Ever since I was in grade school and first studied Thomas Jefferson I have been a student of the sage of Charlottesville, Virginia. We all know of his contributions to our fledgling country: author of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Continental Congress, minister to France, President and driving force behind the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson was a man of enormous talents and an expansive intellect. He was a philosopher, politician, violinist, horticulturalist, bee-keeper, inventor, bibliophile and architect, to name just a few of his myriad talents. But Jefferson was also a complex man of contradictions. He was, of course, a slave holder who fathered six children after the death of his beloved wife Martha with one of his slaves—Sally Hemings--who just happened to be the half-sister of his late wife (they shared the same father).
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