Visit to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

My sister and me at Monticello

Today, I was fortunate enough to visit the home and plantation of our third president, Thomas Jefferson. His beloved Monticello is a 5,000 acre estate in Charlottesville, Virginia. I was so impressed and moved by the experience that I was inspired to write this blog entry and share my thoughts on the experience with anyone who might happen to want to read it. I will also probably post my thoughts on other aspects of my vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and what happens on the way there, as well as on the way home. I do love history and I also love politics (after all, thats what my first degree is in!) and so I do get a big thrill out of being present at the precise locations where history was made.

We arrived at the plantation this afternoon, and I was impressed with the elegance and civility that was apparent even in the parking lot. I also couldn't believe how many cars were in the complex's various parking lots! There must have been thousands of visitors today.

We ascended the hill to the Visitor Center, which is a contemporary building that houses the Museum Shop, the Theater that shows a brief video about Jefferson and his plantation, the Cafe where we had a lunch featuring produce that was actually grown in the gardens at Monticello, and an exhibition hall with interactive visits.

But, it was on the way to the Visitor Center, that I found something striking and disturbing, but also fascinating. In the midst of the maze of parking lots, there was a small, lightly wooded area, contained by a wooden fence. The sign labeled it "African-American Graveyard." This is the area where Monticello's enslaved inhabitants were buried after they died. There were no markers, at least none that are currently extant, and if you hadn't seen the sign identifying this patch of ground, you'd have no idea that beneath it are the bones of several dozens of Jefferson's slaves that have been verified by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation's archaeologists.

The African-American Graveyard at Monticello

We then took the shuttle bus to the top of the mountain, where we went on the "Plantation Community Tour," which was mainly about the life of the slaves on the Plantation. and then toured the house itself. I loved seeing the exact places where Jefferson wrote, slept, ate, and even died.

The most fascinating things about Jefferson, I think, are that he was such a radical political theorist. He honestly believed in the equality of all men, which was an unheard of concept at the time--this is one idea that so hard to for people in the modern world to believe, that the idea of people being equal was actually a bizarre notion for people in the 18th century, when the values that would come to define bourgeois liberalism were just beginning to be formulated and articulated.

However, despite believing with all his heart in equality, Jefferson owned about 600 other human beings as slaves throughout his life. He viewed slavery as an evil abomination, but he only ever freed seven of his own slaves and believed that slavery was a social issue that he hoped future generations would deal with, but he would not be the one to end the institution of slavery at Monticello.

The other fascinating aspect of Jefferson's life is that after his wife died relatively young, Jefferson appears to have engaged in a long-term relationship with Sally Hemings, a domestic slave considerably younger than Jefferson. Rumors about something going on between the two were confirmed in 1998 when DNA evidence was released that proved that a male from Jefferson's line (basically, he, himself) was an ancestor of the Hemings descendents. As a result, the assocation of Jefferson's descendents decided to allow the descendents of Jefferson and Hemings to be buried in the Plantation cemetery where Jefferson was laid to rest after dying--get this!--on July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years to the day after his Declaration of Independence was ratified. An incredible coincidence, especially considering that John Adams died just a few hours later on the exact same day.

Gravesite of Thomas Jefferson, among those of his descendents, in the Monticello cemetery. He wrote his own epitaph listing three of his accomplishments, but he does not mention his presidency.

In the end, I had a really great day today, I learned a lot and feel eply enriched by the experience of walking the plantation and house of Thomas Jefferson. I experienced goosebumps several times and feel a little closer to one of those lofty and legendary Founding Fathers. Stay tuned for more thoughts from my travels! Thanks for reading!