Page 162 - Beers With Our Founding Fathers

Beers with our Founding Fathers

Jefferson's personal life, including an affair as a widower with one of

his slaves, with whom he fathered several children. Jefferson
attended college and then went on to study law – there were no law

schools at the time. Instead, like many trades, studying under the
guidance of a lawyer for 2-3 years and then being accepted by the

bar. Jefferson studied under one of the most prominent lawyers for
five years, becoming one of the most learned lawyers in Virginia.

Jefferson's entry into politics came at the end of the French and
Indian War, and when England began enacting unrepresented

legislation that taxed colonies and colonists to pay the growing debt
of England's wars and expanding empire. Jefferson was elected to

Virginia's House of Burgesses in 1768. There he met and joined
others of his growing belief in independence from England –

Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry and George Washington. One of
Jefferson's first written works, which would demonstrate his skills in

composition, was ‘A Summary View of the Rights of British America’
in 1774 which he presented to the First Continental Congress. This

detailed Jefferson's grievances against England and established his
reputation as one of the most eloquent advocates of the American

cause. A year later, in 1775, Jefferson attended the Second
Continental Congress. The attempts to address grievances with

th
England escalated and on April 19 1775 when the first shots of the
American War for Independence were fired. That summer, the

Continental Congress voted to declare independence and formed a

committee of five, led by Jefferson, to draft our Declaration of
Independence.

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