In 1824, an aging Marquis de Lafayette made a triumphant return to the young nation he fought for as a teenager, touring the growing United States from New England to New Orleans. Lafayette's travels included an emotional reunion at Monticello with fellow revolutionary Thomas Jefferson. His twelve-day visit, which was marked by dinners and celebrations, struck many as memorable at the time, including two men enslaved at Monticello for whom, even decades later, Lafayette's visit held special meaning.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this podcast identified President James Monroe as having attended a dinner in honor of Lafayette held in the University of Virginia's Rotunda in November 1824. The historical record shows that Monroe was in Washington, DC, at the time.
Kyle Chattleton: This is Mountaintop History, a podcast produced by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello.
Olivia Brown: Mountaintop History brings forward meaningful stories from this historic home and plantation — from the past and from the present.
Kyle Chattleton: My name is Kyle Chattleton.
Olivia Brown: And I'm Olivia Brown.
Kyle Chattleton: Thank you for joining us. We hope you'll learn something new.
Olivia Brown: Nearly 50 years after he signed on to help the American colonies achieve their independence, a French general came back to the United States to tour the country he had fought for. Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier Lafayette arrived in 1824 after being officially invited by President James Monroe. We know him simply, however, as the Marquis de Lafayette.
Enlisting first as a volunteer, the Marquis de Lafayette eventually served as a Major General in the Continental Army, and was personally trained under General George Washington. His military career began in France at only 16 years old, but by the end of the American Revolution, he was considered a hero in both the United States and France.
Thomas Jefferson first met the Marquis de Lafayette while serving as Governor of Virginia in 1781. Of Lafayette's support for the American Revolution, Jefferson wrote, "it gives me great Pleasure that we shall be so far indebted for it to a Nobleman who has already so much endeared himself to the Citizens of these States." In short, Lafayette's contributions would not soon be forgotten.
After the war was over, Lafayette returned to France and it wasn't but three years later that Jefferson himself boarded a ship across the Atlantic to serve as Foreign Minister to the French King, Louis XVI. While living in Paris, Lafayette introduced Jefferson to other French aristocrats, but the two also worked in cooperation to draft the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen," a document adopted by the French National Assembly during their own Revolution. After returning to the United States and learning of his appointment as Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette with regret that he would not soon be back in France. What he wrote remained true to the end of his life. Jefferson said, "Wherever I am, or ever shall be, I shall be sincere in my friendship to you and to your nation."
When Lafayette returned to the United States in 1824 at President James Monroe's invitation, Jefferson sent a letter inviting his friend to visit Charlottesville and his home at Monticello. Lafayette's arrival in Charlottesville in November was met with fanfare and excitement. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Jefferson's eldest grandson, was sent down to Charlottesville to meet the Marquis and escort him up Monticello Mountain. According to written recollections of the visit, Lafayette ascended the mountain in Jefferson's landau carriage, pulled by four gray horses selected from the greatest of the surrounding counties.
The reunion between Jefferson and Lafayette was an event with a lasting legacy. It was written about newspapers, remembered by Jefferson family members, and even recollected by people who watched Lafayette's carriage arrive on the East Lawn of Monticello, both free and enslaved.
Much older than the last time they had seen each other, Jefferson and Lafayette were overcome with emotion. A Charlottesville newspaper, The Central Gazette, described this historic meeting. It wrote, "As soon as the General drove up, Mr. Jefferson advanced to meet him, with feeble steps; but as he approached his feelings seemed to triumph over the infirmities of age, and as the General descended they hastened into each other's arms. They embraced, again and again; tears were shed by both and the broken expressions of 'God bless you General' 'Bless you my dear Jefferson' was all that interrupted the impressive silence of the scene, except the audible sobs of many whose emotion could not be suppressed."
Lafayette visited with Jefferson from November 4 through November 15, and his stay included a trip to the University of Virginia with a dinner in the Rotunda at which presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were in attendance. At Monticello, Jefferson and Lafayette enjoyed meals that had been described as "half Virginian, half French," and the wine from Jefferson's cellar was often imported by the crate from France as well. It was also, apparently, quite well-liked. Only a few days after Lafayette's departure, Jefferson wrote to Bernard Peyton and asking for a box of Claret, because, as he wrote, "I was obliged to have so much company that we got all that thro' our stock of red wine."
Meals in Monticello's dining room and wine in the parlor would have been served by enslaved waiters, possibly Burwell Colbert, Monticello's head butler. Throughout his life and career, the Marquis de Lafayette had been a champion for freedom and an abolitionist who spoke out against the institution of slavery. One of the most stark remembrances of Lafayette's visit came from the memoir of Israel Gillette Jefferson, a man enslaved by Thomas Jefferson for the first 26 years of his life.
Israel Gillette, who later took the surname Jefferson, told the story of his life to an Ohio newspaperman in 1873. Born on the Monticello plantation, Gillette worked in the kitchen, the textile workshop and the house as a young child. From the age of 13 on, however, he was a postilion riding one of the four horses that pulled Jefferson's landau carriage. The same carriage that brought Lafayette up to Monticello. Gillette took Jefferson and Lafayette out for drives in the carriage almost daily during the visit and one conversation he overheard became stuck in his memory.
The issue of slavery came up in conversation and Lafayette, according to Gillette, expressed his dismay and grief over the fact that slavery still existed in the United States. Lafayette said, "that he gave his best services to and spent his money on behalf of the Americans freely because he felt they were fighting for a great and noble principle - the freedom of mankind." Gillette also remembered his enslavers response, saying that "Jefferson replied that he thought the time would come when the slaves would be free, but did not indicate when or in what manner they would get their freedom. He seemed to think that the time had not then arrived." While Israel, Gillette was not one of the five people freed in Jefferson's will, he did purchase his freedom from the man who bought him upon Jefferson's death. That conversation, however, and Lafayette's words, never left Gillette's memory, and he said he "treasured it up in [his] heart."
Olivia Brown: This has been another episode of Mountaintop History, a collaboration podcast between WTJU and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
Kyle Chattleton: Join us for new episodes every two weeks on Apple and Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and the Virginia Audio Collective.
Olivia Brown: To learn more about Monticello or to plan your next trip, visit us online at Monticello.org.
