Monticello
Ok, so Monticello is not a Civil War site. They don’t interpret the Civil War in any way. But the home of Thomas Jefferson does have a connection to the story we strive to tell: slavery. And I was very impressed by the way they shared it.
Of course slavery existed at Monticello, the plantation was built and sustained on the labor of a mix of free, indentured, and enslaved people. There is also the infamous connection between Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Slavery is an integral part of the Monticello story, as it is in much of the history of the colonial and antebellum periods. But, we’ve all been to those sites were slavery is excluded from the story, pushed to the background, covered up, or ignored completely. Some sites include slavery, but not in the mainstream interpretation, only in separately, or create interpretation that is largely apologetic.
Thus, Monticello provided a breath of fresh air to the interpretation of slavery. This was a recent change; the visitor center still smelled of freshly cut wood and the exhibits include the newest technology and references to recent events. It was well worth the change. At Monticello slavery is not a separate entity, it is intertwined in the interpretation as seamlessly as slavery was in the daily workings of the plantation. The film and exhibits both address the topic, even including slaves among the vignettes of people connected with the plantation. New digital media allows visitors to ask questions about slave life along with questions about Jefferson and his family. The dependencies of the house, located under the main structure, are open and interpreted as work and living spaces. Also in the dependencies is a small exhibit dedicated solely to the work done by slaves to run the plantation.
Isaac Granger Jefferson, one of Monticello’s slaves
The best part, however, were the tours. Slavery was included in the tours of the main house, our guide weaving the lives of slaves and owner together. Gone were the days where food magically appeared and wine was served but ghostly hands; instead the work done by slaves was included with no apologies and full discretion. Monticello has fortunately had the opportunity to research the slave population and they have names and stories that they can share with visitors, furthering the experience. Slavery was as matter-of-fact in the interpretation of Monticello as the presence of Jefferson himself.
Slavery at Monticello Tour: At the Joiner’s Shop
The best, however, was the Slavery at Monticello tour. Yes, a 45-minute walking tour offered 6 times a day devoted entirely to the story of slavery. And again, the topic was explored in a way that made no apologies and dodged no bullets. I say explored, because that is exactly what we did with our guide Elizabeth. She made it clear at the beginning that slavery was a topic that often stirred up a range of emotions, and that the tour was a safe space to explore those emotions and their meanings. We explored the personal lives and stories of the slaves and their families, how Jefferson ran his plantation and interacted with his slaves, and how the slaves themselves reacted to and worked in the system of slavery. Both the good times and the bad were talked about: Jefferson would not sell families away from each other and encouraged marriage and children (also due to economic benefits), but the beatings, punishments, and occasional sale of a slave to the deep south were not excluded. The stories of slavery at Monticello were told as lives, hopes, dreams, and personal experiences, not as the shadows of faceless workers and servants flitting behind the main characters.
Monticello is a wonderful site and a beautiful house, its story is important in so many ways. But what made my visit so remarkable (one of my best experiences with a historic house) was the weaving together of stories and the matter-of-fact approach to slavery.
You touch on something that strikes me as well, and I’ve given much the same thought to it as you, when visiting Monticello. I think we as “Civil Warriors” take away thoughts from Monticello about our own field of study which makes us more aware of the struggle in telling the story of the Civil War… again (emphasis on “again”)… but this time with the story of free blacks and slaves, woven together with stories of white men. Of course, the same might be said of the challenge of how to weave-in the stories of white women and children as well.
Monticello, as a relatively small environment/setting, provides the optimal opportunity to talk about both at the same time… or, if the visitor chooses, allows him/her to take a particular interpretive “path” that may only brush up against other paths (a more subtle overlap). On a much larger scale, the Civil War seems to be much more exclusionary, and at times I think it can’t help but be. How, for example can one weave together the story of slavery and a battle in which no USCTs were present? At other times, when the weave can be made, I think we’re still struggling to work it all in together… perhaps a mental carry-over from the way we learned the story in the past.
There needs to be more of a “Joseph’s coat” to the storytelling, and I say this with all parties in mind. Fortunately, I haven’t found that to be a dillema in telling the story of Southern Unionists. It accomodates all races and sentiments, though under the single umbrella of Unionism, it still challenges standing perceptions which have also been carried over from the past.
Thank you for your insightful observations. I contrast your experience with one of my own when I visited Belle Meade plantation near Nashville TN a few years ago. It is a magnificent place, although there was no reference to slavery until I went to the basement. There, in a glass display case, was an exhibit dedicated to a slave woman who worked on the place before and after emancipation. In fact she worked there until her death as a very old woman well after the turn of the century. The exhibit included a letter written during the Civil War in which reference is made to this slave woman wanting her master to hurry home from the awful Yankees so that she could make him some biscuits. There were many photos of her up to old age, and descriptions of how she was a beloved and well cared for member of the family until her death. Because I am a cemetery nut I asked if she was buried on the property or in town, and if I could visit her grave. I was told without irony that she is buried under what is now the parking lot.
Pingback: Telling the story of the Civil War: The Joseph’s Coat approach « Cenantua's Blog
Many years ago — I think in the early to mid-1990s — I visited Monticello. I remember asking the tour guide about slavery at the plantation as well as Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings. The guide seemed very uncomfortable and answered the question as quickly as possible, and in a relatively dismissive manner. I walked away thinking that the Old South was alive and well in that corner of the Commonwealth. How times have changed. Thanks for letting us know about these interpretive developments.
I feel that one of Jefferson’s cleverest design ideas at Monticello was to hide the slave portions of the house below the level of the back lawn. As a result he could sit in his parlor, gazing at the view while he contemplated the rights of man and not suffer the cognitive dissonance from seeing those he enslaved.
My mother’s family, the Baileys, lived with Joel Wheeler at Monticello during the Civil War. Joel Wheeler had been Ben Randolph’s (a grandson of Jefferson) farm manager then Uriah Levy hired him in 1860 at Monticello. I wrote a short story on it which is in the 2011 Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society Magazine (which came out in March 2012). The longest research was the African-Americans at the house then because they hadn’t been researched before. The Watson-Massie family was connected back to Jefferson era slaves (Cary Ann Massie was likely the Cary Ann Jefferson owned and she was the wife of Ferrell Gains owned by Martha Randolph and given to Ben Randolph), Lewis Harvey was free (married to a Wheeler slave, Amanda Coleman), he volunteered for the Confederacy in 1861. The Thomasson later called Thomas were desc. of Rev. war patriot Byers Thomasson, whose grandson John lived with his mother’s slave Francis at Morven and Ash Lawn. The West family bought by Uriah Levy in 1835 (one year after he bt Monticello) had descendants (Willis Henderson) still working at the house in the 1950s.
Sam Towler