James Madison, Jr., was born on March 16, 1751, in what
is today Port Conway, Virginia. Port Conway was the hometown of
his mother, Nellie Conway, who had married James Madison, Sr.,
in 1749. His parents soon took him to the Madison estate, the slaveholding
plantation that he would call home for the rest of his life. The
estate was in Orange County, Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue
Ridge Mountains. Madison was the first of his parents' twelve children,
only seven of whom survived infancy.
Madison Sr. was a leading squire and landowner in Orange County.
He was also a vestryman at the nearby Brick Church, an Anglican
parish. Anglicanism was the established faith in British colonial
Virginia; other Christian denominations and non-Christian religious
communities were not recognized by law, and the people of the colony
were required to pay tithes to support the Anglican Church. Young
James, though baptized in this church, came to oppose established
religion as he grew into adulthood, favoring Unitarianism in his
religious convictions.
When he was eleven years old, James's parents sent him
to a school in King and Queen County, Virginia, about seventy miles away
from the Madison estate. The school's headmaster was Donald Robertson,
a well-respected scholar and teacher in the colony. James was an
excellent pupil, studying Latin, Greek, French, geometry, algebra,
and literature. At the same time, he was frail and sickly. After
five years at Robertson's school, James went back home and was tutored
by Reverend Thomas Martin, who was rector at Brick Church. Reverend
Martin was a graduate of the College of New Jersey, later known
as Princeton University.
Martin's connection to the College of New Jersey was significant to
the shaping of Madison's own educational path. Following Martin's
example, James matriculated at the College in 1769. The 300-mile
journey to Princeton, New Jersey was a notable experience for the
18-year-old Madison, who had never ventured beyond his southern
colony. Traveling the entire way on horseback with two companions
and a black manservant from his father's plantation, Madison passed
through bustling cities such as Philadelphia, which impressed him
with their strangeness and bigness.
At the time, it was unusual for a young Virginian to travel
outside the colony for his or her education. Most young men in
Virginia who sought college degrees went to the College of William
and Mary in Williamsburg. Madison was one of only a handful of southern
men to attend Princeton at this time. He did very well, and was
a diligent, capable student. While in school, he joined the Whig
Society, a political and literary club, and engaged in many journalistic
debates with pro-British students.
Madison's studies in college proceeded rapidly. He completed four
years' worth of coursework in two years, graduating in 1771. The
fact that Madison spent these formative years far from his Virginia
home cannot be underestimated when studying the development of
his political views is concerned. Doubtless it had a broadening
effect on his colonial Virginia sensibilities. Forming friendships
with young men from other colonies probably gave him a sense of
political fellowship with people from other parts of the country.
He understood the similarities and unity of the American colonies.
This sense of fellowship encouraged American patriotism in the
young Virginian. Letters from Madison's college days show him to
have looked upon British rule in over the colonies as a hindrance
rather than a help to the welfare of his countrymen, especially
when that rule involved the restriction of American trade. Under
the mercantile system, American raw materials were exchanged for
British goods; the Crown by the 1770s had put severe restrictions
on American trade with other nations.
After graduation, Madison stayed on at the College of
New Jersey for several months of postgraduate study, focusing on
Hebrew and theology. He had an eye then for a career in the religious
ministry, but after a short time he returned home to Virginia without
a clear sense of where he was heading professionally. He had considered
studying law or joining the military, but his health was still poor,
and his spirits rather depressed. Indeed, he suffered from a severe
nervous disorder, and his thoughts were often overshadowed by thoughts
that he might die an early death.
While in this despondent state, Madison occupied his time
at home in the early 1770s by tutoring his younger brothers and
sisters. Uncertain and pessimistic about his future, he showed
little ambition for any professional pursuit, though he seriously
considered pursuing a legal career. This ambition was to change
dramatically with the critical events leading up to the American
Revolution.
