Declaration House

This is a 1975 reconstruction of the Jacob Graff House where Thomas Jefferson and his enslaved servant, Bob Hemmings, lived from May to September of 1776. On this site Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence which he later described as “intended to be an expression of the American mind.” Although he was not a traditional Christian, Jefferson articulated a common theistic understanding of morality by referencing “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God” and of human rights as being endowed by a “Creator.”