Who Was Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰斐逊 Chapter 4 Governor and Minister to France

Most members of Congress signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776. Its author signed the paper Th Jefferson. After signing, he was ready to go home. He missed his family. Besides, he felt he was needed in Virginia. He quit his seat in Congress on September 2 and reached Monticello a week later.

In October, Jefferson became a member of Virginia’s new state legislature. He served there for three difficult years. England was the world’s most powerful nation. For a long while, it appeared that the United States would lose the war.

Jefferson ran for governor of Virginia in June 1779. He was elected and held the office for two years. Jefferson was a brilliant thinker. He was a marvelous writer. But he was not a good wartime governor. Perhaps the biggest problem was that in his heart he was a man of peace. He was not good at raising and arming men for combat. As a result, Virginia was unprepared when the British invaded the state in 1781.

On June 2, 1781, with British forces overrunning Virginia, Jefferson’s term as governor ended. Two days later, Jefferson was at Monticello when a messenger arrived with terrible news. The British were coming to capture him! Thomas made Martha and the children board a carriage and escape. He then walked into the woods to see if he could spot the enemy. Seeing no sign of them, he decided¹ to return home for some papers. Before doing that, he took out a small telescope he had brought along. He aimed it at Charlottesville, just two miles from Monticello. The town was crawling with British troops.

The telescope may have saved his life. The British had seized Monticello. Had he returned home, Jefferson might have been captured and hanged. Instead, he met up with his family.

CONTINENTAL² SOLDIER

WHEN THE THIRTEEN COLONIES WENT TO WAR AGAINST ENGLAND, THE AMERICAN COLONISTS³ WANTED THEIR OWN FLAG TO REPRESENT THE LAND THEY WERE FIGHTING FOR. HERE ARE SOME OF THE FLAGS COLONISTS USED DURING THE REVOLUTION.

Jefferson took them to Poplar Forest, a plantation⁴ he owned about eighty miles from Monticello.

A few months after the Jeffersons fled Monticello, Americans won a stunning⁵ victory. It occurred right in Virginia. Ben Franklin had convinced France to help America fight Britain. In October 1781, George Washington’s troops, along with French soldiers, crushed the British at Yorktown, Virginia. This victory meant that America had won its war for independence.

No one was happier about independence than Thomas Jefferson. This should have been a happy time for Jefferson. However, some Virginians accused him of not having done enough earlier as governor to protect the state. Virginia’s legislature even held hearings on the subject. Jefferson was cleared of wrongdoing in late 1781. Still, the harsh words from people of his own state hurt him deeply. To make things worse, while horseback riding, Thomas broke his left wrist and suffered other injuries. He couldn’t leave the house for six weeks.

In the following year came the worst blow of all. By early 1782, the Jeffersons were back at Monticello. There, on May 8, Martha gave birth to her sixth and last child, Lucy Elizabeth. Martha grew weaker day by day following the birth. For four months, Thomas stayed by her bedside. He read to her from their favorite books. At night, he slept in a nearby room.

In her final hours, Martha told Thomas her last wish. She had three living children—Patsy, Maria, and the baby, Lucy Elizabeth. She couldn’t bear for them to be raised by a stepmother. Promise never to remarry, she begged her husband. Thomas promised. A short time later, on September 6, 1782, Martha died.

Thomas’s oldest daughter Patsy was nine at the time. Many years later she wrote that her father nearly lost his mind from grief. He would not leave his room for three weeks. When he finally came out, he went on long horseback rides through the woods. “The violence of his emotion, of his grief,” she wrote half a century later, “to this day I dare not trust myself to describe.”

Friends such as James Madison thought that Thomas should return to politics. That might take his mind off his grief. Jefferson agreed. In June 1783, Jefferson was elected to the Continental Congress. Over the next six months, he served on nearly every major committee in Congress. He also wrote at least thirty-one government papers.

In the spring of 1784, Congress gave him an important job. He was to go to France and help make treaties with European countries. Jefferson left his two younger daughters with relatives. But eleven-year-old Patsy made the 3,800-mile voyage with her father. They reached Paris on August 6.

Once he was in France, Jefferson’s job changed. Ben Franklin resigned as U.S. minister to France. Jefferson, who had learned some French, was then named to the post. He was to make sure that the United States and France remained friends. He kept in touch with French officials and traveled around the country.

Back home, though, things were going poorly. In October 1784, two-year-old Lucy Elizabeth died of whooping⁶ cough. News traveled so slowly by ship that Jefferson didn’t find out about it for about three months. The grieving father wanted his only other child, Maria, to join Patsy and himself in France. Eight-year-old Maria was too young to travel alone. Jefferson wrote home asking that one of his slaves sail with her.

A slave named Sally Hemings, only fourteen years old herself, was sent with Maria. The two girls arrived in France in mid-1787. Maria entered the school that Patsy attended. Sally went to work as a house slave in Jefferson’s Paris apartment.

Sally Hemings was not only a slave. She was closely related to Jefferson’s late wife. Martha Jefferson’s parents were John and Martha Wayles. Martha’s father also had six children with one of his slave women. These children were considered black and were raised as slaves. Sally was one of them. Because they had the same father, Martha and Sally were half-sisters. After John Wayles’s death in 1773, Sally had become Martha and Thomas Jefferson’s slave at Monticello.

Sally Hemings probably looked like her half-sister. She may have reminded Thomas of Martha in other ways. Jefferson began a relationship with Sally. She had little if any choice in the matter. Because Jefferson was her master, Sally had to do what he wanted. This was just one of the many evil things about slavery. Yet over time, it appears that Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson grew very fond of each other. They would maintain their relationship for nearly forty years.

In 1789, Sally Hemings became pregnant. Thomas Jefferson was the father. By then, Jefferson had been overseas for five years. He wanted to go home. Congress said he could. But Jefferson had one problem. Under French law, Sally could become free by staying in France. She agreed to return to the U.S. only if Jefferson made her a promise. Their children had to be freed once they reached adulthood⁷. Sally may have also asked for her own freedom one day as well.

Jefferson agreed. In the fall of 1789, he sailed for home with Sally Hemings and his two daughters. They barely made it. Off Virginia’s coast, a storm lashed⁸ their ship, ripping away some of the sails. Then another vessel⁹ nearly rammed¹⁰ into them. Their ship also caught fire—but fortunately, just after they had landed.

The travelers reached Monticello two days before Christmas of 1789. Sally’s baby was born soon after, but the child seems to have lived only a short time. Jefferson’s relationship with Sally continued at Monticello. Over the next nineteen years, they had six more children. Two died in infancy¹¹. Their sons Beverley, Madison, and Eston, and their daughter, Harriet, lived to adulthood. Like their mother, these four children were slaves at Monticello.

Many years later, Madison Hemings complained that Thomas Jefferson hadn’t shown his slave family any “fatherly affection.” However, in one way Jefferson did favor Sally and their children. He saw to it that they had easier jobs than the field slaves. Sally and Harriet did housework and sewing at Monticello. The boys ran errands and worked at carpentry.

Eventually, Sally and her children were given their freedom, but not for many years to come.
 

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

3 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》

4 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。

5 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

6 whooping   

发嗬嗬声的，发咳声的

参考例句：

• Whooping cough is very prevalent just now. 百日咳正在广泛流行。
• Have you had your child vaccinated against whooping cough? 你给你的孩子打过百日咳疫苗了吗？

7 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。

8 lashed   

adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The rain lashed at the windows. 雨点猛烈地打在窗户上。
• The cleverly designed speech lashed the audience into a frenzy. 这篇精心设计的演说煽动听众使他们发狂。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

10 rammed   

v.夯实（土等）( ram的过去式和过去分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输

参考例句：

• Two passengers were injured when their taxi was rammed from behind by a bus. 公共汽车从后面撞来，出租车上的两位乘客受了伤。
• I rammed down the earth around the newly-planted tree. 我将新栽的树周围的土捣硬。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 infancy   

n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期

参考例句：

• He came to England in his infancy.他幼年时期来到英国。
• Their research is only in its infancy.他们的研究处于初级阶段。