40. Note no freeman shall be seized, or imprisoned, or dispossessed, or outlawed, or in any way destroyed; nor will we condemn him, nor will we commit him to prison, excepting by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the laws of
the land.
In my own words this means...

Thomas jefferson was important in the revolutionary era because a) he wrote much of the declaration of independence. b) he was elected the president of the continental congress. c) his philosophies were used in the influential pamphlet common sense. reactivate d) his leadership and moral stand lead to the colonies to fight for the abolition of slavery.