The History Book Club discussion

Jupiter

n 1743, two children were born at Shadwell, a newly opened plantation on Virginia's western frontier. They may have played together as boys, and, as young men, they traveled the length and breadth of Virginia together and found wives on the same plantation near Williamsburg. For over fifty years their lives were bound together by law, for one man, Jupiter, was the property of the other, Thomas Jefferson.

Jupiter, whose last name may have been Evans, acted as Jefferson's personal servant and traveling attendant during the years of Jefferson's law study and practice. In 1774, when the Hemings family came to Monticello, Jupiter took up a new position as coachman, with responsibility for the fine horses in the Monticello stables. He was also apprenticed to a local stonecutter, William Rice, with whom he worked to shape the cylindrical blocks of stone that form the columns of the Monticello entrance portico. In 1778 Rice hired Jupiter for eighteen days to work "on Shelby's tombstone." The 3 by 6 foot gravestone can still be seen, the oldest grave marker in Charlottesville's Maplewood Cemetery.

Jupiter's wife Susan, or Suck, was a cook, and their son Philip was, like his father, a skillful handler of horses. In the War of 1812, Philip Evans accompanied Jefferson's son-in-law Thomas Mann Randolph with the American troops to upstate New York. Left with the colonel's horses at Sackett's Harbor while the army proceeded down the St. Lawrence River, Evans made the 100-mile overland journey alone and safely delivered the horses to his master at the army's winter quarters across the river from the free soil of Canada.
In 1846, Susan Scott, a relative (possibly a granddaughter) of Jupiter and Suck, was taken by Jefferson's great-grandson William Stuart Bankhead to northern Alabama, where her great-grandchilden still live. Her children Mildred Scott Young (1848-1931) and Edward Scott (1850-1929) passed on stories of their ancestors at Monticello. In one, Jupiter played a leading role in saving the Jefferson family silver from the British troops during the American Revolution.

Jupiter's descendants in a picture taken in the mid-1930s.

Jill wrote: "Jupiter

n 1743, two children were born at Shadwell, a newly opened plantation on Virginia's western frontier. They may have played together as boys, and, as young men, they traveled the length an..."

I highly recommend this short play between TJ and Jupiter, performed at the Chautauqua Institution. Bill Barker has embodied Thomas Jefferson at Colonial Williamsburg for many years and does so very convincingly.

http://fora.tv/2009/08/26/Jim_Lehrer_...

Awesome, Joanne. I heard about this book being written, so I'm glad if finally came out.

George Washington:



George Washington served as commander in chief of the Continental army during the American Revolution (1775–1783), as president of the United States Constitutional Convention (1787), and as first president of the United States (1789–1797). Born to a family of middling wealth, Washington's formal education ended when he was about fifteen. Thanks to his half-brother's marriage into the wealthy Fairfax family, Washington acquired social polish, a taste for aristocratic living, and connections to Virginia's political elite. Long months on the frontier as a surveyor toughened the young Washington, preparing him for service in Virginia's militia during the French and Indian War (1754–1763). He held positions of command at a remarkably young age. Marriage to Martha Custis brought him great wealth. Increasingly restive under British taxation and trade restrictions, Washington took a leading role in the nascent revolutionary movement after British regulars killed colonists and seized private property at the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts in April 1775. As commander in chief, he led American forces for the entire eight-year war, losing more battles than he won but managing to keep the army together under the most difficult circumstances. By the middle of the war, he was already hailed as the "Father of His Country." His enormous prestige after the war led to his being chosen to lead the Constitutional Convention and to his election as first president.
(Source: http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/G...)

More:
http://www.mountvernon.org/meet-georg...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presi...
http://millercenter.org/president/was...

Richard Henry Lee:



Richard Henry Lee was a planter, merchant, politician, and a member of the prominent Lee family of Virginia. Son of Thomas Lee, Richard Henry Lee pursued his father's interest in westward expansion and was a key political figure during the American Revolution (1775–1783): it was Lee who, at the Second Continental Congress in 1776, made the motion to declare independence from Britain. Lee began his career as a justice of the peace for Westmoreland County (1757); he later served as a member of the House of Burgesses (1758–1775), the House of Delegates (1777, 1780, 1785), and the United States Senate (1789–1792). He also represented Virginia at the two Continental Congresses (1774–1779, 1784–1787) and served as president of Congress in 1784. In 1792 Lee retired from public service, citing his poor health. He passed away two years later at Chantilly-on-the-Potomac, his estate in the Northern Neck of Virginia. Lee was mired in controversy throughout his political career, and his legacy has been influenced in part by his enemies. But Lee's prominent role in the events that shaped Virginia and the nation in the mid- to late seventeenth century cannot be denied; it places him high on the list of America's forgotten founders.
(Source: http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/L...)

More:
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...
http://www.history.org/almanack/peopl...

I got The Hemingses of Monticello from my library after reading about it here. I can't put it down. I didn't realize how closely intertwined the whole clan was with Jefferson and Monticello. TJ's relationship with these mixed race people was more complicated than I ever imagined.

byAnnette Gordon-Reed

Great, Ann

This morning Jon Meacham was a morning guest on a national television show to discuss the 11/30/12 New York Times OP-ED article critical of Jefferson titled: “The Monster of Monticello” by Paul Finkelman.

Mr. Meacham noted the paradox between Jefferson seeking liberty for all and his continued ownership of slaves. He stated that the man known for his ideas was first and foremost a politician, who did not like to lose and therefore followed the voting public sentiment of the times.

Interesting, Mark. I suspected this all along. TJ saw that the general sentiment was not for emancipation, so he stopped pushing on a national level.

Also, in my opinion, I think he needed his slaves to keep Monticello going. If he moved to paid labor, it would have hastened his bankruptcy.

John Murray:



Born in near Perth, Scotland, John Murray became the fourth earl of Dunmore when his father, William Murray, third earl of Dunmore, died in 1756. While serving in the Third Regiment of Foot Guards, he married Lady Charlotte Stewart, daughter of the sixth earl of Galloway. They had nine children between 1759 and 1774. Dunmore was a member of the House of Lords as one of the sixteen Scottish representative peers from 1757 until January 1770, when the king appointed him governor of New York. The following year the king appointed him governor of Virginia to succeed Norborne Berkeley, baron de Botetourt, who had died in October 1770.

Dunmore resided in the governor's palace in Williamsburg from September 1771 until June 1775. His wife joined him midway through his administration. Twice he traveled to the frontier, visiting Fort Pitt (the future site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) in 1773 to attempt to settle a dispute between western Virginians and western Pennsylvanians who both claimed the region, and in the autumn of 1774, when he led an army of volunteer militia into the upper Ohio River Valley to protect western settlers from the Indians. That expedition was later known as Dunmore's War. Virginia volunteers under Colonel Andrew Lewis defeated Cornstalk at the Battle of Point Pleasant in October 1774, after which Dunmore negotiated a peace treaty with the Indians.

In May 1774 when the House of Burgesses ordered a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer in support of the people of Boston after the Coercive Acts had closed the port, Dunmore dissolved the General Assembly, but the colony's committee of correspondence and the private actions of the burgesses led to Virginia's taking a leadership role in the First Continental Congress. The following spring he issued a proclamation in the king's name forbidding the election of delegates to the Second Continental Congress, but the second Virginia Revolutionary Convention meeting in Richmond reelected the colony's delegates before Dunmore could act. In April 1775 he ordered the colony's supply of gunpowder to be removed from the public magazine in Williamsburg, and thereafter the city became an armed camp. Dunmore fled Williamsburg to the safety of a royal warship early in June 1775 and from then until he departed for England at the end of the summer of 1776 he had the assistance of British warships to threaten the rebellion in the eastern part of Virginia. In November 1775 Dunmore issued a proclamation offering freedom to slaves who ran away from their owners and fought for the king in a military unit that he raised and called Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. Dunmore's proclamation convinced many Virginia slave owners that the only way to secure their safety and property was to declare independence.

Dunmore attempted to return to Virginia with the British Army in 1781, but the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown made that impossible. He helped many Virginians who remained loyal to the Crown receive compensation from the Crown for their property that the state government had seized. Dunmore served as governor of the Bahamas from 1786 to 1796 and died in Kent, England, in 1809.
(Source: http://www.virginiamemory.com/online_...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mur...
http://www.history.org/almanack/peopl...

Thomas Gage:



The commissioning of Thomas Gage as Royal Governor of Massachusetts was a clear sign that English tolerance of rebellion in Massachusetts had reached its limit. Gage had a decade of service in the English infantry, was familiar with combat in American from the French and Indian War, and had been Commander-In-Chief of British Forces in North America.

He began his administration in May of 1774, by enforcing a series of "Coercive Measures" imposed by England in response to the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Port Act closed Boston Harbor until the Colony made amends to the East India Tea Company, injured customs officers, and until the King certified that peace was restored in Boston. Further acts suspended Massachusetts' legislature, banned town meetings and juries, provided for troops to be housed in private residence, and enabled the Governor to suspend laws and move trials to England as he thought fit.

The revolutionary response came at the meeting of the Provincial Congress in 1774, where Massachusetts' political leaders planned for independence. By October, Governor Gage's ability to influence life through political means was all but ended. His rule increasingly became that of a military governor, an occupier of territory that ruled by force.

Gage ordered the arrest of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and in April of 1775 received orders to take "vigorous action without reinforcement." When he sent soldiers to seize military stores at Concord; the colonial militia resisted. On April 19, 1775, the shooting war of the American Revolution began in Lexington and Concord.

Thomas Gage would be the last of the Royal Governors. After five years of battle and recovery, a new kind of Governor would be created. Besides being democratically elected, there would checks and balances limiting their powers. But the question that remained was whether the revolutionary impulse in Massachusetts could be turned in to a cohesive government and what form would such a government take?
(Source: http://www.mass.gov/portal/government...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gage
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/a...
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroom...

Lexington & Concord:

On the 15 of April 1775, when General Thomas Gage, British Military Governor of Massachusetts, was ordered to destroy the rebel's military stores at Concord. To accomplish this he assembled the "Flanking units", including Light Infantry and Grenadiers, from his Boston Garrison. In charge he put Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith and Marine Major John Pitcairn. He also composed a relief column under the command of Lord Hugh Percy to leave 6 hours after the main column. In an attempt at secrecy he did not tell his officers his plan until the last minute. The problem with his security measures were that Boston had become a glass fishbowl. All rebel eyes were watching to see the British' next action, and when the garrison committed to an action, the Americans knew their every move.

At midnight on the 19th of April the British column, consisting of 650-900 troops left Boston, crossed the Charles River, followed closely by the alarm rider Paul Revere. As the British marched towards Concord, the entire countryside had been alerted to their presence, and rebel militia was deployed to meet them.

Until this time there was no armed resistance to the British that had resulted in loss of British life. Several Months earlier, Gage had attempted to destroy miliary arms at Salem and met with resistance but no shots were fired, and the British retreated without completing their objective. Lexington Militia Captain John Parker had heard of the events at Salem, and collected his men on Lexington Green to face the British column.

At dawn Smith's advanced parties under the command of Major Pitcairn, arrived at Lexington Green to see a group of armed Militia in formation across the Green. Pitcairn ordered the militia, led by John Parker, to be surrounded and disarmed. In response Parker ordered his men to disperse. Then a shot rang out. No one really knows who fired first, but the British, hearing the shot, fired upon the small group of militia, killing 8, and wounding 10 more. The militia then retreated into the woods to avoid the Briti sh fire.

So started the first battle in the American Revolutionary War.

The British column then advanced to Concord, and in spreading out to destroy some cannons believed to be at Provincial Colonel Barrett's farm encountered a group of armed militia at Concord North Bridge. This time when shots rang out the Americans were more prepared, and fired back in "The Shot Heard Round The World.", and so began the American Revolution. The short battle at the bridge was a rout, and the British abandoned the bridge, retreating to Concord center. Knowing that he was in a dangerous situation, Smith decided to return to Boston as soon as possible. In his retreat the real battle began.

Militia and Minutemen from all surrounding towns had marched toward Concord, and when the retreating column ran into this army they were outflanked, out gunned and scared. The Americans did not fight as the British did. Instead of forming an offensive line the provincials used small squad and company tactics to flank the column and inflicted heavy damage. Because the American's never formed a firing line the inexperienced British had little to shoot at. This style of flanking and shooting from behind trees, walls etc. destroyed the British morale, and they broke ranks while retreating towards Lexington.

Had it not been for the relief brigade of Lord Percy the British retreat would have been a disaster. Waiting at Lexington, Percy used his two cannon to disperse the provincials and collected Smiths troops back into regiments. He then led the retreat back to Boston. Under Percy's command the retreating column maintained control, even under heavy fire, and the retreat to Boston was a success. The British suffered badly, nearly 20 percent casualties, but more importantly, this action led to the siege of Bos ton and the start of the Revolutionary War.

Days later the men of Massachusetts used the engagement as propaganda to turn the public opinion to their cause. At the time of the battle only one third of the population believed in breaking from Britain.
(Source: http://www.wpi.edu/academics/military...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_...
http://www.ushistory.org/us/11c.asp

Benjamin Franklin:



a Delegate from Pennsylvania; born in Boston, Mass., January 17, 1706; attended the Boston Grammar School one year; was instructed in elementary branches by a private tutor; employed in a tallow chandlery for two years; learned the art of printing, and after working at his trade in Boston, Philadelphia, and London established himself in Philadelphia as a printer and publisher; founded the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1728, and in 1732 began the publication of Poor Richard’s Almanac; State printer; clerk of the Pennsylvania general assembly 1736-1750; postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737; a member of the provincial assembly 1744-1754; a member of several Indian commissions; elected a member of the Royal Society on account of his scientific discoveries; deputy postmaster general of the British North American Colonies 1753-1774; agent of Pennsylvania in London 1757-1762 and 1764-1775; Member of the Continental Congress 1775-1776; signed the Declaration of Independence; president of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1776; sent as a diplomatic commissioner to France by the Continental Congress and, later, Minister to France 1776-1785; one of the negotiators of the treaty of peace with Great Britain; president of the executive council of Pennsylvania 1785-1788; president of the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania; delegate to the Federal Convention in 1787; died in Philadelphia, Pa., April 17, 1790; interment in Christ Church Burial Ground.
(Source: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...)

More:
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/inf...
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/fra...
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/
http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/
Walter Isaacson
Edmund S. Morgan
H.W. Brands
Benjamin Franklin

John Dickinson:



a Delegate from Pennsylvania and from Delaware; born on his father’s estate, “Crosiadore,” near Trappe, Talbot County, Md., November 8, 1732; moved with his parents in 1740 to Dover, Del., where he studied under a private teacher; studied law in Philadelphia and at the Middle Temple in London; was admitted to the bar in 1757 and commenced practice in Philadelphia; member of the Assembly of “Lower Counties,” as the State of Delaware was then called, in 1760; member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1762 and 1764; delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765; Member from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress 1774-1776 and from Delaware in 1779; brigadier general of Pennsylvania Militia; President of the State of Delaware in 1781; returned to Philadelphia and served as President of Pennsylvania 1782-1785; returned to Delaware; was a member of the Federal convention of 1787 which framed the Constitution and was one of the signers from Delaware; died in Wilmington, New Castle County, Del., on February 14, 1808; interment in Wilmington Friends Meetinghouse Burial Ground.
(Source: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dic...
http://history.delaware.gov/museums/j...
http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyc...

William Legge:



William Legge was the son of George Legge, Viscount Lewisham (died 1732), son of William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Arthur Kaye, 3rd Baronet. William was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College Oxford. He was initially known as Viscount Lewisham until he succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Dartmouth in 1750.

William began his political career when he took his seat in the House of Lords in 1754. In 1765 he became First Lord of Trade in the administration of the Marquis of Rockingham, and a member of the Privy Council. In 1772 he became Secretary of State for the Colonies in the ministry of his half-brother Lord North . He sought moderate measures to secure colonial dependence on Britain. Unwilling to direct a war against the American colonists, he resigned his offices in November 1775, but remained in the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal until the fall of Lord North's administration in 1782.

William is mentioned in the diary of George Marsh, Commissioner of the Navy, (page 139, Feb 1776) with reference to a meeting with the Prime Minister Lord North where they were discussing how to obtain more shipping to transport troops to fight in America.

William lived at Sandwell Hall, Sandwell Valley, Warwickshire. In addition to being known for his political career he is also remembered for being a good Methodist and supporting a wide range of charities including the Foundling Hospital in London. He died in 1810.
(Source: http://www.jjhc.info/MarshGeorge1800W...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...

Thomas Paine:



On January 29, 1737, Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England. His father, a corseter, had grand visions for his son, but by the age of 12, Thomas had failed out of school. The young Paine began apprenticing for his father, but again, he failed. So, now age 19, Paine went to sea. This adventure didn't last too long, and by 1768 he found himself as an excise (tax) officer in England. Thomas didn't exactly excel at the role, getting discharged from his post twice in four years, but as an inkling of what was to come, he published The Case of the Officers of Excise (1772), arguing for a pay raise for officers. In 1774, by happenstance, he met Benjamin Franklin in London, who helped him emigrate to Philadelphia.

His career turned to journalism while in Philadelphia, and suddenly, Thomas Paine became very important. In 1776, he published Common Sense, a strong defense of American Independence from England. He traveled with the Continental Army and wasn't a success as a soldier, but he produced The American Crisis (1776-83), which helped inspire the Army. This pamphlet was so popular that as a percentage of the population, it was read by or read to more people than today watch the Super Bowl.

But, instead of continuing to help the Revolutionary cause, he returned to Europe and pursued other ventures, including working on a smokeless candle and an iron bridge. In 1791-92, he wrote The Rights of Man in response to criticism of the French Revolution. This work caused Paine to be labeled an outlaw in England for his anti-monarchist views. He would have been arrested, but he fled for France to join the National Convention.

By 1793, he was imprisoned in France for not endorsing the execution of Louis XVI. During his imprisonment, he wrote and distributed the first part of what was to become his most famous work at the time, the anti-church text, The Age of Reason (1794-96). He was freed in 1794 (narrowly escaping execution) thanks to the efforts of James Monroe, then U.S. Minister to France. Paine remained in France until 1802 when he returned to America on an invitation from Thomas Jefferson. Paine discovered that his contributions to the American Revolution had been all but eradicated due to his religious views. Derided by the public and abandoned by his friends, he died on June 8, 1809 at the age of 72 in New York City.
(Source: http://www.ushistory.org/paine/)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_P...

Common Sense:

In 1776 an obscure immigrant published a small pamphlet that ignited independence in America and shifted the political landscape of the patriot movement from reform within the British imperial system to independence from it. One hundred twenty thousand copies sold in the first three months in a nation of three million people, making Common Sense the best-selling printed work by a single author in American history up to that time. Never before had a personally written work (unlike the divine Bible) appealed to all classes of colonists. Never before had a pamphlet been written in an inspiring style so accessible to the "common" folk of America. This lesson looks at Thomas Paine and at some of the ideas presented in Common Sense, such as national unity, natural rights, the illegitimacy of the monarchy and of hereditary aristocracy, and the necessity for independence and the revolutionary struggle.
(Source: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_S...
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/common...

John Locke:



was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. Locke's monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one of the first great defenses of empiricism and concerns itself with determining the limits of human understanding in respect to a wide spectrum of topics. It thus tells us in some detail what one can legitimately claim to know and what one cannot. Locke's association with Anthony Ashley Cooper (later the First Earl of Shaftesbury) led him to become successively a government official charged with collecting information about trade and colonies, economic writer, opposition political activist, and finally a revolutionary whose cause ultimately triumphed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Among Locke's political works he is most famous for The Second Treatise of Government in which he argues that sovereignty resides in the people and explains the nature of legitimate government in terms of natural rights and the social contract. He is also famous for calling for the separation of Church and State in his Letter Concerning Toleration. Much of Locke's work is characterized by opposition to authoritarianism. This is apparent both on the level of the individual person and on the level of institutions such as government and church. For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use reason to search after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of authorities or be subject to superstition. He wants us to proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them. On the level of institutions it becomes important to distinguish the legitimate from the illegitimate functions of institutions and to make the corresponding distinction for the uses of force by these institutions. Locke believes that using reason to try to grasp the truth, and determine the legitimate functions of institutions will optimize human flourishing for the individual and society both in respect to its material and spiritual welfare. This in turn, amounts to following natural law and the fulfillment of the divine purpose for humanity.
(Source: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke
http://www.iep.utm.edu/locke/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/loc...
http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtre...
John Locke

Montesquieu:



Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, was born on January 19th, 1689 at La Brède, near Bordeaux, to a noble and prosperous family. He was educated at the Oratorian Collège de Juilly, received a law degree from the University of Bordeaux in 1708, and went to Paris to continue his legal studies. On the death of his father in 1713 he returned to La Brède to manage the estates he inherited, and in 1715 he married Jeanne de Lartigue, a practicing Protestant, with whom he had a son and two daughters. In 1716 he inherited from his uncle the title Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu and the office of Président à Mortier in the Parlement of Bordeaux, which was at the time chiefly a judicial and administrative body. For the next eleven years he presided over the Tournelle, the Parlement's criminal division, in which capacity he heard legal proceedings, supervised prisons, and administered various punishments including torture. During this time he was also active in the Academy of Bordeaux, where he kept abreast of scientific developments, and gave papers on topics ranging from the causes of echoes to the motives that should lead us to pursue the sciences.

In 1721 Montesquieu published the Persian Letters, which was an instant success and made Montesquieu a literary celebrity. (He published the Persian Letters anonymously, but his authorship was an open secret.) He began to spend more time in Paris, where he frequented salons and acted on behalf of the Parlement and the Academy of Bordeaux. During this period he wrote several minor works: Dialogue de Sylla et d'Eucrate (1724), Réflexions sur la Monarchie Universelle (1724), and Le Temple de Gnide (1725). In 1725 he sold his life interest in his office and resigned from the Parlement. In 1728 he was elected to the Académie Française, despite some religious opposition, and shortly thereafter left France to travel abroad. After visiting Italy, Germany, Austria, and other countries, he went to England, where he lived for two years. He was greatly impressed with the English political system, and drew on his observations of it in his later work.

On his return to France in 1731, troubled by failing eyesight, Montesquieu returned to La Brède and began work on his masterpiece, The Spirit of the Laws. During this time he also wrote Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and of their Decline, which he published anonymously in 1734. In this book he tried to work out the application of his views to the particular case of Rome, and in so doing to discourage the use of Rome as a model for contemporary governments. Parts of Considerations were incorporated into The Spirit of the Laws, which he published in 1748. Like the Persian Letters, The Spirit of the Laws was both controversial and immensely successful. Two years later he published a Defense of the Spirit of the Laws to answer his various critics. Despite this effort, the Roman Catholic Church placed The Spirit of the Laws on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1751. In 1755, Montesquieu died of a fever in Paris, leaving behind an unfinished essay on taste for the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert.
(Source: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mon...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montesquieu
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10536...

Scottish Enlightenment:

The Scottish Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that ranged across the fields of philosophy, chemistry, geology, architecture, poetry, engineering, technology, economics, sociology, medicine and history.

The 18th century is often described as Scotland’s ‘Golden Age’.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish...
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/s...
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sco...

Bryan wrote: "Common Sense:

In 1776 an obscure immigrant published a small pamphlet that ignited independence in America and shifted the political landscape of the patriot movement from reform within the Britis..."

Paine was interesting; a true radical, but, unlike Jefferson, he saw that the French Revolution had gone off the rails.

Many of the founding fathers' reputations went up and down since that time, perhaps none more than Paine's. At one point, he was considered reprehensible.

Bryan wrote: "John Locke:



was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. Locke's monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one of the first great defenses of empiricism ..."

I once heard Locke described as the only metaphysicist whom you could think actually believed what he wrote :-).

And TJ saw the French Revolution in more romantic way.

Like the Locke quote.

The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia is maintained by Monticello and the Jefferson Library. Not only will you find informative, short articles about many aspects of Jefferson's life, but they are also sourced and offer suggestions for further reading.

http://www.monticello.org/site/resear...

Thanks, Joanne, it is a first-rate source of information (and you can see I use it myself in our glossary).

It actually started when Monticello staff read the Wikipedia article on TJ. It was full of so many mistakes, the staff decided to build an encyclopedia. It also gives them a vehicle to put out information.

Bryan wrote: "Thanks, Joanne, it is a first-rate source of information (and you can see I use it myself in our glossary).

It actually started when Monticello staff read the Wikipedia article on TJ. It was full..."

I did not know that! I rely on the TJE. A great and handy resource!

The First Continental Congress



Britain responded to the Boston Tea Party in 1774 by passing several laws that became known in America as the Intolerable Acts. One law closed Boston Harbor until Bostonians paid for the destroyed tea. Another law restricted the activities of the Massachusetts legislature and gave added powers to the post of governor of Massachusetts. Those powers in effect made him a dictator. The American colonists were very angered by these forceful acts. In response to these actions and laws, the colonist banded together to fight back. Several committees of colonists called for a convention of delegates from the colonies to organize resistance to the Intolerable Acts. The convention was later to be called the Continental Congress.

The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia from Sept. 5 to Oct. 26, 1774, to protest the Intolerable Acts. Representatives attended from all the colonies except Georgia. The leaders included Samuel Adams and John Adams of Massachusetts and George Washington and Patrick Henry of Virginia. The Congress voted to cut off colonial trade with Great Britain unless Parliament abolished the Intolerable Acts. It approved resolutions advising the colonies to begin training their citizens for war. They also attempted to define America's rights, place limits on Parliament's power, and agree on tactics for resisting the aggressive acts of the English Government. lt also set up the Contintental Association to enforce an embargo against England. By the time the first meeting of the Continental Congress ended, hostilities had begun between Britain and the colonies.

Fun article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal concerning the oft-misquoted Thomas Jefferson. Here's a handy list of tips to spot a fake:

"How to Spot a Fake Jefferson Quote"

Tips from Anna Berkes, a research librarian at the Jefferson Library at Monticello

Word Contractions: Jefferson almost never used them.
"You" as an indefinite pronoun: He rarely used the second person singular unless he was addressing someone directly.

Modern language: Quotes about American gumption or industriousness, presenting a "pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps" sentiment, are unlikely to have come from Jefferson. He was a wealthy planter in what was then a largely non-urban country.

Pithy aphorisms: "The ability to encapsulate his entire philosophy on a topic in one sentence was not among Jefferson's many talents," according to Ms. Berkes.

No citation: If there is no citation for a primary document, that is a red flag.

Only appears in modern publications: "If you search further for the quotation on Google Books ... and the only place you find it is in business and self-help books, it's almost certain doom," according to Ms. Berkes.

For the full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001...

Awesome, the librarians there get daily emails or calls on a TJ quote. It became quite maddening. Thanks for sharing, Joanne, good information indeed.

Bryan wrote: "Awesome, the librarians there get daily emails or calls on a TJ quote. It became quite maddening. Thanks for sharing, Joanne, good information indeed."

This is fun. The growing list of what Thomas Jefferson DID NOT say: http://www.monticello.org/site/jeffer...

Appalling, but also funny, Joanne.

Ann

"The trouble with quotes on the internet is you never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

"I never said half the things I said" Yogi Berra

Joanne wrote: "Bryan wrote: "Awesome, the librarians there get daily emails or calls on a TJ quote. It became quite maddening. Thanks for sharing, Joanne, good information indeed."

This is fun. The growing lis..."

Love that site, Joanne.

G,
I like the motto of the Rind newspaper: "Open to ALL PARTIES, but Influenced by NONE."

Thanks for the interesting information on Clementina Rind. It's nice to have documentation about independent women of those times.

The Original Colonies

Massachusetts was a lot bigger, then wasn't it. I wonder how much each of the colonies thought of itself as its own little country, rather than a part of a single strong state.

Any ideas?

It wasn't during the lifetime of Thomas Jefferson that the states (or earlier colonies) began to think of themselves as part of a unified nation as opposed to individual states. The standard I usually try to explain to my high school American history students in the classroom is not until after the Civil War did we go from a nation that thought of the United States as a plural noun to a singular noun. Perhaps that's a little too simplified or easy a date to point to, but I think the general theme of states being stronger than the nation is fairly true until the latter half of the 19th century.

I think most of the time TJ said country early on, he meant Virginia

Robert Carter Nicholas:



Robert Carter Nicholas, like Speaker Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, and George Wythe, was one of Virginia's conservative patriots. A graduate of the College of William and Mary and an able lawyer, Nicholas served for 10 years as a burgess before becoming treasurer of the colony in 1766. Nicholas helped draft the resolutions of the House of Burgesses against the proposed Stamp Act in 1764, but opposed the "young hot, and giddy members" who supported Patrick Henry's Stamp Act resolves in May, 1765.

Introduced resolution for June 1 day of fasting and prayer

Nicholas introduced the resolution of May 23, 1774, setting aside June 1 as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer in sympathy with embargoed Boston. He is also remembered for trying to prevent premature violence in March, 1775, by opposing Patrick Henry's resolution to raise 10,000 regulars "for the duration." Although Nicholas was never an advocate of independence, his legal skill and unquestioned integrity led to his appointment to the Court of Chancery in January 1778.
(Source: http://www.history.org/Almanack/peopl...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C....

Edmund Pendleton:



Edmund Pendleton was one of the most accomplished attorneys in Virginia at the time of the American Revolution. Born on September 9, 1721, Pendleton was orphaned in his native Carolina County when he was very young. He grew up as the ward of the county clerk, in whose office he learned the law and gained introductions to many men of wealth and influence. Pendleton married in 1742, and after his first wife's death, he remarried in 1745. He had no children, but adopted an orphaned nephew in 1759 and raised him as his son. In 1777 Pendleton fell off a horse and broke his hip. The injury left him with a permanent limp.

In 1751 Pendleton became a justice of the peace and the following year won election to the House of Burgesses, where he served until the Revolution. Pendleton was a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses, president of the Virginia Committee of Safety that governed the colony from the summer of 1775 to the summer of 1776, and president of the fourth and fifth Virginia Conventions. He rewrote the several draft resolutions introduced into the fifth convention early in May 1776 and created the resolves that the convention unanimously adopted on May 15, instructing the colony's delegates to Congress to introduce a resolution for independence and authorizing a committee of the convention to draft the Declaration of Rights and the first constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In the autumn of 1776, Pendleton became the first Speaker of the new House of Delegates. He was president of the Convention of 1788 that ratified the Constitution of the United States. The following year, Pendleton became the head of Virginia's judiciary department, the Court of Appeals, and served until his death. In 1788 George Washington appointed him as a judge for the United States District Court of Virginia, but he declined the appointment. Pendleton died on October 23, 1803.
(Source: http://www.virginiamemory.com/online_...)

More:
http://www.history.org/almanack/peopl...
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_P...
(no image)Edmund Pendleton, 1721-1803: A Biography by David J. Mays

James Madison:



a Delegate and a Representative from Virginia and 4th President of the United States; born in Port Conway, King George County, Va., March 16, 1751; studied under private tutors and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1771; member of the committee of safety from Orange County in 1774; delegate in the Williamsburg (Va.) convention of May 1776; member of the First General Assembly of Virginia in 1776 and was unanimously elected a member of the executive council in 1778; Member of the Continental Congress 1780-1783 and 1787-1788; delegate in the Federal Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1787; elected to as an Anti-Administration candidate to the First Congress, Second and Third Congresses and reelected as a Republican to the Fourth Congress (March 4, 1789-March 3, 1797); declined the mission to France, tendered by President Washington in 1794, and also the position of Secretary of State, tendered the same year; again a member of the Virginia Assembly from Orange County in 1799; appointed by President Jefferson as Secretary of State on March 5, 1801; entered upon the duties of that office May 2, 1801, and served until March 4, 1809; elected President of the United States in 1808; reelected in 1812 and served from March 4, 1809, to March 3, 1817; retired to his estate, ”Montpelier,” Orange County, Va.; delegate in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829; rector of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and visitor to the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.; died at Montpelier on June 28, 1836; interment in the private cemetery of Montpelier.
(Source: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...)

More:
http://millercenter.org/president/mad...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presi...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ma...
http://www.montpelier.org/
Garry Wills
Andrew Burstein

Josiah Philips:

Whereas a certain Josiah Philips labourer of the parish of Lynhaven and county of Princess Anne together with divers others inhabitants of the counties of Princess Anne and Norfolk and citizens of this commonwealth contrary to their fidelity associating and confederating together have levied war against this Commonwealth, within the same, committing murders, burning houses, wasting farms and doing other acts of hostility in the said counties of Princess Anne, and Norfolk, and still continue to exercise the same enormities on the good people of this commonwealth: and whereas the delays which would attend the proceeding to outlaw the said offenders according to the usual forms and procedures of the courts of law would leave the said good people for a long time exposed to murder and devastation. Be it therefore enacted by the General assembly that if the said Josiah Philips his associates and confederates shall not on or before the day of June in this present year render themselves to the Governor or to some member of the privy council, judge of the General court, justice of the peace or commissioned officer of the regular troops, navy, or militia of this commonwealth in order to their trials for the treasons, murders and other felonies by them committed, that then such of them the said Josiah Philips his associates and confederates as shall not so render him or themselves, shall stand and be convicted and attainted of high treason, and shall suffer the pains of death, and incur all forfeitures, penalties and disabilities prescribed by the law against those convicted and attainted of High-treason: and that execution of this sentence of attainder shall be done by order of the General court to be entered as soon as may be conveniently after notice that any of the said offenders are in custody of the keeper of the public gaol. And if any person committed to the custody of the keeper of the public gaol as an associate or confederate of the said Josiah Philips shall alledge that he hath not been of his associates or confederates at any time after the day of in the year of our lord at which time the said murders and devastations were begun, a petty jury shall be summoned and charged according to the forms of the law to try in presence of the said court the fact so alledged; and if it be found against the defendant, execution of this act shall be done as before directed.

And that the good people of this commonwealth may not in the mean time be subject to the unrestrained hostilities of the said insurgents, be it further enacted that from and after the passing of this act it shall be lawful for any person with or without orders, to pursue and slay the said Josiah Philips and any others who have been of his associates or confederates at any time after the said day of aforesaid and shall not have previously rendered him or themselves to any of the officers civil or military before described, or otherwise to take and deliver them to justice to be dealt with according to law provided that the person so slain be in arms at the time or endeavoring to escape being taken.
(Source: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founde...)

More:
http://www.history.org/foundation/jou...
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1833722

George Rogers Clark:



At 26, George Rogers Clark was a confident frontiersman with a vision that would nearly double the size of his country in one stroke. A red-haired six-footer, Clark was a knowledgeable frontiersman, an outstanding field commander, and extremely confident of his abilities to move and persuade anyone to do what was necessary to succeed against formidable odds of time, money, and manpower.

Kentucky was a rich wilderness before the American Revolution. The abundant game, meadows and virgin forests attracted both Native Americans from the North and frontiersmen from the East. George Rogers Clark was one such frontiersman who described Kentucky as a "fair land". By 1776, a few isolated settlements had sprung up, as settlers refused to heed England’s proclamation of 1763 that forbade such westward settlement.

When the Revolutionary War broke out, the settlers found themselves caught without protection from Indian raids that were backed and encouraged by the British army. Ever concerned about the safety of settlers, Clark persuaded Virginia to declare Kentucky a county of Virginia, which entitled it to an identity, a government and supplies. Clark then convinced Virginia’s governor, Patrick Henry, to send him with a small army to the areas north of the Ohio River to capture British outposts there, thus reducing the Indian threat for Kentuckians.

After the war, George Rogers Clark settled in the rapidly growing town he had founded, Louisville. He built a cabin on land in Indiana given to him and his men by the government, he participated in Louisville’s civic affairs and helped resolve problems of land grants for his former troops. He also served on Indian commissions because of his expert ability to negotiate with the Native Americans.

Later in his life, ill health resulting from the dreadful exposures during his long march to Vincennes began to limit his activities. Clark went to live at Locust Grove with his sister Lucy Croghan and her family in 1809 after undergoing an amputation of his leg as a result of a serious burn. Clark continued to receive visits and give advice towards the community at large while under the care of his sister’s family. He stayed at Locust Grove until his death on February 13, 1818. He was buried in the family plot behind the house and later reinterred at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.
(Source: http://www.locustgrove.org/aboutgrc.html)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_R...
http://www.nps.gov/gero/index.htm
Lowell Hayes Harrison

Charles Cornwallis:



Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Cornwallis, Viscount Brome, Baron Cornwallis of Eye, had a long and distinguished career as a soldier and officer of the Crown.

Although Earl Cornwallis sided with the American colonists on all the major issues of the day from his seat in the House of Lords, during the American Revolution Major General (later Lieutenant General) Cornwallis led British forces in the Colonies from January 1, 1776 until he surrendered his command after the siege at Yorktown on October 19,1781.

As Commander-in-Chief (Governor General) in India from 12 September, 1786 to 28 October, 1793 he established the permanent settlement and administrative and judicial systems of the East India Company government in Bengal.

As viceroy of Ireland from June 13, 1798 to March 17, 1801 he worked to eliminate corruption among British officials and resigned over the king’s refusal to grant Roman Catholic emancipation. He was re-appointed governor-general of India on March 20, 1805 but died shortly after his arrival.
(Source: http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/c...)

More:
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/a...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...
http://www.revolutionarywararchives.o...

Benedict Arnold:



born Jan. 14, 1741, Norwich, Conn.died June 14, 1801, London, Eng.) American army officer and traitor. He joined the American Revolutionary army in 1775 and contributed to American victories at the Battle of Ticonderoga, at Fort Stanwix, N.Y., and at the Battle of Saratoga, where he was seriously wounded. He was made a major general and placed in command of Philadelphia, where he lived extravagantly and socialized with wealthy loyalist sympathizers, one of whom he married in 1779. Reprimanded for fiscal irregularities in his command, he began secret overtures to the British. After receiving command of the fort at West Point, N.Y. (1780), he offered to surrender it to the British for 20,000. The plot was uncovered after his British contact, John Andr, was captured. Arnold escaped on a British ship to England, where he died penniless.
(Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/benedict...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict...
http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/...
(no image)The Man in the Mirror: A Life of Benedict Arnold by Clare Brandt
Jim Murphy

Silas Deane:



Silas Deane was born December 24, 1737 in Ledyard, CT, son of Silas Dean (sic), a blacksmith and land speculator, and Sarah Barker Dean, formerly of Marshfield, MA. Following his 1758 graduation from Yale College, Deane taught school in Hartford and read for the bar. One of his pupils was Edward Bancroft, later a notorious doctor turned British agent, who served as Secretary to the American Commission in Paris.

Deane met his first wife, Mehitable Webb, while settling the estate of her late husband, Joseph Webb. Deane and Mehitable Webb married in 1763. They had one son, Jesse. Mehitable Deane died in 1767. Three years later Deane married Elizabeth Saltonstall, granddaughter of a governor and daughter of a general. Through his marriages Deane gained financial security and earned social prominence in Wethersfield. He pursued his legal profession but was engaged chiefly as a merchant and West Indian trader.

Deane was active in his community's church and represented Wethersfield for several terms in the Connecticut Assembly. He participated enthusiastically in the protests against British commercial policy. As Secretary of the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence, Deane attended meetings and conventions to discuss ways of expressing the colonies' complaints. In 1774 the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence appointed Deane, Roger Sherman and Eliphalet Dyer as delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. In this position Deane served on 40 committees, being especially effective on the naval committee and as chairman of ways and means. He disliked his fellow delegate, Roger Sherman, and their incongeniality later hurt Deane as Sherman opposed him politically. Deane orchestrated the financial backing for the daring capture of Fort Ticonderoga.

In Fall 1775 delegates to the Continental Congress were elected rather than appointed, and Sherman's organization defeated Deane. Deane had made such an impression in Philadelphia, however, that he was chosen by the Committee on Secrecy to procure supplies as Congress' agent to France. Additionally, Deane was chosen by the Committee on Secret Correspondence to promote a treaty of alliance. He departed March 16, 1776 and arrived at Bordeaux in May. In addition to his official duties, Deane had private business assignments with the Morris, Willing Company of Philadelphia and for his own family enterprises. Deane was to purchase supplies and materiel for Congress with money or credit from the sale of American commodities in Europe. He was to receive a commission of 5%. It was a daunting situation for Deane who did not have any contacts and did not speak French.

Deane established a relationship with Hortalez and Cie, a firm devised by the French government as a cover for trade with the colonies. The firm was headed by Caron de Beaumarchais. Through this and other deals, Deane managed to ship supplies and guns to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The supplies arrived in time to assure the victory at Saratoga. This in turn convinced the French to sign a treaty of alliance. Congress had created an American Commission at Paris to supersede its individual agent. Deane was named a Commissioner along with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee. The three signed the treaty of alliance Feb. 6, 1778. In March, Deane's enemies in Congress and the friends and family of Arthur Lee, his antagonistic fellow commissioner in Paris, demanded his recall to report on the situation in Europe and account for funds spent. Deane would have preferred to postpone his return but, on the advice of Franklin, sailed on D'Estaing's flagship with Conrad A. Gerard, the first French minister to the United States. They arrived in Philadelphia in July.

Congress then proceeded to ignore Deane's efforts to meet, make his report, and present his accounts for payment. He had used many of his own funds for the government's business and commissions were owed him, but Deane was thought to have misused government funds for his own interest. As time passed and Deane became aware that his enemies in Congress were humiliating him, he grew impatient and wrote a public statement which was taken up by the press. Congress resented this action. During the year in which Deane waited on Congress he was nominated for a seat in the upper house of the Connecticut legislature but did not serve. In August 1779 Congress offered him $10,000 in depreciated currency which he refused. He was determined to return to France to collect the vouchers needed to substantiate his claims. After attending to family commercial business in Virginia, Deane returned to France in March 1780 as a private citizen.

In Paris Franklin was supportive and hospitable. Deane prepared his accounts, but again, Congress delayed reviewing them. Congress had appointed Thomas Barclay, the Consul at Paris, to the task but claimed he had not the authority to settle them. Deane moved to Ghent to save money and avoid imposing on Franklin. Deane's health and fortunes deteriorated and his morale suffered keenly at the frustration of the delays. Eventually he moved to England and lived for a while on the charity of friends, among them Dr. Edward Bancroft, the erstwhile secretary of the American Commissioners in Paris, whose role as a double agent for the British would not be revealed until about 1870. Deane received discouraging reports from friends at home, Robert Morris among them, about the almost total erosion of the currency and the fiscally irresponsible Congress. In his own despondency he came to think a negotiated settlement of the war was advisable and wrote in this vein to friends, perhaps conniving at the interception of the letters by the British. They were published by the Tory publicist in New York, Rivington, and caused an outcry of treason. At the nadir of his fortunes and perspective on the war, Deane was unaware that with the intervention of the French navy, the military balance changed quickly and, as the Rivington letters appeared, Cornwallis's surrender was imminent.

Deane longed to return home but his loyal brother, Barnabas, warned he would not be accepted at that time. Remaining in London, Silas Deane explored many ideas for the promotion of post-war Anglo American commerce. Of special interest was a scheme for a canal between the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain which he discussed with Lord Sheffield and Lord Dorchester (Guy Carleton), the Governor-General of Canada. Full of hope for such prospects, he borrowed money to board ship at Deal on September 23, 1789. However, before sailing Deane suffered a violent abdominal attack which caused paralysis and death. Suspicions of poisoning by Dr. Bancroft, an authority on poisons, have not been proved. He was buried at Deal. Barnabas later thanked and reimbursed a kind American, Theodore Hopkins, who attended to the interment of the body. In 1795 Deane's son, Jesse Deane, was to receive proceeds from the sale of his father's diamond encrusted gold snuff box.
(Source: http://www.chs.org/finding_aides/find...)

More:
http://www.silasdeaneonline.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_Deane
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...
(no image)Silas Deane, Patriot or Traitor? by Coy Hilton James

John Hancock:



a Delegate from Massachusetts; born in Quincy, Norfolk County, Mass., January 12, 1737; pursued classical studies; was graduated from Harvard College in 1754; a selectman of Boston several terms; member of the provincial legislature 1766-1772; president of the Provincial Congress in 1774; Member of the Continental Congress 1775-1778 and served as President of the Congress from May 24, 1775, to October 1777; first signer of the Declaration of Independence; served as senior major general of Massachusetts Militia during the Revolutionary War; member of the Massachusetts constitutional convention in 1780; Governor of Massachusetts 1780-1785; was again elected President of the Continental Congress on November 23, 1785, but resigned May 29, 1786, not having served on account of illness; again Governor of Massachusetts from 1787 until his death in Quincy, Mass., October 8, 1793; interment in Old Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Mass.
(Source: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Han...
http://www.mass.gov/portal/government...
Harlow Giles Unger

John Page:



a Representative from Virginia; born at “Rosewell,” Gloucester County, Va., April 17, 1743; was graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., in 1763; served under Washington in an expedition against the French and Indians; delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1776; lieutenant governor of Virginia 1776-1779; raised a regiment of militia from Gloucester County; colonel in the Revolutionary Army; member of the state house of delegates 1781-1783 and 1785-1788; elected as an Anti-Administration candidate to the First, Second, and Third Congresses and reelected as a Republican to the Fourth Congress (March 4, 1789-March 3, 1797); again a member of the state house of delegates in 1797, 1798, 1800; and 1801; governor of Virginia 1802-1805; appointed United States commissioner of loans for Virginia and held office until his death in Richmond, Va., October 11, 1808; interment in St. John’s Churchyard.
(Source: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pag...

Thomas Nelson:



Thomas Nelson Jr. was born into the aristocratic society of Virginia in December of 1738. Like most of the southern Gentleman of his day, he gained a private education in England, culminating in a degree from Cambridge. He returned in 1761 and soon became involved in service to his colony and his country. Elected to the House of Burgesses in 1774, he was one of eighty nine who convened at the Raleigh tavern when that house was dissolved by the royal Governor. He was a member of the Virginia provincial convention in 1775, and there he undertook the creation of the Virginia Militia. He then assumed duty as its first Commander. Shortly thereafter he was elected to the Continental Congress. Nelson began suffering health problems in 1777 and thought best to retire to his native state. He resumed his military service, much to the benefit of both Virginia and his health. He was reelected to Congress in 1779 but his health again declined and he returned to Virginia several months later.

Once again he resumed service, as commanding General of the Lower Virginia Militia, at a time when British forces began aggressive campaigns against the southern colonies. In 1781, Thomas Jefferson declined reelection as Governor due to his inability to serve the needs of a state under siege. General Nelson succeeded Jefferson and served as both Civil Governor and Commander in chief of the Virginia Militia. Under his command Virginia, both civil and Military, became a force to contend with. Both the Continental Army and French forces utilized the skills of the Virginia units in the Siege of Yorktown in the autumn of 1781.

Finally overcome by illness in October of that year, General Nelson retired from public service. He died at one of his estates, in Hanover County, in 1789 at the age of 50.
(Source: http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...)

More:
http://colonialhall.com/nelson/nelson...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_N....
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...

Jack Jouett:

was a politician and a hero of the American Revolution, known as the "Paul Revere of the South" for his late night ride to warn Thomas Jefferson, then the Governor of Virginia, and the Virginia legislature of coming British cavalry who had been sent to capture them. Jouett was also the father of Matthew Harris Jouett, a famous painter from Kentucky.

More:
http://www.monticello.org/site/resear...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Jouett
http://fusilier.wordpress.com/banastr...
http://www.charlottesville.org/index....