2 Chapter 1 Tall Tom

Chapter 1 Tall Tom Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 on his family's plantation, Shadwell, in central Virginia. Virginia was one of thirteen colonies belonging to Great Britain. By the calendar used then, his birth date was April 2. By today's calendar his birth date was April 13. Tom came third in a family of ten children. Two of the children didn't survive infancy. So Tom grew up with two older sisters, four younger sisters, and a younger brother. The babies of the family, Anna and Randolph, were twins. Little is known about Tom's mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson. Far more is known about his father. Peter Jefferson was a prosperous farmer who owned dozens of slaves. He was also a

surveyor, a person who measures land boundaries. In addition, he served in Virginia's legislature. Young Tom thought his father was the smartest and the strongest man on earth. It was said that Peter Jefferson once raised two barrels of tobacco that had been lying on their sides to an upright position. Each barrel was said to weigh nearly 1,000 pounds. He also loved books and read Shakespeare and other authors in his spare time.

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Tom had cousins named Randolph, who lived in eastern Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Randolph died within a few years of each other. After that, Tom's parents helped raise the three Randolph children. Tom's first memory was of moving to his cousins' home, about fifty miles away, when he was two. For much of his childhood, Tom went back and forth between the two places. Sometimes he was home at Shadwell. Other times he and his family were at Tuckahoe, the Randolph estate.

In a way, Tom had the best of two worlds. At Shadwell, which stood at the edge of the wilderness, his father taught him to ride, swim, fish, and hunt. In eastern Virginia, Tom went to dances and learned to dress and behave like an English gentleman. But he apparently didn't get