Chris+G.+-+CRD+-+SP12

Thomas Jefferson was an Anti-Federalist, and he was actually one of the leaders, if not the singular leader, of that party. In particular, he was the father of the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party, which supported interpreting the Constitution strictly and delegating any rights not explicitly given to the national government to the states. Thomas Jefferson is from Virginia, where he was a delegate in the House of Burgesses for six years prior to his election to the Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson is most well-known as the author of the Declaration of Independence, and rightly so—he wrote it mostly himself, with only small changes being made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and other changes were made once it was introduced to the Continental Congress (Postwar).

The fact that Thomas Jefferson was from Virginia is substantial. Virginia was arguably the most influential southern state at the time and the state’s input was valued highly in the politics of the time. While Thomas Jefferson was a marvelous writer, his ties to Virginia helped him in the advancements of his political goals. The economy of Virginia was plantation and slavery based, which meant that delegates from Virginia were generally Anti-Federalist because they wished for their state to be able to set its own rules in order to protect its status quo: using cheap slave labor to produce big profits. Geographically, Virginia’s area contained mostly large plantations; the population was a mixture of whites and black slaves. Since much of Virginia’s population consisted of black slaves, Virginian delegates were supporters of blacks counting as people in the census so that Virginia would receive more votes in the House of Representatives. The social structure of Virginia mostly consisted of rich white landowners and black slaves, with some indentured servants, both white and black.

Thomas Jefferson came from a well-to-do Virginian family. While they were not the richest in the state, Jefferson’s father was a land owner and his mother came from one of the first families of Virginia (Thomas). Thusly, Thomas Jefferson had an affluent upbringing and attended the College of William and Mary and later studied law under George Wythe, another prominent political figure of the age and a signer of the Declaration of Independence (Thomas). Afterwards he served in the House of Burgesses for six years and was then elected to the Continental Congress. When Jefferson went home to Virginia, he was a member of the Jefferson served until 1779 in the House of Delegates, one of the two houses of the General Assembly of Virginia, which was established in 1776 by the state's new constitution (Thomas). Jefferson was elected governor of Virginia in 1779. He proceeded through many political offices during his life, including President. In Thomas Jefferson’s career was in law and politics his entire life. After he retired, he also planned and built the University of Virginia at Charlestown (Thomas).

Jefferson was not present at the Constitutional Convention because he was minister to France and he was out of the country at the time. However, like many Anti-Federalists, Jefferson was alarmed that the Constitution did not include a bill of rights. This was something he felt was necessary. Jefferson was not part of his state’s ratification committee because he was still in France at this point, but he would have made his point clear that he wished there to be a bill of rights added to the Constitution and he would have ratified it because he recognized that America needed a stronger government immediately, but he would have insisted changes be made to it in the future.

Works Cited


 * Jefferson, Thomas. //The Writings of Thomas Jefferson.// New York: Paul L. Ford, 1892. Print.

"Postwar Revolutionary Leader." //Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free Online Reference, Research & Homework Help//. Pearson Education, 2007. Web. 09 Feb. 2012.

"Thomas Jefferson." //Supercomputing '94//. IEEE Computer Society. Web. 09 Feb. 2012.