestselling and Pulitzer-winning Gordon Wood, comes a majestic dual biography of two of America's most enduringly fascinating figures, whose partnership helped birth a nation, and whose subsequent falling out did much to fix its course. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds, or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion, was an aristocratic Southern slaveowner, while Adams, the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes, painfully aware he was no aristocrat, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government. They worked closely in the crucible of revolution, crafting the Declaration of Independence and leading, with Franklin, the diplomatic effort that brought France into the fight. But ultimately, their profound differences would lead to a fundamental crisis, in their friendship and in the nation writ large, as they became the figureheads of two entirely new forces, the first American political parties. It was a bitter breach, lasting through the presidential administrations of both men, and beyond. But late in life, something remarkable happened: these two men were nudged into reconciliation. What started as a grudging trickle of correspondence became a great flood, and a friendship was rekindled, over the course of hundreds of letters. In their final years they were the last surviving founding fathers and cherished their role in this mighty young republic as it approached the half century mark in 1826. At last, on the afternoon of July 4th, 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration, Adams let out a sigh and said, At least Jefferson still lives. He died soon thereafter. In fact, a few hours earlier on that same day, far to the south in his home in Monticello, Jefferson died as well. Arguably no relationship in this country's history carries as much freight as that of John Adams of Massachusetts and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Gordon Wood has more than done justice to these entwined lives and their meaning; he has written a magnificent new addition to America's collective story.

Jefferson's Second Revolution

Jefferson's Second Revolution PDF Author: Susan Dunn
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547345755
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Get Book Here

Book Description
An “excellent” history of the tumultuous early years of American government, and a constitutional crisis sparked by the Electoral College (Booklist). In the election of 1800, Federalist incumbent John Adams, and the elitism he represented, faced Republican Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson defeated Adams but, through a quirk in Electoral College balloting, tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr. A constitutional crisis ensued. Congress was supposed to resolve the tie, but would the Federalists hand over power peacefully to their political enemies, to Jefferson and his Republicans? For weeks on end, nothing was certain. The Federalists delayed and plotted, while Republicans threatened to take up arms. In a way no previous historian has done, Susan Dunn illuminates this watershed moment in American history. She captures its great drama, gives us fresh, finely drawn portraits of the founding fathers, and brilliantly parses the enduring significance of the crisis. The year 1800 marked the end of Federalist elitism, pointed the way to peaceful power shifts, cleared a place for states’ rights in the political landscape—and set the stage for the Civil War. “Dunn, a scholar of eighteenth-century American history, has provided a valuable reminder of an election in which the stakes were truly enormous and the political vituperation was far more poisonous than the relatively moderate attacks heard today. . . . An excellent work that effectively explains this critical contest that shaped the history of the new republic.” —Booklist “Dunn does a superb job of recounting the campaign, its cast of characters, and the election’s bizarre conclusion in Congress. That tense standoff could have plunged the country into a disastrous armed conflict, Dunn explains, but instead cemented the legitimacy of peaceful, if not smooth, transfers of power.” —Publishers Weekly “Dunn simultaneously teaches and enthralls with her eloquent, five-sensed descriptions of the people and places that shaped our democracy.” —Entertainment Weekly

Thomas Jefferson's Feast

Thomas Jefferson's Feast PDF Author: Frank Murphy
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0385372787
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 49

Get Book Here

Book Description
Whether they're preparing for President's Day or whether they just like to eat, children will find much to devour in this leveled reader about Thomas Jefferson's role in America's culinary history! Did you know that every time you munch on a french fry or snack on ice cream, you have Thomas Jefferson to thank? It’s true! This founding father was one of America’s first foodies. After a visit to France, he introduced all sorts of yummy treats to America—including one that upset more than just tummies and created a culinary controversy! Get the scoop in this deliciously funny, true story—guaranteed to tempt even the most reluctant readers!

Passions

Passions PDF Author: James M. Gabler
Publisher: Bacchus Press Ltd.
ISBN: 9780961352530
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is a biography of Thomas Jefferson at leisure, enjoying two of his passions--wine and travel. Twelve of the sixteen chapters cover Jefferson's five years in France where he served as our minister and traveled through France, England, Germany, Italy and Holland. "Passions" was selected by Robert M. Parker, Jr. as "1995 Wine Book of the Year," and was the winner of the 1995 "Veuve Clicquot Wine Book of the Year" competition. It is a marvelous account of America's first wine connoisseur and gourmet.--Amazon.com.