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Monticello, “Little Mountain,” was the home from 1770 until his death in 1826, of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States. It is also an architectural masterpiece. Jefferson was one of America’s first and finest architects and he created, rebuilt, and revised the house throughout his long life. No president’s home than Jefferson's Monticello better reflects the personality of its owner. Jefferson, a true Renaissance man, was a giant among the Founding Fathers. His deeply-rooted disputes with Alexander Hamilton created the two-party system in the United States and launched two competing visions of what the United States should be that dominated 19th-century politics and still survive today. He was also a complex man, made up of penetrating intelligence, insatiable curiosity, high ideals, and deep contradictions. The author of the ringing assertion that “all men are created equal” was also the owner of 200 enslaved people. The political theorist who saw the small-scale farmer as the bedrock of American democracy was himself the owner of many thousands of acres of land and a proud member of the Virginia plantation aristocracy.