Towns

VA, USA

Thomas Jefferson

1743–1826 · Governor of Virginia · Monticello Owner · Statesman

1743–1826

Governor of Virginia · Monticello Owner · Statesman

Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia, the son of a planter and surveyor, and received an exceptional education at the College of William and Mary before studying law under George Wythe. His early public career in the Virginia legislature established him as one of the sharpest constitutional minds in colonial America, and his authorship of A Summary View of the Rights of British America in 1774 made his pen known to the Continental Congress before he arrived at Philadelphia. The Declaration of Independence, which he drafted in June 1776, gave enduring form to the Enlightenment principles that animated the Revolutionary movement, and its assertion that all men are created equal set a standard against which subsequent generations would measure the republic.

Jefferson's governorship of Virginia from 1779 to 1781 was one of the most difficult and controversial periods of his career. Virginia faced a British invasion, the fall of Richmond, the destruction of military stores, and the collapse of much of the state's defensive capacity. On the morning of June 4, 1781, Tarleton's cavalry arrived at Charlottesville, where the legislature was meeting, and a detachment rode up the mountain to Monticello. Jefferson departed with his family minutes before the soldiers arrived -- the exact margin of his escape has been disputed, but British soldiers entered his house shortly after he left. The incident gave his political enemies material to question his personal courage, and the legislature formally investigated his conduct as governor before ultimately clearing him of any misconduct.

Jefferson emerged from the governorship's difficulties to serve as minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice President, and ultimately two terms as President. His death on July 4, 1826 -- the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and the same day as the death of John Adams -- seemed to his contemporaries almost too symbolic to be accidental. The episode at Monticello in June 1781 remained a point of political vulnerability throughout his career, but it has also come to be understood as part of a larger story: the man who wrote that all men are created equal enslaved more than 600 people over his lifetime, a contradiction at the heart of both his legacy and the Revolution he helped lead.

In Charlottesville

  1. Jan 1779
    Convention Army Prisoners at Charlottesville(Governor of Virginia)

    In 1779, approximately 4,000 British and Hessian prisoners of war captured at Saratoga — known as the Convention Army — were marched to a prison camp near Charlottesville. The presence of these prisoners transformed the small town, creating an unexpected social and economic dynamic as local residents interacted with European officers and soldiers. Jefferson, who visited the prisoner encampment from Monticello, engaged in intellectual exchange with some of the captured officers, particularly the Hessians. The prisoner camp strained local resources but also brought money and trade to the area. The Convention Army prisoners remained near Charlottesville for over a year before being moved to other locations, leaving behind gardens, structures, and lasting memories of an unusual wartime community.

  2. May 1781
    Virginia Legislature Meets in Charlottesville (May 1781)(Governor of Virginia)

    After Benedict Arnold's raid burned much of Richmond in January 1781 and Phillips's subsequent raid threatened the capital again in April–May, the Virginia General Assembly relocated to Charlottesville in late May 1781 to continue operating at a safer distance from British operations in the Tidewater. Governor Jefferson and the legislature met in the relative security of the Piedmont foothills. The relocation demonstrated both the severity of the British threat to the Virginia government and the determination to keep the revolutionary administration functioning despite repeated disruption. The legislature had been meeting in Charlottesville for less than two weeks when Tarleton's raid on June 4, 1781 scattered both the legislators and the governor. Several members were captured; most fled west toward the Shenandoah Valley. The episode was the lowest point of Virginia's Revolutionary War experience.

  3. Jun 1781
    Jack Jouett's Midnight Ride(Governor of Virginia)

    On the night of June 3, 1781, Captain Jack Jouett spotted Tarleton's cavalry resting at Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County, approximately forty miles east of Charlottesville. Jouett deduced their objective and rode through the night on back roads and trails to warn Jefferson at Monticello and the legislature in Charlottesville. Jouett arrived at Monticello around 4:30 in the morning and then rode on to Charlottesville to alert the legislators. His ride, through rough terrain and darkness, gave Jefferson and most of the legislators barely enough time to escape. Unlike Paul Revere's more famous ride, Jouett's has never received comparable public recognition, though the Virginia legislature later rewarded him with a sword and a pair of pistols.

  4. Jun 1781
    Tarleton's Raid on Charlottesville(Governor of Virginia)

    Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton led approximately 250 British dragoons on a rapid march from the east, arriving in Charlottesville on the morning of June 4, 1781. His objective was to capture Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature, which had relocated to Charlottesville after fleeing Richmond. Jack Jouett's overnight ride had given the targets just enough warning to escape. Tarleton's troops captured seven legislators who had not departed in time, and a small detachment rode up to Monticello but found Jefferson gone. The British spent several hours in Charlottesville and at Monticello before withdrawing. The raid demonstrated the reach of British cavalry and the vulnerability of Virginia's government, but the failure to capture Jefferson or the legislature made it a tactical success without strategic significance.

  5. Jun 1781
    Jefferson Flees Monticello(Governor of Virginia)

    Thomas Jefferson received Jouett's warning early on the morning of June 4 but did not immediately leave Monticello, reportedly wanting to secure important papers first. A second warning, from a scout who could see British cavalry ascending the mountain, finally prompted his departure. Jefferson left on horseback, taking back paths through the woods, only minutes before Tarleton's advance guard reached the house. The near-capture was the final blow to Jefferson's already-damaged reputation as a wartime leader. His political enemies in the legislature had already called for an investigation into his conduct as governor, and the flight from Monticello gave them additional ammunition. Jefferson was deeply wounded by the criticism and retreated from public life for several years.

  6. Jun 1781
    British Troops at Monticello(Governor of Virginia)

    A detachment of Tarleton's cavalry, led by Captain Kenneth McLeod, reached Monticello shortly after Jefferson's departure. The British troops spent approximately eighteen hours at the estate, consuming food and wine from Jefferson's stores but causing relatively little physical damage. Tarleton had reportedly ordered that the property be treated with respect. The enslaved people at Monticello were left to manage the British occupation on their own. Isaac Jefferson, then a young boy, later recalled the soldiers' arrival in his memoirs. Some enslaved people at Monticello used the confusion of the British raid as an opportunity to escape. The episode reveals how military events disrupted the plantation system and created moments of both danger and possibility for enslaved communities.

  7. Jun 1781
    Virginia Legislature Flees to Staunton(Governor of Virginia)

    After Jouett's warning, most members of the Virginia legislature fled Charlottesville and reconvened in Staunton, across the Blue Ridge Mountains. The flight was the third relocation of the legislature in six months — from Richmond to Charlottesville to Staunton — and it underscored the near-collapse of Virginia's state government during the spring of 1781. In Staunton, the legislature elected Thomas Nelson Jr. to replace Jefferson as governor. Nelson's selection reflected a desire for more aggressive military leadership. Within months, Nelson would personally command Virginia militia at the siege of Yorktown, providing the kind of hands-on wartime leadership that Jefferson had been unable or unwilling to exercise.

  8. Jun 1781
    Thomas Nelson Jr. Elected Governor(Governor of Virginia)

    Meeting in Staunton after fleeing Charlottesville, the Virginia legislature elected Thomas Nelson Jr. as governor on June 12, 1781. Nelson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a wealthy Yorktown planter, brought a markedly different temperament to the office than Jefferson had shown. He was willing to use emergency powers, including impressing supplies and horses for the military. Nelson's election marked a shift toward more aggressive wartime leadership in Virginia. He would personally command the Virginia militia at Yorktown just four months later, reportedly directing cannon fire at his own Yorktown house, which Cornwallis was using as a headquarters. Nelson's health and fortune were both ruined by his wartime service — he died at fifty-one, largely impoverished.

  9. Aug 1818
    Jefferson Proposes the University of Virginia (1818–1819)(Governor of Virginia)

    In August 1818 the Rockfish Gap Commission, chaired by Jefferson, met at the Blue Ridge pass west of Charlottesville and recommended Charlottesville as the site for a new state university. Virginia's General Assembly chartered the University of Virginia in January 1819. Jefferson, then 75 years old, personally designed every building, selected the faculty from Europe, and developed the curriculum — devoting his final years to what he called his "hobby" and considered, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, one of his three greatest achievements. Jefferson's vision for the university was explicitly political: a free republic required educated citizens capable of self-governance. The university would be secular (no theology department, no chapel at center), empirical, and focused on preparing Virginians — and by extension Americans — for the responsibilities of democratic citizenship. Charlottesville's University of Virginia was Jefferson's final argument that the American Revolution's promise was achievable through education.

← Back to people