Tour
From Slavery to Freedom
This guided, small-group tour focuses on Monticello's enslaved community and discusses the enduring legacies of slavery and freedom.
A Plantation
Monticello as a Plantation
During Thomas Jefferson's lifetime, Monticello was a 5,000-acre plantation where more than 400 enslaved men, women, and children lived and labored. Through decades of research, archaeology, and preservation, Monticello has become one of the most thoroughly documented plantations in the world.
Today, Monticello provides a powerful lens for understanding the realities of slavery and layered stories of our shared past.
Explore on this website
How to explore the Plantation and Slavery while visiting Monticello
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![The names of people enslaved at Monticello cut into spaces in a corten steel wall so that they stand out from the light behind them.]()
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![A guide stands next to a dwelling for enslaved people leading a tour for a group of visitors]()
ProgramSlavery at Monticello Tour
These one-hour, guided outdoor walking tours focus on the experiences of the enslaved people who lived and labored on the Monticello plantation. Start on the hour, available throughout the day.
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![A pair of hands hold up a mobile phone showing an image of Monticello with Monticello in the background.]()
PageSelf-guided Mobile Experiences
Enhance your day at Monticello by using the free Bloomberg Connects app, with foreign language self-guided tour options available, or try out a family-friendly scavenger hunt.
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![A wide image of the wooded area surrounding the Burial Ground for Enslaved People at Monticello, showing the sites updated fencing and plantings from 2022.]()
ExhibitBurial Ground for Enslaved People
The site of several graves of enslaved African Americans at Monticello is a place to honor and reflect on the over 400 enslaved people who lived and labored at Monticello during Jefferson's lifetime.
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![Visitors leaving a small wooden, mud-and-daub building, known as the Storehouse for Iron, that has been recreated on Monticello's Mulberrry Row.]()
ExhibitSites along Mulberry Row
Monticello's main plantation street features reconstructed cabins and workshops — including the Textile Workshop, Storehouse for Iron, and Hemmings Cabin — telling the stories of the enslaved community who lived and worked here.
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![Jefferson's obelisk gravestone, which features the three things his wished most to be remembered for: the Declaration of Independence; the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and the University of Virginia.]()
ExhibitJefferson's Grave
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Thomas Jefferson's grave in the Monticello graveyard, which is marked by an obelisk based on his own design.
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![A sign for the Granger Hemings Kitchen with a painting of a woman descending the stairs that once led from the Jefferson's living space above.]()
ExhibitGranger/Hemings Kitchen
Monticello's first kitchen
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ExhibitPlantation Model
A bronze relief model of Jefferson's entire 5,000-acre Monticello plantation.
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ExhibitCook’s Room
Enslaved chef Peter Hemings lived in this quarter for some time before another enslaved chef, Edith Fossett and her family, moved in.
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![Shelves with copper pans and cooking utensils like the walls of Monticello's restored kitchen, which features a brick floor, a large hearth, a large preparation table, and a row of stew stoves along the left wall.]()
Exhibit1809 Kitchen
Monticello’s later kitchen incorporated all the newest and best cooking technologies available at the time.
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![A man and his daughter look at cutout life-sized depictions of a man and a woman in early 19th-century dress while another man looks at a cutout image of an enslaved boy carrying firewood and a bucket.]()
ExhibitExhibits under the Main House
Step into Monticello's working basement, where the Crossroads exhibit, Wine Cellar, and Beer Cellar illuminate the labor, lives, and daily rhythms of the enslaved people who kept the household running.
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![The names of people enslaved at Monticello cut into spaces in a corten steel wall so that they stand out from the light behind them.]()
ExhibitContemplative Site
A powerful, yet tranquil space to reflect upon lives and legacies of Monticello's enslaved African Americans.
