born
on April 13, 1743 at the family home
not far from the Virginia wilderness. According to his autobiography,
Jefferson's earliest memory was being handed to a slave
on horseback and carried 50 miles away to their new
home.
His father was Peter Jefferson, a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson
was fourteen.
His mother was Jane Randolph, daughter of Isham Randolph, a ship's captain and
sometime planter.