Who Was Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰斐逊 Chapter 2 Tall Tom in Love

Tom moved to Williamsburg in the spring of 1760. This city near the coast was Virginia’s capital and home to the College of William and Mary. Tom loved college from the start. He was hungry for knowledge and enjoyed studying late into the night.

One professor, William Small, befriended him. In turn, Dr. Small introduced him to his friends George Wythe and Francis Fauquier. Wythe was a noted¹ lawyer. Fauquier was the colonial governor of Virginia for Great Britain. Fauquier often invited Small, Wythe, and Jefferson to dine at the Governor’s Palace. Sometimes the red haired college student played his violin at concerts hosted by the governor.

Tom graduated in 1762 after just two years. Now he had to think about a career. Law appealed to him. In those days, young men (there were no women lawyers yet) studied with established attorneys. After a while, the young men took a law test. Those who passed, became lawyers.

Tom began studying under George Wythe. He couldn’t have had a better teacher. In colonial days, lawyers generally had poor reputations. A few colonies even had laws preventing lawyers from entering their borders! Wythe, however, was famous for his honesty. If he thought a person was in the wrong or lying, he wouldn’t take the case.

Wythe did not go easy on Tom, even though they were friends. Tom studied with George Wythe for five years. In comparison, Tom’s friend Patrick Henry studied for just several months before becoming a lawyer. Even today, law schools generally require just three years of study. One reason for Tom’s lengthy² preparation was that Wythe was a treasury³ of legal knowledge. Another was that Tom liked his law teacher. He called Wythe, who was seventeen years older than himself, “my second father.”

In 1767, Jefferson was admitted to the bar. He began to practice law near Shadwell as well as in the capital city of Williamsburg. George Wythe had taught Tom well. His first year, the twenty-four-year-old attorney handled sixty-seven cases. This grew to 115 cases his second year, and about 200 his third year. Tom’s problem was that he didn’t press his clients to pay him. In his first six years as an attorney, Tom collected only a third of his fees!

Tom also became interested in politics. In 1769 he ran for and won a seat in the House of Burgesses. This was Virginia’s legislature. It was America’s oldest lawmaking body made up of elected representatives. Jefferson served in the House of Burgesses until the American Revolution ended colonial government.

HOUSE OF BURGESSES

THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF BURGESSES MET TO DECIDE LOCAL LAWS. ITS HISTORIC FIRST MEETING TOOK PLACE AT JAMESTOWN IN 1619.

THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. IN THE 1760S AND 1770S, ITS MEMBERS BEGAN TO CHALLENGE DECISIONS MADE BY THE ROYAL GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. THE BURGESSES, AS THEY WERE CALLED, HELPED SPUR A UNIFIED⁴ FIGHT FOR FREEDOM THROUGHOUT THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.

Law and politics weren’t the only things on his mind. His family’s home, Shadwell, burned down in 1770. Jefferson was in Charlottesville, Virginia, when a slave brought the news. After learning that his relatives were safe, Jefferson asked if all the property was lost.

“Not all,” the slave answered. “We saved your fiddle⁵.”

The year of the fire, Jefferson began building a new home that he had designed. With his slaves doing the work, the thirty-five-room mansion⁶ was built on a hilltop four miles from Shadwell and also near the town of Charlottesville. He called his new estate Monticello. The name means little mountain in Italian.

Young ladies were also in his thoughts. At nineteen, he had fallen in love with sixteen-year-old Rebecca Burwell. Tom carried a silhouette⁷ of Rebecca in his watch. He had a pet name for her:—Belinda. But he was too shy to express his feelings.

In colonial days, young women often married at age sixteen or seventeen and men at twenty or twenty-one. One reason the colonists⁸ married early was that their average life span was less than forty years. It was common for people to die young from diseases and conditions that doctors can cure today. Tom saw his chance to propose marriage at a ball in Williamsburg. But when he danced with Rebecca, he could only say “a few broken sentences,” he told a friend. He met her again a few weeks later but only blurted⁹ out that he might want to marry her someday. That wasn’t much of a proposal! A few months later, Rebecca married another man.

MONTICELLO

“LITTLE MOUNTAIN”

IN ABOUT 1767, JEFFERSON BEGAN DESIGNING MONTICELLO. THE DESIGN RESEMBLED BUILDINGS CREATED BY 16TH-CENTURY ITALIAN ARCHITECT ANDREA PALLADIO. CONSTRUCTION BEGAN IN 1770 AND CONTINUED UNTIL 1809. JEFFERSON MOVED INTO MONTICELLO’S SOUTH PAVILION AFTER HIS BIRTHPLACE, SHADWELL, BURNED TO THE GROUND IN 1770.

It took several years for Tom’s broken heart to heal. Then in 1770, he met Martha Wayles Skelton. She was a young beauty with hazel eyes and reddish brown hair. Just twenty-two years old, Martha was already a widow with a young son named John.

Martha and Tom fell in love. He visited her father’s plantation¹⁰, The Forest, to court her. The couple shared a love of music. They sang together. Sometimes Thomas played his violin while Martha played the harpsichord¹¹, which resembled a piano. According to a Jefferson family story, one day Thomas and Martha were playing a love song in The Forest’s drawing room. Two other admirers of Martha entered the house. Hearing the duet, they knew Thomas had won her heart, so they departed.

On New Year’s Day of 1772, Thomas and Martha were married at The Forest. The festivities lasted more than two weeks. On January 18, the newlyweds set out by buggy for Monticello. They were hit by a blizzard¹² during the 100-mile journey. It was “the deepest snow we have ever seen, about 3 [feet] deep,” Thomas wrote in a journal. They had to abandon the buggy and finish the journey on horseback. Not until late at night did the couple arrive at their new home to begin their life together.

Thomas and Martha remained deeply in love during their ten-and-a-half years of marriage. They also endured much sadness together. Martha’s four-year-old son, John, had been left behind at The Forest with his grandparents. John became ill and died in June 1772. Over the next few years, Thomas and Martha had five daughters and a son. All but two of them died before the age of three. Only their firstborn, Patsy, and another daughter, Maria, grew to adulthood¹³.

1 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

2 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

3 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

4 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

5 fiddle   

n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动

参考例句：

• She plays the fiddle well.她小提琴拉得好。
• Don't fiddle with the typewriter.不要摆弄那架打字机了。

6 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

7 silhouette   

n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓

参考例句：

• I could see its black silhouette against the evening sky.我能看到夜幕下它黑色的轮廓。
• I could see the silhouette of the woman in the pickup.我可以见到小卡车的女人黑色半身侧面影。

8 colonists   

n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Colonists from Europe populated many parts of the Americas. 欧洲的殖民者移居到了美洲的许多地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some of the early colonists were cruel to the native population. 有些早期移居殖民地的人对当地居民很残忍。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 blurted   

v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She blurted it out before I could stop her. 我还没来得及制止，她已脱口而出。
• He blurted out the truth, that he committed the crime. 他不慎说出了真相，说是他犯了那个罪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

11 harpsichord   

n.键琴（钢琴前身）

参考例句：

• I can tune the harpsichord as well as play it.我会弹奏大键琴，同样地，我也会给大键琴调音。
• Harpsichord music is readily playable.古钢琴音乐可以随时演奏。

12 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

13 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。