Both Jefferson and his wife inherited wealth. When he was married, he owned 5,000 acres of land and fifty-two slaves, and a year later his wife's father died and left her 40,000 acres of land and 135 slaves.
Monticello.
He became strongly attached to his mountain home and his life there as a planter, taking great interest in laying out and cultivating the grounds, and in introducing many new varieties of plants and trees.
But he was too public-spirited to be lost in his private interest. In the year following his marriage, the famous "Boston Tea Party" emptied the chests of taxed tea into Boston Harbor. Then followed such stirring events as the Boston Port Bill, the first meeting of the Continental Congress, and the battles of Lexington and Concord; and finally the crisis, when the brave men of the Continental Congress, having decided that the time had come for the American people to declare themselves free and independent of England, appointed a committee of five to draw up the Declaration of Independence.
THOMAS JEFFERSON AT WORK UPON THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
Jefferson was one of this committee and, as he had distinguished himself for literary ability, it fell to him to write the first draft of this great state paper. Congress spent a few days in making some unimportant changes in Jefferson's draft, but left it practically as he had written it. On July 4, 1776, all the members of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, a hall which is yet standing.
One of the striking things that Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence was that "all men are created equal." He was always democratic in feeling, trying to do what he could for the interest of rich and poor alike. There was a law in Virginia requiring that the owner of land should hand it down to his eldest son. In its place he got a law passed which would permit all the children of a family to share in the land owned by their father. Another law in Virginia required that people should pay taxes for the support of the religious denomination, or church, known as the Established Church. As Jefferson believed this law unfair, he secured the passage of one which provided that nobody should be compelled to pay taxes for the support of any church.