Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) is the third President of the United States (1801–1809) and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776).

An influential Founding Father, Jefferson envisions America as a great "Empire of Liberty" that will promote republicanism.

Jefferson serves as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781), barely escaping capture by the British in 1781.

Many people dislike his tenure, and he does not win office again in Virginia.

From mid-1784 through late 1789, Jefferson lives outside the United States.

He serves in Paris initially as a commissioner to help negotiate commercial treaties.

In May 1785 he succeeds Benjamin Franklin as the U.S. Minister to France.

He is the first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793) under George Washington and advises him against a national bank and the Jay Treaty.

He is the second Vice President (1797–1801) under John Adams.

Winning on an anti-federalist platform, Jefferson takes the oath of office and becomes President of the United States in 1801.

As president he negotiates the Louisiana Purchase (1803), and sends the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) to explore the vast new territory and lands further west.

Jefferson sponsors embargo laws that escalate tensions with Britain and France, leading to war with Britain in 1812 shortly after he leaves office.

He idealizes the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusts cities and financiers, and favors states' rights and a limited federal government.

Jefferson supports the separation of church and state and is the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786).

Jefferson's revolutionary view on individual religious freedom and protection from government authority have generated much interest with modern scholars.

He was the eponym of Jeffersonian democracy and the co-founder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for 25 years.

Born into a prominent planter family, Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves throughout his life; he held views on the racial inferiority of Africans common for this period in time.

While historians long discounted accounts that Jefferson had an intimate relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, it is now widely held that he did and had six children by her.