In 2018, Ta-Nehisi Coates—a National Book Award-winning author whose work has been lauded by Toni Morrison and recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship—visited Monticello as he was researching The Water Dancer. He was deeply impacted by what he saw and heard here.
Described by Oprah Winfrey as "one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life," The Water Dancer tells the story of a young boy born into slavery on a Virginia plantation and the mysterious power he discovers.
Ta-Nehisi Coates tells CBS This Morning’s Gayle King how Monticello helped inspire his first novel, The Water Dancer.
Coates reads from The Water Dancer on the steps of Monticello
Oprah Winfrey announces Coates's The Water Dancer as the new Book Club pick
The themes in The Water Dancer are echoed at Monticello. Stories of enslaved individuals here mirror those of Hiram Walker, Ta-Nehisi Coates's "Water Dancer," who forged powerful family bonds.
Today, visitors to Monticello encounter new stories, new voices, and newly-restored spaces. We believe in sharing an honest, complicated, and inclusive narrative of American history—common ground for all Americans.
Liberty One Cent coin found at Site 6, an settlement site on the Monticello plantation discovered by our archaeologists
Jaw Harp fragment from Mulberry Row, similar to ones unearthed at Site 6
Various artifacts exacavated at Monticello, including jaw harps, a bead, tacks, flint, bone, and a horseshow fragment
Collection of ceramics from Site 6, including stoneware, Chinese porcelain, creamware, and transfer and polychrome painted pearlware
Marbles from Mulberry Row, and daub and orange beads both from Site 6
A shutter dog (for keeping shutters closed) found at Site 6
Pieces of Creamware and Pearlware discovered at Site 6
