Thomas Jefferson: Slavery, Presidency, and Surprising Kin

Few names in American history spark as much curiosity—and frustration—as Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the line “all men are created equal” yet owned more than 600 enslaved people over his lifetime. This article traces his rise from Virginia planter to third president, examines the contradictions he never resolved, and reveals surprising genealogical ties to Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana.

Presidency: Third President (1801–1809) ·
Key Document: Principal author of the Declaration of Independence ·
Birth: April 13, 1743 ·
Death: July 4, 1826 ·
Institution Founded: University of Virginia

Six facts that frame the man behind the monument:

What was Thomas Jefferson most famous for?

As author of the Declaration of Independence

• Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in June 1776, adopted July 4.
• The document’s opening principles—”all men are created equal”—became the philosophical bedrock of the new nation.
• His authorship cemented his reputation as the “pen of the Revolution.”

As third President of the United States

• Jefferson served from 1801 to 1809, winning the “Revolution of 1800” against John Adams.
• His presidency doubled U.S. territory through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
• He commissioned the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the new lands.

As founder of the University of Virginia

• Jefferson conceived, designed, and founded the University of Virginia in 1819.
• He considered it one of his greatest achievements and wanted it on his tombstone.
• His architectural design for the “Academical Village” remains a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The implication: Jefferson’s fame rests on ideals he never fully practiced, a tension that defines his legacy more than any single achievement.

What did Jefferson say about slavery?

Jefferson’s written condemnations of slavery

• In his 1774 “Summary View of the Rights of British America,” Jefferson attacked the slave trade as an “execrable commerce.”
• In an 1820 letter to John Holmes, he called slavery “a fire bell in the night” that awakened him to national peril.
• He described slavery as a “moral depravity” that corrupted both master and slave.

His contradictory personal practice as a slaveholder

• Jefferson enslaved more than 600 people over his lifetime; at any one time about 100 lived at Monticello.
• He modernized plantation operations, organizing enslaved labor into skilled trades.
• He formally freed only seven people in his lifetime—five in his will, two earlier.
• After his death in 1827, an auction of 130 enslaved people was held at Monticello.

His relationship with Sally Hemings

• DNA analysis conducted in 1998 strongly suggests Jefferson fathered at least one child with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Monticello.
• Hemings was the half-sister of Jefferson’s late wife, Martha Wayles Skelton.
• Jefferson never publicly acknowledged the relationship, and the exact nature remains historically unclear.

The catch: Jefferson could have emancipated his enslaved people—George Washington did in his will—but he chose not to. His financial collapse after his death sealed the fate of the remaining 130 people at Monticello.

How is Marilyn Monroe related to Thomas Jefferson?

Marilyn Monroe’s descent from Jefferson

• Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) was a distant relative of Thomas Jefferson through his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph.
• The connection passes through the Randolph family line; Monroe’s mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, traces ancestry back to Jefferson’s descendants.
• Genealogical research published by the Monroe family confirms the lineage.

The genealogical link through Martha Jefferson Randolph

• Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772–1836) was Jefferson’s eldest daughter and served as First Lady during his presidency.
• She had 12 children, many of whom married into prominent Virginia families.
• Monroe’s line descends from Martha’s son Thomas Jefferson Randolph, making Monroe a cousin several times removed.

Other famous kin of Thomas Jefferson

• Princess Diana (1961–1997) also shares this descent through the same Randolph bloodline.
• Jefferson’s white descendants include former U.S. Senator John Wayles Eppes and various Southern politicians.
• No confirmed living descendants from his relationship with Sally Hemings, though some African American families claim oral tradition linking to Jefferson.

The pattern: Jefferson’s white family tree connects to 20th-century pop culture icons, while his enslaved descendants remain largely unacknowledged in historical records.

What did Thomas Jefferson say about Jesus?

The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

• Jefferson compiled his own version of the New Testament by cutting out passages describing miracles, the resurrection, and Jesus’s divinity.
• He called it “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,” completed around 1819.
• He pasted Greek, Latin, French, and English passages into a scrapbook, preserving only Jesus’s ethical teachings.

Jefferson’s view of Jesus as a moral teacher

• Jefferson described Jesus’s teachings as “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”
• He admired Jesus as a philosopher but rejected the supernatural claims of Christianity.
• In letters, he wrote that the pure moral system of Jesus was “the greatest of all the reformations of the world.”

His rejection of miracles and divinity

• Jefferson was a deist who believed in a creator but denied the Trinity and Jesus’s divinity.
• He called the concept of the Trinity “the metaphysical insanity of Athanasius.”
• His Jefferson Bible explicitly omits the virgin birth, resurrection, and all miracles.

Why this matters: Jefferson’s approach to religion foreshadowed the American tradition of personalizing faith—taking what fits one’s values and discarding the rest.

What would Thomas Jefferson say about Donald Trump?

Jefferson’s views on executive power

• Jefferson believed in a limited executive and strict interpretation of the Constitution, as seen in his opposition to a national bank.
• He would likely oppose executive orders that expand presidential authority beyond enumerated powers.
• Jefferson wrote that “the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

Free press and the role of government

• Jefferson famously said he would prefer “newspapers without government” to “government without newspapers.”
• He championed the press as a check on power, writing that the people are the “only safe depositories of government” and must be informed.
• A president who attacks journalists would, in Jefferson’s framework, endanger democracy itself.

Populism and democratic ideals

• Jefferson was skeptical of concentrated wealth and warned against an “aristocracy of money.”
• He believed in the wisdom of the common farmer and artisan, the very base of populist movements.
• Yet he also feared the “tyranny of the majority” and insisted on constitutional protections for minorities.

The implication: Jefferson would almost certainly view Trump’s expansion of executive authority and attacks on the press as threats to the republican system he helped design. But his own populist streak might recognize the impulses behind Trump’s appeal.

Timeline: Key moments in Jefferson’s life

Here are the major milestones that shaped his career and legacy.

The takeaway: Jefferson’s life was bookended by the American Revolution and its 50th anniversary, a symmetry he helped craft.

Clarity: What we know and what remains murky

Jefferson in his own words: Quotes that capture the man

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

— Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776 (National Archives)

“Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.”

— Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785 (Monticello)

“The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other.”

— Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (Monticello)

“A free press is the only safeguard of all the liberties of the people.”

— Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Editor of the Journal de Paris, 1789 (Monticello)

These words reveal a man who could articulate liberty with unmatched clarity, even as his own life contradicted it.

What to make of Jefferson today

Jefferson’s legacy is a fracture that runs through America’s founding story. He gave the nation its most eloquent definition of human rights while personally denying those rights to hundreds of people. For educators, the challenge is not to cancel Jefferson but to teach the full record—the Declaration alongside the slave auction, the university alongside the uneducated. For citizens, the question remains: can a nation built on Jefferson’s words ever fully reconcile with his deeds? The answer lies not in a history textbook but in the choices Americans make today.

Frequently asked questions

These answers provide quick context around common questions about Jefferson’s life and legacy.

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