Thomas Jefferson was a Virginian lawyer, planter, writer and political leader who became the third president of the United States, serving from 1801 to 1809. A prominent figure in the American Revolution, he was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He later served as governor of Virginia, US minister to France, the first secretary of state and the second vice-president. As president, his administration completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and sponsored the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Jefferson also wrote extensively on government, religious liberty, education and science, and founded the University of Virginia. His public advocacy of natural rights existed alongside his lifelong participation in slavery: he enslaved more than 600 people over his lifetime. Historical and genetic evidence supports the conclusion that he fathered children with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Monticello. Jefferson died at Monticello on 4 July 1826, fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted.