In earlier decades, much of the Foundation’s time and effort was spent on Jefferson himself and the Monticello house and furnishings. Today, ICJS has helped to expand our interpretive focus. Our research encompasses the entire mountaintop and beyond; residents of Monticello, enslaved and free, and their descendants. ICJS conferences and fellowships give support to the study of the broader British Atlantic world and its legacies.
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Archaeology - Historical Documents - Oral History
Monticello’s Archaeology department is literally expanding the Foundation’s focus from the house and wings to the wider mountaintop and beyond, and from Thomas Jefferson to all the residents of the plantation, particularly enslaved laborers.
Archaeology’s Plantation Survey is a multi-year effort to locate archaeological sites across 2,500 acres that the Thomas Jefferson Foundation owns. This is done by digging shovel test pits (STPs) at regular intervals. When artifacts are found, the intervals are tightened to increase the chance of establishing the boundary of a site. In many ways, this process can provide a more complete and accurate picture of what was happening at Monticello and its quarter farms than the documentary record can.
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series editorial team is not only bringing to light Jefferson documents that have never before been published, they are also bringing new perspectives to the study of Monticello and the early 19th century South through the Family Letters Project (FLP). The FLP is a digital project containing transcriptions of letters between members of Jefferson’s extended family, which often provide details and a richer context to events than was previously available.
For example, we can compare two letters from July 1819 describing the illness of Burwell Colbert, an enslaved butler to the Jefferson and Randolph families. In his letter, Thomas Jefferson briefly mentioned to his daughter Martha that Colbert fell ill while they were staying at Poplar Forest, Jefferson’s Bedford county retreat: "we have been near losing Burwell by a stricture of the upper bowels; but he has got about again and is now only very weak."
Jefferson’s granddaughter Ellen wrote to her mother on the same day. Ellen provided a much longer and more detailed description of Colbert’s illness. The paragraph starting with the phrase "With all my wishes" takes up nearly half of her letter. She recounted the actions of the family and the doctor who treated Colbert, and described her grandfather's emotional state. None of these details were evident in Jefferson's letter; they give us a better understanding of the event than we would get from Jefferson's letter alone.
The Getting Word African American Oral History Project has allowed us to tell a more complete story of Monticello through the voices of the enslaved community and their descendants.
In particular, the story of Peter Fossett has served as a focal point in our interpretation of slavery since it was pieced together by historian Cinder Stanton. Fossett was born into slavery at Monticello, separated from his family in the dispersal sales after Jefferson’s death in 1826, reunited with them as an adult, and returned to Monticello as an old man at the turn of the 20th century.
The stories of enslaved community members including Peter Fossett were a key feature of the Plantation Community Weekend special tours.
