Thomas Jefferson did not attend the First
Continental Congress, however, he was elected
to be a member of the Second Continental Congress
which began in May 1775.
Following the Battle of Bunker Hill (June
17, 1775) Jefferson stated “nobody now entertains
a doubt but that we are able to cope with
the whole force of Great Britain, if we are
but willing to exert ourselves.”
At the start of the Revolutionary war, Jefferson
was a Colonel and was named commander of the
Albemarle County Militia on September 26,
1775.
It was as a member of the Second Continental
Congress, however, the Jefferson becomes initially
significant to the revolution.
As a delegate to the Congress, Jefferson was
made part of a small committee that was given
the job of drafting the Declaration of Independence,
of which he became the principal author, a
document that was adopted by Congress on 4
July 1776.
According to historian Edmund Morgan, Jefferson
would have included a statement against slavery
“in the Declaration of Independence had
not other members of congress ruled it out.”
By late 1776 Jefferson had left the Congress
and was then elected to the Virginia House
of Delegates for Albemarle County in September
1776, when finalizing a state constitution
was a priority.
From 1776 to 1779 Jefferson was pivotal in
the passing of a range of important pieces
of state legislation including.
Jefferson drafted more than 120 pieces of
state legislation during this time, some of
which proved to be quite ‘revolutionary’
and also important to the fledgling republic.
He made efforts to abolish what he called
‘feudal’ distinctions - powers that he
felt landed aristocracy in the state were
upholding, as well as challenging laws around
primogeniture (the existing practice that
only the eldest male in a family could inherit
land).
Based on the ideas and ideals that Jefferson
had written into the Declaration of Independence,
Massachusetts freed its slaves on the strength
of the Declaration, and wove Jefferson’s
language into the state constitution of 1780.
The meaning of “all men” sounded equally
clear, and so disturbing to the authors of
the constitutions of six Southern states that
they emended Jefferson’s wording.
“All freemen,” they wrote in their founding
documents, “are equal.”
The authors of those state constitutions knew
what Jefferson meant, and could not accept
it.
The Continental Congress ultimately struck
the passage because South Carolina and Georgia,
crying out for more slaves, would not abide
shutting down the market.
In 1783, the United States formed a Congress
of the Confederation following victory in
the Revolutionary War with the Peace of Paris
(1783) to which Jefferson was appointed as
a Virginia delegate.
Jefferson sat in the Continental Congress
and experienced first hand some of the challenges
of governing the new society.
