The Names
Explore the lives of the men, women, and children listed at Contemplative Site through the Monticello Enslaved Community Database, which includes information on family relationships, work, birth/death dates, and more.
Despite the horrors of slavery, African Americans forged enduring family and community connections, and cultural and spiritual practices. The Contemplative Site is a space to reflect upon their lives and legacies.
Thomas Jefferson held at least 607 people in bondage. The site’s 60-foot long steel wall lists their known names. Blank spaces ensure that new names can be added as we learn more.
About the Contemplative Site Project
Located in an area Jefferson called the "Grove," the site is centered on a 60-foot long steel structure pierced with the names of the 607 men, women, and children known to have been enslaved by Jefferson.
Getting Word
The Getting Word African American Oral History Project preserves the histories of Monticello’s enslaved families and their descendants.
Location
The Contemplative Site is located in an area Jefferson designed as a wooded, ornamental landscape and called the “Grove” at the western end of the Monticello mountaintop. The site features a recreated Jefferson-era “1-in-10” road that once ran nearby. Enslaved people moved along this road to access the North Spring, an important water source.
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The “1-in-10” road circled from the west end of Mulberry Row, around the west slope of the mountain, and down to the North Spring. Massachusetts Historical Society
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Archaeological investigations indicate that traces of the “1-in-10” road in the immediate area were destroyed by plowing in the 19th and early 20th centuries. High-resolution Lidar images (left) reveal traces of late 19th-century orchard terracing that also removed evidence of the Jefferson-era road.
Read More About the Grove
Dedication Ceremony Photo Gallery
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On June 17, 2023, descendants of Monticello's enslaved community gathered at the Contemplative Site for a private dedication ceremony.
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Cinder Stanton (center), historian and one of the founders of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project joined by attendees at the ceremony.
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Adrean Scheid and J. Calvin Jefferson after the ceremony.
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Flowers placed by family members adorned the panel of names of those enslaved by Jefferson.
We thank the following supporters for their generous contributions to the Contemplative Site project: Ronald and Sandra Kossar, Fritz and Claudine Kundrun, Americana Foundation, HGA, Values Partnerships, and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.
Slavery at Monticello: Life and Work on Mulberry Row
This web-based app explores the daily lives of Monticello's enslaved community, compiling decades of historical and archaeological research.
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Thomas Jefferson called slavery a “moral depravity” and a “hideous blot,” but continued to hold human beings as property his entire adult life.