American

Author

Jefferson, Thomas

1743

1826

American (North American)

American statesman, architect, 1743-1826

male

Third president of the United States (1801-1809). He was also the author of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, the nation's first secretary of state (1789-1794), second vice president (1797-1801), and the president responsible for the Louisiana Purchase. An early advocate of total separation of church and state, he also was the founder and architect of the University of Virginia, architect of his home Monticello and other buildings, and the most eloquent American proponent of individual freedom as the core meaning of the American Revolution.