Biography of james madison jr constitutional convention

The oldest of twelve children, James Madison was born on March 16, to James and Nelly Madison. James Sr. was a slave owner and planter. In the early s, he constructed a new home in Orange County, Virginia, and the family moved into the plantation estate, Montpelier.

Although James Madison was often ill as a child, he was also naturally inquisitive and studious. He pursued an education at the College of New Jersey, later known as Princeton University, and graduated in Madison returned to Virginia and was elected to the Virginia legislature in , where he befriended Thomas Jefferson. When Jefferson was elected Governor of Virginia in , Madison worked closely with him on the Governor’s Council. In , Madison was called upon to represent Virginia in the Continental Congress, making him the youngest delegate at twenty-nine years old. In , Madison returned to the Virginia state legislature, where he worked to pass the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom in , a document originally penne

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James Madison: Life Before the Presidency

Childhood

Land was the lifeblood of the Madison family wealth, and James would come to consider it the lifeblood of the nation. In , James Taylor II (−) patented 13, acres in the Piedmont of central Virginia. He was one of twelve men to survey the region with Governor Alexander Spotswood, a group known as the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, a mark of Taylor’s affluence. One year later, Taylor’s daughter Frances and her husband, Ambrose Madison, settled on almost 3, acres of the land. Like most affluent Virginians, they planted tobacco, a crop that wreaks havoc on the soil’s nutrients and necessitates continual expansion to new, fertile grounds.

In Virginia, owning vast acreage went hand-in-hand with enslaving men, women, and children to work the land and run the plantation. Ambrose and Frances’s son, James Madison Sr., and his wife Eleanor (Nelly) Conway grew the family land holdings, which expanded slavery on their plantation. As sla

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James Madison Jr.

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention

State: Virginia

Age at Convention: 36

Date of Birth: March 16,

Date of Death: June 28,

Schooling: College of New Jersey (Princeton)

Occupation: Politician

Prior Political Experience: Lower House of Virginia , , Upper House of Virginia , Virginia State Constitutional Convention , Confederation församling , , Virginia House of Delegates , Annapolis Convention Signer

Committee Assignments: Third Committee of Representation, Committee of Slave Trade, Committee of Leftovers, Committee of Style

Convention Contributions: Arrived May 25 and was present through the signing of the Constitution. He is best known for writing the Virginia program and defending the attempt to build a stronger central government. He kept copious notes of the proceedings of the Convention which were made available to the general public upon his death in William Pierce stated that