I don’t even know how to begin to talk about our morning. It was one of the biggest disappointments of this trip. Where everything has been so wonderful, the place I expected to be one of my top visits, was definitely not!
I have mentioned before how much I love Thomas Jefferson. I love him! My children go to a classical school, where they learn as Jefferson did. They learn Latin, and from the classics. I love his artistic and design talents, his inventiveness, and his passion for learning. I was so excited to go to Monticello.
I’ve talked about my disgust for bringing down men that we once revered in a previous blog, but this experience, I had not expected. I knew that the world and history, has taken a turn on people they once held as its heroes. I’ve even seen Thomas Jefferson as one of the front runners of these attacks. But I really didn’t expect it at Monticello.
I guess I expected more of the Mount Vernon experience. You can tell on your visit, that that women’s society that runs Mount Vernon loves George Washington. You can tell by everything they do that they hold his memory with honor, and share his history and home with you as something special. This was not the case at Monticello.
The whole experience was as if they were apologizing for Thomas Jefferson. It was absolutely disgusting. I’d like to think maybe I had a horrible guide, but since we heard from two different guides, I’m thinking this is how they present it.
Monticello
We started off by walking into his entrance hall, which was amazing. His front porch has a clock that tells the time on the outside of the house and the inside of the house. He has a weather vane that comes through the roof of his front porch showing people what direction the wind is blowing. When you come inside you see artifacts from the Indians that Lewis and Clark sent back. You also see maps all over the entrance and bones of extinct animals. His front entrance was a mini museum. It was a great start.
Then we entered his sitting room where a copy of the Declaration of Independence hangs. Thomas Jefferson drafted this, it is the greatest thing he did in his life. But instead of talking about how amazing this was, she only points to it and then goes on to say what a hypocrite he was to have slaves and draft such a document. Are you kidding me?
We toured his book room, his bedroom, and then we entered his parlor. She pointed out the great men he had portraits of in his parlor. He had portraits of the great explorers and portraits of the great thinkers/scientists. She mentioned all of these, and then walked into the dining room.
In the dining room he has religious pictures. If you study Jefferson you learn what a proponent he was of religious freedom. While he might not have belonged to a specific church, he believed in religion very much. But his choice to have religious photos went very much unobserved.
The tour concentrated on all the things the slaves did for him. Then they gave you a garden tour and talked about all the slaves did, and then there was a slave tour. Now I know this is going to be taken wrong by people. So I will clarify right now…I am very much against slavery, and consider it a stain on our country. My religion believes so strongly about it, that it is one of the major reasons we were killed and chased out of Missouri, because they didn’t want all the Mormons voting against slavery.
I want to recognize what happened, and there should be a slave tour at Monticello to learn more about it. But everything?! The movies, the children’s education area, the gardens, the home, the whole tour hardly focused on Thomas Jefferson, other than his hypocrisy. They hardly noted his accomplishments, and when noted they were astericked with his flaws.
There are no perfect people in this world save Jesus Christ. So we will always be able to tear down great men, because they will ALWAYS not be perfect. But can’t we acknowledge their greatness. Can’t we admire the great work they did that blessed the lives of millions upon millions of people, and even opened the door to… yes, the freedom of slaves in America. I believe Abraham Lincoln quoted the Declaration of Independence when referring to all men’s need to be free.
Thomas Jefferson was against slavery. Maybe he didn’t handle it the way modern scholars think he should have, but what hypocrisy to judge when they were not there.
Jefferson is quoted as saying, “To give liberty to, or rather to abandon persons, whose habits have been formed in slavery, is like abandoning children.” Now I suppose people can argue whether his thinking on that was flawed. But if he really believed that just freeing them without giving them hope to survive was wrong, then is what he did wrong or right based on his beliefs? He did very much live by what he believed. His slaves where taught skills. If he really believed knowledge was freedom, than when he brought in skilled tradesmen to teach his slaves skills, he was preparing them. His slaves were expert blacksmiths, nail makers, shoemakers, coopers, tinsmiths, woodworkers, brewers, weavers and cooks. When he counted his family, he includes his slaves in his family count. And the reason he is such an easy target, is because of his meticulous notes. He had notes on each slave and the skills they had. He also had educated slaves, so we have their writings to look at also. So we have the information to condemn him, because he gave it to us.
He has notes saying he bought produce from his own slaves. He was giving them opportunities to make money and produce things. And the slaves he freed were his most skilled, the ones that he thought had the skills to be free. Now whether you agree or disagree with how he handled it, he was trying to push in that direction, in the method that made sense to him.
Then we were told at least 4 times how was the father to Sally Hemings kids. I just about blew through the roof on that. As we walked away from the tour, I was letting off steam with my kids, and Jawbreaker told me not to worry about it, because people were free to believe or not believe what they said.
But I had to point out to him, there is no freedom when someone teaches something as a fact, when in fact it is an opinion, and they don’t let you know there are other options. They took people’s freedom away by making statements like that. And this is happening in the society that is supposed to be preserving the memory of Thomas Jefferson. It makes me sick to my stomach.
So since the Sally Heming thing has been told to so many people, I want to point out why I say this is an opinion that has NOT been proven. The proof that these people site, comes from 3 sources…
FIRST… 1998 DNA testing.
After DNA testing, Professor Joseph Ellis wrote an accompanying article in the journal Nature declaring that it was settled-DNA testing conclusively proved that Thomas Jefferson had fathered a Hemings child.
Within 2 weeks following that announcement, 221 printed news articles repeated the claim, embedding it in people’s minds. This was all announced at the commencement of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings for lying under oath about his sexual activities. The timing of the DNA article was not by accident. However, only 8 weeks after the initial blockbuster story was released, it was quietly retracted, with the researcher who had done the DNA testing saying that it had NOT proven Thomas Jefferson had fathered any children with Sally Heming.
In that same finding it stated that, “DNA testing showed that Thomas Woodson (Sally’s oldest son) was NOT Thomas Jefferson’s son.” Thomas had no Jefferson blood in him.
They also didn’t mention that they had no DNA from Thomas Jefferson’s line to use (you must have a male Y chromosome to do DNA testing and his only son died at birth.) Since there were no males to test they used his uncles line and concluded that while Thomas had no Jefferson blood, Sally Heming’s son Eston was a Jefferson.
The problem now being, there were 21 Jefferson male relatives that lived in that area at that time. They narrowed it down to 10 that could have been the father. And after investigating the ten possible fathers, the group concluded that the “case against some of Thomas Jefferson’s relatives appears significantly stronger than the case against him.”
And Herbert Barger, the Jefferson family historian and genealogist who assisted in the DNA testing, explained: “My study indicates that Thomas Jefferson was NOT the father of Eston or any other Hemings child. The DNA study…indicates that Randolph [Thomas Jefferson’s younger brother] is possibly the father of Eston and maybe others.”
A blue-ribbon commission of thirteen leading scholars was assembled to examine the Jefferson paternity issue. Those scholars, not composed of Jefferson supporters; in fact, many believed that Jefferson might indeed be the father of Hemings’ children. But after spending a year investigating the evidence, they all concluded that Randolph was indeed the father.
SECOND QUOTED SOURCE: Oral tradition from two of Sally’s children. The fact that Sally had named one son Thomas was used as evidence to confirm the story.
This tradition was always substantiated by Thomas’ name. But the DNA testing proved that he was conclusively not a Jefferson (not any of the 21 possible fathers). So the oral tradition is now authoritatively disproved.
The author Ellen Randolph Coolidge, who wrote “Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings: An American Controversy”, uses quotes from Madison (Sally’s other son that has made the claim) that have been proven untrue, and also misquotes a letter written by Thomas Jefferson’s granddaughter, omitting words that cleared Jefferson, and leaving it to sound as if she accused him.
THIRD SOURCE HISTORICALLY USED: Published newspaper reports from Jefferson’s day specifically charging him with fathering Sally’s children.
These article were written from 1801-1803 by a James T. Callender. Callender was indicted for sedition in England and facing prison, came to America, where he was helped by many people including Thomas Jefferson. But after arriving, he resumed his defamatory writing against prominent Federalist Americans such as Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and George Washington. His writings were so defamatory as to invite litigation, so he fled from Philadelphia to Richmond.
There he continued his viscous writings and was convicted under the federal Sedition Law and fined $200. When Jefferson became president in 1801, he declared the Sedition Law to be unconstitutional and pardoned everyone and ordered the fines to be returned. But Callender, now free was not returned his $200, because a Federalist sheriff refused to follow his orders.
Callender enraged at Jefferson, believing he owed him something, demanded a presidential appointment as US postmaster, and was denied. Yet Jefferson still tried to obtain the fine money by private contributions to return Callender’s money. But while Jefferson was working to return the fine, Callender enraged announced his intention to punish Jefferson.
He sought a job at a Federalist paper in Richmond that was openly critical of Jefferson, and launched a series of attacks throughout 1801,1802 and 1803. He already had a horrible reputation of being dishonest, and spending his career trashing people’s character, which should have been enough to disrepute him (and did for the people living in his time).
History has proved many of Callender’s charges against Jefferson to be totally inaccurate. It was HIS articles that claimed Thomas (Sally’s son) had a “striking resemblance” to Thomas Jefferson (although DNA has proved that he in no way has Jefferson blood). So it leaves even that statement questionable. Scholars have said that his accusations were without verifiable facts. But Deconstructionists today, hold these articles as pieces of proof of Jefferson’s lineage ***
I know this was long, and probably too detailed, but I am sick of this. How can I teach my children truth in a world that is filled with so many lies, that I can’t even visit Monticello, without them claiming something that has been proven untrue, or at the minimum, highly questionable? And then listen to their montage on his hypocrisy…
Needless to say, as you can tell from my ranting, I cannot believe that I spent $144 for that experience. I love Thomas Jefferson. I tried to console myself by saying that my money helps preserve Monticello. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that my money just preserves the lies that they propagate to defame a man, who although not perfect, helped make the America that has blessed all of our lives, and even gives them the freedom to slander this same man who helped provide that freedom.
Now, I will tell you, please read about Jefferson, if you want to visit Monticello. Then you can appreciate the man before you are told that other than the house, he wasn’t made up of much. Two books I highly recommend are the “Real Thomas Jefferson” I think Skousen authored it, and “The Jefferson Lies” by David Barton. The latter is one of my latest readings. David Barton includes hundreds of end-notes with PRIMARY-source documents (meaning he is not quoting other people quoting others, he is going to the very first source!).
Now about the house, if you can get past the tour, it is amazing for its day. Some of my favorite architectural highlights to look for: the front door clock, the weather vane, his brilliant zigzag roofing, self operating doors, revolving kitchen door, dumbwaiter, triple sash windows, 4 cisterns he collects water in (hold 3830 gallons of water each), and ice house, there is more than that, but that is what comes to mind.
“It may be said that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the Fine Arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather.” And that is very true. His home and grounds are beautiful.
Visiting with my cousin we were saying you can’t really compare Monticello and Mount Vernon, but I will compare and contrast a couple of things. The home at Monticello is very beautiful and innovative. Mount Vernon’s draw is not the home, but the view of the Potomac, which can’t be built.
Also the Mount Vernon Ladies Society has redeveloped a lot of George Washington’s land, so you can see George Washington’s self-sufficiency.
It seems that at Monticello they are more concerned with you thinking poorly of Jefferson and emphasizing the slavery (that I might point out was at both homes). They haven’t really rebuilt his land to show you much of what happened there. Although it is said, that Jefferson had what they call Mulberry Row, where he had Blacksmiths, Joiners, a Smokehouse and Dairy, a Carpenters Shop and a Sawpit. But they don’t show it, they just tell you that it all represents slavery and discuss the slavery. So in that aspect, I like how Mount Vernon has taken the time to show what was there and rebuilt it (while still recognizing that it was all done by slaves).
I will take all of Mount Vernon’s land and view and the man they try to represent, if I could just keep Monticello-the home, they can keep the rest of it.
I will revisit Mount Vernon as often as I can. I will never spend another dollar towards what they have made of Monticello. How sad I feel saying that.
University of Virginia
After that long rant, you can refocus and I will talk about the vacation. After leaving Monticello, my cousin had suggested we stop by the University of Virginia. Jefferson was a HUGE proponent of learning. He wanted to establish an “academical village”. He wanted a place with the free exchange of ideas and a physical layout unlike any other college in the nation. The design would include student living quarters, professors’ residences, classrooms, dining and exercise facilities and open spaces.
And can I say, the campus near the rotunda is beautifull! The rotunda, (when the campus was smaller) housed the library and the classrooms. Then lining east and west of the lawn are 10 pavilions. Faculty were to be on the second floor and classrooms on the first floor. On the east and the west are ranges which contain 54 student rooms. These all still stand today, and the student rooms are still used!
One of the original dorms at University of Virginia
My cousin was telling me that you have to be a senior and specially chosen to be housed in one of these 54 student rooms that still stand (which even include the original fireplaces in each room). I hope I don’t misquote this, but she said that a basketball player was honored with the opportunity to be housed in one of these rooms, but a bed big enough to fit him wouldn’t fit in the small rooms. He considered the honor a big enough deal he chose to sleep in a bed that he didn’t fit in, rather than give up the opportunity to have one of those rooms. When she told me that I thought it seemed a little silly. But when you visit and look at the how beautiful the older parts of this campus are, it didn’t seem so silly at all. It is definitely a legacy of Thomas Jefferson,
“…the field of knowledge is the common property of all mankind.” – Thomas Jefferson
After leaving the campus our goal was to head toward Charleston, West Virginia to camp. While we were driving, I was trying to think if there was anything in Virginia that I was leaving without seeing. And then I realized, I was leaving without seeing the campus where one of my favorite author teaches.
I’ve been lobbying for one of my sons to attend Southern Virginia University, just so I can visit
Southern Virginia University
and sit in on classes taught by Orson Scott Card. So I started thinking, I wonder if I showed them the campus, if maybe it would take away the unknown, and I could surely find someone who would want to come to college there. So we decided to take a 15 mile detour into Buena Vista, Virginia to check out the campus.
It’s in between sessions and the campus was empty (plus it was a Sunday). I was slightly bummed there was nothing to see but the exterior buildings, and the two boys dorms. But it was very beautiful. And we did find one RA that was there early that talked to us about how much he loved the college. I’m hoping the memory will be vivid enough, in a couple of years they will think of fondness on their trip back east and consider SVU.
Silly, but a fun detour. It’s 11pm and Mr. S is still driving. We passed Charleston, but he is determined to get us home, so he is still driving. Hopefully at some point he will want to rest.
I have a 4 inch binder with all the information I had gathered for our trip. I can’t believe I only have 3 more pages of information! Our trip is almost done (even though we are on the other side of the country still). Most of our main events have come and gone, and now, other than our stop in Missouri, everything else is just by whim (that is if Mr. S ever decides to stop : ).
We were talking about how amazing the trip was. We ended up doing everything on our list except 4 things (and if you saw the list, which I will repost at the end of the trip, it was quite extensive!). But we took out those 4 things and added 8 stops that were unplanned. 2 of them I can easily say are probably on almost everyone’s top 5 list. I guess we will see when we take the survey at the end of the trip. But it has truly been amazing. Now we are just hoping for safe driving home, and a few more fun stops.
Southern Virginia University
Summary of Day 38
Drove: 542 miles (99489-100031)
Places we visited or saw: Monticello, University of Virginia, and Southern Virginia University, stopped in Mount Sterling, Kentucky.
Our favorite part of the day:
Jawbreaker: University of Virginia
Spitz: Monticello
Bazooka: Southern Virginia University
Warhead: Southern Virginia University
Starburst: Southern Virginia University
Fireball: Kids area at Monticello
Mr. S: Monticello
*** Information on the 3 sources about Sally Heming/Jefferson connection are taken from “The Thomas Jefferson Lies” by David Barton. His primary sources are the best compilation I’ve found of information on the subject.
We visited our last Smithsonian Museum for the trip. It was the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Annex, which is in Chantilly, VA, next to the Dulles Airport. The kids all thought it was really cool. They don’t have enough room at the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, so this Museum gives them additional space for aviation items.
godncountry 