This blog is largely, but not entirely, based on an article by Thomas Jewett. It sheds light on the relationship between Thomas and his mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson wrote more letters than any other president, saving over 18,000 personal letters between 1783 and 1826. He was able to accomplish this through the use of a letter press and a polygraph which replicated his correspondences. He was a prodigious recorder, so it is odd that we have no correspondences between him and his mother. I believe that it is very likely that their were numerous letters mailed from Jane Jefferson to Thomas while he was at boarding schools and college, ... ones that he may have saved in a neat stack tied with a cord, put in a box, and left in a trunk. It is very possible that the Shadwell fire on February 1, 1770, consumed them all, once he moved back home, but we will never know.
From the voluminous letters that were written after the fire, to others, Jefferson mentions his mother only once. It is odd that Jane Jefferson is only listed in his account books as "expenditure". And, it is odd that in his autobiography, that there is only one terse sentence concerning his mother, almost as if he was holding back from mentioning her at all. So, what kind of relationship did they have? Let's meet Jane Randolph Jefferson...
Jane Randolph Jefferson was of the Randolph clan, considered to be among the first families of the Virginia Colony. Family lore held that the Randolph's were descended from various European royalty, dating as far back as Charlemagne. Thomas Jefferson once sated that his maternal side could "trace their pedigree far back to England and Scotland..." "...to which let everyone ascribe the faith and merit he chooses."
Thomas's father, Peter Jefferson, early on, was a common Virginia farmer of the yeoman class and a backwoodsman at heart. As a young man, he rubbed elbows with the Virginia elite, and then married into the Randolph family. Peter was an explorer, surveyor, land speculator, and planter... lacking much formal education, but improved himself well. He was later selected as colonel in the Albemarle militia, and elected as a representative of Albemarle County in the capitol's House of Burgesses. Thomas was a blend of his parents: frontier and culture, and simplicity and elegance.
Little is known of Jane Jefferson's attributes except for family lore and supposition, possibly due to the February 1, 1770 fire at Shadwell that destroyed everything but some beds and Thomas' fiddle. As the fire blazed at Shadwell, Jefferson supposedly inquired about his books before his mother's health and well being. Jefferson apparently destroyed all of her later correspondences after her death in March 1774.
Thomas Jefferson is said to have had a strong facial resemblance of his mother, but the height of his father. Jane Jefferson's great granddaughter, Ellen Randolph Coolidge, who never knew her, wrote that family tradition stated that Jane was "mild and peaceful by nature, a person of sweet temper and gentle manners." She was a woman of "clear and strong understanding." "She possessed a most amiable and affectionate disposition, a lively cheerful temper, and a great fund of humor," and that she was fond of letter writing. Thomas is said to have inherited his reticence and refinement from her, and due to her proper raising of her children, learned to appreciate and enjoy reading, music, and dancing. It was said that from his mother, he was endowed with "his cheerful and hopeful temper and disposition." Yet, Jane, at age 37, was in complete charge of the Shadwell plantation after her husband's death. While her only son was away at boarding schools and college, she was in complete charge of the home, raising the younger children, and running the plantation. It may be assumed that she was intelligent, capable and strong-willed. I believe that she was forced to be tough when necessary and delegated duties to slaves and overseers on a daily basis. This responsibility fell on her often at Shadwell and Tuckahoe while Peter was away on surveying expeditions or trips to Williamsburg. He relied on her heavily to run the plantation and household in his absence.
If Jane Jefferson was described as having so many positive attributes by her great granddaughter, why is it that there is not an affectionate word written about her by her son? He never seemed to have spoken fondly of her, even to his own children. This lack of communication about his mother seems to indicate feelings of deep hostility, most likely originating from his childhood.
Thomas Jefferson's father died when Thomas was 14, home on summer break from The Dover Creek School, which was located near Tuckahoe Plantation. This is a time when boys normally struggle with parental control, especially maternal, and begin to assert their own personality. Upon his death, Peter Jefferson's will left Thomas under the complete control of his mother, defying convention, as Virginia primogeniture was the law at the time, which stated that the eldest son would inherit the entire estate. Thomas would not receive his portion until he reached 21 years of age, meanwhile was under the scrutiny of the will's executors and his mother. He became the head of the family with all its responsibilities, but he had no power. Jane was the master of Shadwell, as Jefferson referred to Shadwell "as my mother's house." It can be supposed that this aroused feelings of resentment, guilt, and a possible cause of migraines starting in adolescence.
Thomas had no masculine companionship within his family unit after his father's death, having a mother, six sisters and an infant brother. He had not know his father on a daily basis, since Peter was often away on surveying trips, and Thomas was away at boarding school, making time with his father reduced to quality time, not quantity. From his writing, Thomas felt that he had been deserted at the age of fourteen, and that he could not rely on his mother's authority, while brooding about his father's death. He referred to being friendless, alone, and suffering at the hands of women. This comment of "suffering at the hands of women" leads me to believe that he was probably physically punished during his stay at Shadwell, which was, most likely, a common disciplinary practice at that time and for decades thereafter.
After his father's death, Thomas was sent to the Reverend Maury School for Boys, fourteen miles from Shadwell. His mother insisted that he return home every weekend, no matter the weather, to assist her with the chores around the plantation, fulfilling his responsibilities as the "man of the house". On weekends, he was under the strict control of his mother, and midweek he was under the strict control of Reverend Maury.
While away at boarding school or William and Mary College, Thomas would still refer to Shadwell as his official residence until the age of 27, as he declared his financial independence at age 21 and then assumed his place as head of the family. He once wrote to John Adams about his youthful years as "the dull monotony of a colonial subservience," and told him that if he had the choice of living his life again, he would not go back before the age of 25!
Jefferson did like women who were feminine and gentile. He could not abide women who interfered in politics, and there were hints that his mother disapproved of his revolutionary activities and possibly his political views. Thomas' involvement with politics took him away from Shadwell, where he was most needed, and this may have been a thorn of contention with his mother. His coldness toward his mother also may have been exacerbated by her alleged sympathies to his Loyalist viewpoint of their cousin John Randolph.
On March 31, 1776, Jefferson wrote tersely in his pocket account book: "My mother died at eight o'clock this morning, in the 57th year of age." As a student of the Enlightenment, he felt that reacting emotionally to the biological process of death would be irrational. I also believe that after going through the mourning of his father, his best friend and sister Jane, and dearest school buddy Dabney Carr, that he was probably "cold" to mourning and absent of grief, as those three deaths affected him very deeply. This outward lack of emotion, may have turned inward, and was probably the reason for him "taken sick" at the end of March 1776. His "sickness" was a debilitating headache that lasted six weeks. His migraine headaches struck Jefferson several times in his life, and usually correlated with personal loss, personal conflict, or deeply buried rage and guilt. Fawn Broke in Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History wrote,
"This syndrome is found in people who are generally anxious, striving, perfectionists, order loving, rigid, who during periods of threat or conflict become progressively more tense, resentful, and fatigued. The elaboration of a pattern of inflexibility and perfectionism to deal with feelings of insecurity begins in early childhood."
The lengthy headache was the only manifestation of Jefferson's feelings toward his mother. Whatever the reason for Jefferson's lack of reference to his mother, the relationship seemed odd by today's standards.
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