African Americans have traditionally passed on information orally. In efforts to alert relatives living in different places of significant life events, such as births, marriages, and deaths, they sought to "get word" to family members by oral means. For those who could not read and write, storytelling was a viable method of transmitting family and community history. Even after becoming literate, African Americans continued to favor oral means of passing along knowledge.

The Getting Word Oral History Project gives voice to the African-American community at Monticello through their descendants. Tour the gallery of photographs--some dating from the mid-nineteenth century, and others taken as recently as this year--or learn about four important themes in the lives of Monticello's enslaved families and their descendants:

• The pursuit of liberty and justice for all
• The importance of education
• The fundamental role of religion
• The strength of family and community bonds

The six men and women on this page were all born at Monticello.

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