An item owned
Historic significance preserved
found beneath Monticello's red clay:
iron hammer head, saw and wedge,
copper alloy measuring device.
Admired for beauty
they helped create
but within the hand
of the enslaved
just another item jotted down
and owned in a "farm journal book".
by Margaret Bednar, Art Happens 365, April 10, 2012
This is linked to Poetry Jam "Tools" Please check out this fun poetic challenge!
I am reading several books on Thomas Jefferson and I do, despite his being a slave owner, greatly admire the man. But it is increasingly troubling to me that as educated and "enlightened" as he was he didn't free his slaves. HERE is a link I think does a pretty good job of being fair to Jefferson, not sugar coating his views on slavery. We MUST remember to put Jefferson in his OWN timeline of history, his OWN circumstances and the times and family that formed him.
HERE is a another link of frequently asked questions about slavery at Monticello.
And HERE is a fascinating link I have yet to explore. It is "The Getting Word oral history project... I especially want to check out the "HEAR STORIES" of "way back"...