Early Life

My name is James Madison. I was born on March 5th 1750. Around the time I was born a lot of the babies that were born then were dieing. Most of them didn't even turn one. I was lucky and survied. I was born at Port Conway, Virginia at my mothers parents house. After I was born my parents had 11 more children. Sadly 5 of them died. Almost everyone in my family called me Jemmy. I never really had to do chores around the house because we had slaves. We were a very wealthy family. I was always a book worm. I would rather read then go out and play with the other boys. By the time I was 11 I had read all 85 of my father's books. When I asked my father for more books, instead of giving me more he sent me to school. There were tons of books in school. I read the ones in English only until I learned how to speak French, Latin and Greek. Then I read books in those languages. In school my favorite subject was Astronomy. When I was 16 my father pulled me out of school. I had a new teacher, his name was Mr.Martin. He was also a minister who was living in our house. His job was to prepare me for college. My father decided that I was going to go to "The University of New Jersey". When I was 18 I left for college. The moment I got there I loved it. There were so many books and I made friends quickly. When I was in college I was called James and not Jemmy.