Sponsored by Monticello and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, this new exhibit, entitled “Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty,” will open today at the NMAAHC Gallery, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Admission to the exhibition is free and open to the public.
Thomas Jefferson, the man perhaps most closely associated with the phrase “created equal,” was also a lifelong slaveholder, and although he referred to the practice of slavery as an “abominable crime,” in the Declaration of Independence, he was never able to succeed in abolishing it during his lifetime. By the time the U.S. Constitution was ratified, in 1789, nearly 28% of the population in the United Sttes was enslaved.
Through deep family connections and a strong sense of spirituality, the accomplishments of these individuals within the six families whose lives and livlihoods shared a destiny at Monticello – from their craftsmanship in woodworking and metalworking, fiber arts and basketry, to independent agrarian pursuits, literacy and education – they were tenacious in their own pursuit of happiness, as well as in the prospect of their life and liberty.
In connection with this landmark exhibition, Monticello is also launching the website for Getting Word’ – a collection of images, and oral histories from seven generations of families descended from Monticello’s community of African Americans.
The Getting Word oral history project was begun at Monticello in 1993 to preserve the histories of the African American families at Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia plantation. Over 100 interviews with their descendants and additional archival research have brought remarkable individuals out of the shadows of slavery. We can now tell the stories of people whose lives and achievements were all but erased over the last 200 years.
Monticello will also be restoring the 21 dwellings of both enslaved and free workers along Mulberry Row, which was the hub of the plantation. Next month, a new exhibition will open there, entitled “Landscape of Slavery: Mulberry Row at Monticello” featuring mini-exhibitions with computer animations, as well as a website and even “a smartphone app” which will provide new 21st-century ways for visitors access the past and to try experience for ourselves the lives of those whose destiny it was to have been enslaved at that time and at that place.
Leslie Greene Bowman, the President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, explains:
As a result of Jefferson’s assiduous record-keeping, augmented by fifty years of modern scholarly research, Monticello is the best documented, best preserved, and best studied plantation in North America.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, was incorporated in 1923 to preserve the home of Thomas Jefferson, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. It has been recognized as a United Nations World Heritage Site, as well as a National Historic Landmark, and offers hospitality to about a half a million visitors each year.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the 19th museum of the Smithsonian Institution, and was established by an Act of Congress in 2003. It is scheduled to be completed within the next 3 years. Meanwhile, it is building its collections and will be hosting programs and producing publications and educational resources. These are available on the museum’s website at: nmaahc.si.edu.