The
Farms
Thomas Jefferson's landholdings in Albemarle County totaled some 5,000 acres. To manage this vast estate, he used a plantation system that had its origins in Virginia's Tidewater region and which divided the land into separate "farms." The area surrounding the planter's dwelling constituted the "home farm"; for Jefferson, this was Monticello mountain. Outlying lands were divided into manageable parcels known as "quarter farms" and were run by resident overseers. Thomas Jefferson's quarter farms were Tufton (adjacent to Monticello), Shadwell, and Lego (both north of the Rivanna River, which bisected his landholdings).
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Jefferson sought to further organize his farms by dividing them into agricultural fields of forty acres each. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation's Department of Archaeology has combined careful scrutiny of Jefferson's survey plats and field notes with archaeological investigation to locate many of these agricultural field boundaries. In addition, five seasons of archaeological survey have identified the remains of enslaved field laborers' dwellings, overseers' houses, barns, and farm roads: the fundamental elements of a working plantation. Our goal is to understand Monticello not simply as the mansion of a prominent American, but as a complex entity that holds valuable insights into the dynamic social and economic strategies of Jefferson's time.