Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Randolph, c. 1790 | |
| 21st Governor of Virginia | |
| In office December 1, 1819 – December 1, 1822 | |
| Preceded by | James Patton Preston |
| Succeeded by | James Pleasants |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's21st district | |
| In office March 4, 1803 – March 3, 1807 | |
| Preceded by | District created |
| Succeeded by | Wilson Cary Nicholas |
| Member ofVirginia House of Delegates | |
| In office 1819–1820 1823–1825 | |
| Member of theVirginia Senate | |
| In office 1793–1794 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1768-10-01)October 1, 1768 Tuckahoe Plantation,Colony of Virginia,British America |
| Died | June 20, 1828(1828-06-20) (aged 59) Monticello, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 12, includingThomas,Ellen,Cornelia andGeorge |
| Parent(s) | Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. Anne Cary |
| Alma mater | College of William & Mary University of Edinburgh |
| Profession | Planter, soldier, and politician |
| Signature |  |
Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. (October 1, 1768 – June 20, 1828) was an American planter, soldier, and politician fromVirginia. He served as a member of both houses of theVirginia General Assembly, a representative in theUnited States Congress, and as the21st governor of Virginia, from 1819 to 1822. He marriedMartha Jefferson, the oldest daughter ofThomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. They had eleven children who survived childhood. As an adult, Randolph developedalcoholism, and he and his wife separated for some time before his death.
Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. was born on October 1, 1768, atTuckahoe in theColony of Virginia.[1] Thomas was the first son ofThomas Mann Randolph Sr. and Anne Cary Randolph, daughter ofArchibald Cary. His siblings included older sisters:Mary Randolph, author ofThe Virginia House-Wife;Anne Cary ("Nancy") Randolph, wife ofGouverneur Morris, and younger sister,Virginia Randolph Cary, author ofLetters on Female Character.[2]
Randolph's patrilineal great-great-grandfather was immigrantWilliam Randolph ofTurkey Island.[1] His great-grandfathers wereRichard Randolph (grandfather of Ann Cary), andThomas Randolph of Tuckahoe. The Randolphs were among theFirst Families of Virginia.[3] Randolph was a lineal descendant ofPocahontas through his mother.[4]
Randolph received his early education from his mother and private tutors, as was customary in many planter families. He attended theCollege of William & Mary, inWilliamsburg, Virginia, and theUniversity of Edinburgh,Scotland from 1785 to 1788. Though he did not graduate, he continued studying independently and became a respected botanist.[5] In 1794, Randolph was elected a member to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[6]Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. bought land atVarina for Randolph, who made it into a profitable plantation.[7]
On February 23, 1790, Randolph marriedMartha Jefferson, daughter ofThomas Jefferson and his wifeMartha Wayles Skelton Jefferson.[8][9] The Jefferson and Randolph families had sharedprogenitors;[1] They were third cousins.[9] Thomas Jefferson was a second cousin to Randolph. Randolph's father spent part of his childhood with Jefferson atTuckahoe.[8] They had lands next to one another in Albemarle County. Thomas and Martha Randolph often stayed at Monticello, where Randolph oversaw business when Thomas Jefferson was away.[1][8] At his father-in-law's suggestion, Randolph was a captain of theVirginia militia and a local justice of peace. The men had shared interests and viewpoints.[1]
The Randolphs were parents to twelve children:
Martha and Thomas Randolph lived atBelmont from November 1797 until the summer of 1799.[18] Belmont was owned byJohn Harvie Sr., who was a friend of the Jeffersons and father-in-law ofThomas Mann Randolph Sr. who tookGabriella Harvie as his second wife.[18][19] They had decided to settle primarily in Albemarle County while maintaining theVarina estate. In January 1800, the Randolphs moved intoEdge Hill (nearShadwell).[18] After her father retired, Martha and their children lived at Monticello beginning in 1808 and including the period when Randolph was governor.[8][9]
His mother, Anne Cary Randolph, died in 1789.[20] At the end of 1790, Thomas Randolph Sr., at the age of 50, married Gabriella Harvie, who was seventeen and the daughter ofJohn Harvie. They had two children, a daughter who died in infancy and a son they named Thomas Mann Randolph (1792–1848), as if "erasing his first son from his prior marriage."[20][21] Randolph's father died in 1793, and his half-brother inherited Tuckahoe. Randolph was made executor of the will, but to his dismay, he was not assigned guardian of the minor children.[20]
After the War of 1812, Randolph experienced financial and personal problems. He inherited debt. In addition, he was not making much money due to bad crops and lower tobacco prices.[1] Jefferson no longer sought his counsel and became more reliant on Randolph's son Thomas. His sons Thomas and George were especially close to their Grandfather Jefferson, which may have played a part in the discord between their father and grandfather. Randolph could not rise to his full potential due to his lack of common sense, inability to manage his temper,[1] and alcoholism. His relationship with Martha and their children suffered due to his financial struggles and abusive behavior.[22]
Randolph sold the Varina plantation in 1825 to Pleasant Akin[23] or Aiken of Petersburg.[7]Edge Hill plantation, along with its crops, buildings, animals, and enslaved people, was foreclosed in 1825 and the sale proceeds failed to pay back all the family's creditors. The purchaser at the foreclosure auction, who took possession in January 1826, was Randolph's eldest son,Thomas Jefferson Randolph.[24][25] Randolph was no longer a landowner, which affected his ability to vote and hold office. This made him even angrier and resentful that his family had focused their energy on holding on to Monticello, which was also in financial peril, over Edge Hill. The angrier he got, the more that his family distanced themselves from him.[26] Randolph lived apart from his family for several years, while Martha and the younger children lived at Monticello.[1][26] After Jefferson's death, Martha Randolph moved with her two youngest children to Boston to gain distance from her husband, and to spend time with her older daughter.[26]
Randolph and his wife were reconciled shortly before his death. He was cared for at Monticello,[26][a] where he died on June 20, 1828.[1][27] He is buried at the Monticello cemetery.[8][27] After Randolph's death, Martha lived with her son at Edge Hill[24] and other children in Boston and Washington, D.C. She was buried in the Monticello cemetery.[9]
Randolph served in theVirginia State Senate in 1793 and 1794;[27] and was elected as a Republican to theEighth andNinth United States Congresses, serving from March 4, 1803, to March 3, 1807.[1][27] While debating in Congress about a duty on salt,John Randolph of Roanoke, Randolph's cousin and the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, made insulting remarks that could have been directed at Randolph or his father-in-law. Their argument almost led to a duel. Public opinion, set against Randolph, kept the issue alive. Jefferson sent him a note, asking him as a father not to enter a duel.[28]
During theWar of 1812, he was a colonel of theTwentieth Infantry.[27] He served under GeneralJames Wilkinson atSackets Harbor, New York in 1813. In Virginia, he was a lieutenant colonel for the state militia toprevent British forces from entering Richmond in 1814.[1]
He was elected a member of theVirginia House of Delegates in 1819, 1820, and 1823 to 1825.[27] He was elected and served asGovernor of Virginia from 1819 to 1822.[27] He was the first son-in-law of a Virginia Governor to be elected governor in his own right. As governor, he was fairly progressive, supporting canals, education, and more political representation for the ordinary people of the state; he also proposed agradual emancipation proposal that would have freed Virginia's slaves, but this was defeated.[1][29] His political career in Virginia ended in 1825, when, running for reelection to the House of Delegates from Albemarle County, Randolph finished third among as many candidates, with only the top two candidates earning election. Randolph's colleague in the previous session,William F. Gordon, received the most votes, while Charlottesville attorney Rice W. Woods finished second, garnering 215 votes to Randolph's 79.[30]
Desperate for work in late 1826, Randolph applied to and obtained employment from Secretary of WarJames Barbour, a former governor of Virginia, as a federal commission member to settle a boundary dispute between Georgia and the territory of Florida.[31] The Georgia government suddenly terminated the survey on April 18, 1827,[32] and though Barbour and PresidentJohn Quincy Adams considered appointing Randolph as a federal agent to deal with theCreeks,[33] such talk, and Randolph's political career, ended when Randolph virulently criticized the indifferent handling of the boundary expedition by Barbour and Secretary of StateHenry Clay in Virginia newspapers.[34]
Their enslaved workers followed them as they moved within the state fromVarina toBelmont, and then toEdge Hill.[35] The Manns moved to Monticello after Jefferson's presidential terms. They brought enslaved people with them, including Priscilla Hemings. She was the wife ofJohn Hemings.[36] Opposed to slavery on principle, the Randolphs attempted to keep their slaves' families together but faced the prospect of having to disperse the community that lived on their land, Martha wrote that "The discomfort of slavery I have borne all my life, but it's sorrows in all their bitterness I had never before conceived."[37] When Edge Hill was foreclosed, the plantation's bondspeople were sold.[24][25]
Randolph supervised stewards and overseers and the work on Mulberry Row when Jefferson was away from Monticello (such as when he was vice-president and president).[36] They corresponded about plantation business, such as when Jefferson asked Randolph to "speak to Lilly [an overseer] as to the treatment of the nailers."[36] Since 1794, Jefferson operated a nailery at Monticello, where boys worked. It was hard work that required "long hours in the hot, smoky workshop", but it was a very profitable enterprise.Isaac Jefferson, who had worked in the nailery, stated that making nails meant the boys would receive extra food and clothing. George Granger was a black foreman for the boys who decided in 1798 that he would no longer whip the young men. Randolph wrote to Jefferson that Granger could no longer control the boys, and the production of the nailery suffered as a result. The boys had difficulty getting up pre-dawn to work long, tedious days making nails. Randolph stated that the only solution was the whip. Jefferson disliked violence and confrontation and preferred for there to be no corporal punishment, but he relied on men who "impose[d] a vigor of discipline." Randolph later reported that the nailery was productive again because "the small ones" were being whipped.[38] Randolph stopped managing affairs at Monticello after he became estranged from his family after around 1812.[36]
Media related toThomas Mann Randolph, Jr. at Wikimedia Commons
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by District created March 4, 1803 | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's 21st congressional district March 4, 1803 – March 3, 1807 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Virginia 1819–1822 | Succeeded by |
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