History

A highly educated Virginian born to a wealthy planter family in 1743, Thomas Jefferson was a polymath who worked in multiple disciplines including science, architecture, philosophy and much more. He was an advocate for universal rights who kept more than 600 slaves.

Like his friend Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine was a philosopher, inventor, author and statesman. Born in England in 1737, Paine did not immigrate to the colonies until 1774 but did so with Franklin’s help.

John Paul Jones

The Presidents

A Quaker from Rhode Island, who rose to the rank of Major General in the Continental Army.

King Louis XVI

ings over the years – including King Philips’s War in New England from 16751676 and later the French and Indian War as well as dozens if not hundreds more “uprisings” over the years. But once the Europeans had a toe hold, it was too late.

A Virginian with a mighty pen, Madison is known as the Father of the Constitution for his role in advocating for and writing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Madison followed his friend and fellow Democratic Republican Thomas Jefferson to the presidency, serving from 1809 to 1817. He was president for the entirety of the War of 1812, which lasted to 1815.

Born in 1732, the peak of the colonial Americas, George Washington came from a wealthy planter family that could trace its roots back through English royalty to Charlamagne.