I genuinely admire the accomplishments of Thomas Jefferson. His passionate text against the slave trade in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence demonstrates he was an abolitionist. The following was among the many charges against King George, “he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, & murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.”

The tour of Jefferson’s home, Monticello, is heavily focused on Jefferson as a slave owner. I can’t imagine living in a time when slavery was the norm, but I wonder if trying to keep as many people safe would be something I would try to do. There were several indications that the slaves on Jefferson’s plantation were highly trained and often paid.

I loved the entrance to Monticello. Maps, animals, Native American artifacts, and a clock that kept time through weighted strings adorned the entrance. The clock even told the day of the week, although Saturday was below the floor because the clock was too big to fit. Jefferson was a book hound, and despite selling many of his books due to being in debt, he would turn around and order more.

Monticello is a fantastic structure with a tremendous history that is worth exploring.