No one visits Monticello on a whim, drawn in for a quick tour by a
highway sign. You have to work to get
there through ever smaller northern Virginia highways. Lovely country but rather out of the way.
In spite of that, the place was packed! We found one open spot after driving through
four or five lots.
Approaching the visitor’s center from the parking lot
one encounters an roped off area about 60 square feet. This is demarcated as an African American
burial ground. Archeologists have
located a good number of graves and several unmarked head and foot stones which
were not visible to the casual observer.
This spot is far from the top of the mountain.
Standing at the shuttle stop at the top of the
mountain is a giant White Ash. I told
Ben, “That tree must be as old as Thomas Jefferson.” A docent rushed over. “There are no trees at Monticello as
old as Thomas Jefferson!”
Well, ok. I was
basing my guess on my memory of a cross-section of a tree I had seen – at the
Lake of the Ozarks, I think – where some rings had been linked to historical
events, the Revolution being one – but ok.
The house tours begin every five minutes in ticketed
groups of 25. Since we had a long time
to wait, we joined the garden tour. The
flowered paths are beautiful and the gardeners have worked hard to recreate the
gardens from Jefferson’s day based on letters and journal entries. Jefferson collected seeds during his travels
and sent them home so he had tremendous variety.
The leader of the garden tour pointed out two tulip
tree stumps near the house. These trees
had been planted by Jefferson but they were only stumps. She also pointed to a very tall cedar and
said that tree might date from Jefferson’s time, but tests were ongoing. So there was a little more nuance to the old
tree story.
I joined part of the Slavery tour. The slaves of the upper south at the time of
Jefferson were permitted sufficient latitude to have their own garden plots with
which they augmented the small food ration they were given and from which they
could sell produce to the plantation kitchen or in a town market nearby. They were also apparently permitted to gather
for prayer services although such assemblies were outlawed later in the 19th
century. However, violence and separation
were constant fears. Even favored and
valuable slaves would be gifted or sold or bought back or sent on long assignments
far from their families. I wonder if all
slave owners would feel compelled to order such separations occasionally so as
not to tacitly accept the right or preference of an enslaved
person to be near family.
Jefferson’s possible relationship with the slave Sally
Hemmings was phrased by different tour guides with different levels of
definiteness. Joseph Ellis, author of
the most perceptive book about Jefferson I’ve read, “American Sphinx: The
Character of Thomas Jefferson”, felt that Jefferson’s interpersonal diffidence
makes him doubt Jefferson could have forced a relationship. Ellis thinks it likelier that one or more of
his nephews contributed the DNA now found in the Hemmings line. Whether Thomas himself fathered children by
his slaves, the institution in which he participated enabled the monstrous
practice.
We decided to visit the family cemetery plot while
waiting for our tour time. We passed an
enormous, gnarled Catawba tree. “That is
the biggest catawba tree I’ve ever seen.
That must date from Jefferson’s time.”
This from a middle-aged crew-cut wearing a D-Day t-shirt. He peered at the trunk of the tree. “It has some problems though.” He looked at us, “I’m a licensed arborist.”
The family cemetery is ringed by a wrought-iron fence
and is dotted with tombstones. Jefferson
himself lies beneath an obelisk that cites his authorship of the Declaration,
the Virginia statute on religious freedom and his founding of the University of
Virginia. No mention of his
ambassadorship, his governorship, his being the first US Secretary of State, its
2nd Vice President or 3rd President. I have to wonder if this is a studied
humility given his public posture to retire from public office while spurring a
covert, proxy campaign to defeat John
Adams.
The contrast between the family plot and the African
American plot is complete.
Finally we get to tour the house. Monticello’s is a neat, neo-classical
design. It is not palatial inside or
out. Ben was favorably disposed to this
style over the Baroque. Jefferson, of
course, spent years having the house built and re-built. He was a self-taught architect and learned
much from travels in Europe. Denise thought
that the beds in alcoves showed him to be rather a bachelor architect.
No picture-taking was allowed inside the house, much to Denise’s
disappointment, but we saw a good deal of a re-created collection of what
Jefferson might have displayed or used: the polygraph was interesting and the
artifacts from the Lewis and Clark expedition and the thoughtfulness that went
into the design of each room.
As we waited for the shuttle to take us back down the
mountain, Denise pointed to a magnificent Linden tree. (I am not a licensed arborist although I play
one at Monticello. I only know the names
of the trees mentioned because each was labeled.) This linden tree spread great branches and
shade in all directions. Some of the
branches sank to the ground, making it look like a banyan tree.
Being a provocateur, I said loudly, “I bet that tree is as old as
Jefferson.”
“Go, get in the bus, hurry up,” Denise hustled me down
the path.
***
What does Thomas Jefferson mean to us? Being a “Jeffersonian” has so many
interpretations that I can’t call myself one.
Yet a partial admirer I certainly am.
That the colonies declared and defended their
independence was momentous, but fifty-six men signed the Declaration of
Independence while one wrote it. And
beautifully. It was the work that made
Thomas Jefferson an icon.
` Would Monticello
have been restored, preserved and visited if Jefferson had not written the
Declaration? Granted that Virginia was a
powerful state among the thirteen, but if Jefferson had not written the
Declaration he would have been just another delegate. Had he not written the Declaration, I doubt
he would have achieved his higher offices and we would not care if he supported
the French Revolution or Nullification or if he proposed a wall of separation
between church and state. Had he not
written the Declaration, who would navigate to the depths of Albemarle County
to see his personally designed house, his inventions, his gardens, his
grave? If he had not written the
Declaration we would not go to Monticello and wonder about the slave owner writing
for the ages that all men are created equal.
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