Montcello, you would have seen jeffersons neoclassical villa. But we wanted to restore the landscape of slavery. Because if you had come up this mountain top in jeffersons time, the first thing you would see most likely would have been enslaved people. There would have been no place on this mountain top slavery wasnt visible. And we want to restore that, make that known to visitors who come here today. So were now in the middle of recreating or restoring dwellings along mullberry row, that main plan tashz street. As well as rooms attached to the house just behind us. So all of this is part of an effort to sort of shift the focus away from just jefferson and talk about the dozens offing other people who essentially made his life possible. Right now were actually just near jeffersons main house, the pulaidian mansion he built throughout his life and were standing next to mullberry row which is the main plantation street, about 1,300 feet through archeology and documentary research. We know that over 20 work shop, store houses and dwellings line it street. There were enslaved families, indentured servients. Hired white artisans and several of these work shops were surprised by jefferson and members of his white family. So this is really the hub of industry of montcehllo. About eight square miles. So this plantation is eenormous. But the center of activity is really right here. So if you had been here in jeffersons day you would have seen carriages coming up and down this road. You would have heard the noise of chickens of dogs. You would have smelled smoke in the air, heard hammers and saws. There were dozens of people here, white and black free and enslaved all working for jeffersons plantation. From jeffersons copious record taking we know he owned 607 human being in his lifetime but at any given time 130 to 140 slaves would have been working at montacello and that would have been not just this mountain top but surrounding farms as well. But this is a dynamic and fluid place where enslaved people were coming and going, living in different areas and jefferson interacted with all of them in different ways. But it it wasnt like he was isolated here on hitz mountain top. He used to take daily rides throughout his had plantation. Not only to remind slaves he was their owner but also so he had a kind of knowledge of what was going on across these eight square miles. So mullberry row was an extreme rmnt for jefrson. This plantation street was very unique in the larger context of virginia plantations. He wanted it to be an experiment of a way to reform slavery and he wanted to do that by imparting trades to enslaved people. So rather than them just being field laborers, they could kp up here and learn a skill, blacksmithing, carpentry, house joining. These are just a few of the many skills enslaved people learned and jefferson considered this an improvement over being out in the fields with wheat or tobacco or the other crops. If you come here and you know that jefferson is the author of the declaration, the iconicing words all men are created equal and you find out he owned 607 slavz, he looks pretty bad but he believed he was making changes to the if stugz of slavery that would pave the way for its abolition. So hes trying to reform it, alleviate mutirial conditions, changing housing and he believes this will inevitably result in emancipation further down it line. We know more about monticello, its the best documented estate and because of that we know more about the enslaved people here than anywhere else and i think weve been able to put together the most comp rehence haddive portrait during jeffersons time but beyond it as well. And i think that lends a unique and human portrait to what slavery was here both as a horrific and coersive institution but also as a way of emphasizing the humanity of enslaved people and the fact they were able to preserve themselves and their families, even within the bounds nof slavement. Sally hemings was part of a very large family of inslavd people here who numbered about 80 people and she was the daughter of the hemmings matriarch, elizabeth and we believe years after his wifes death, jefferson fathered six children with Sally Hemmings, esten, madison, beverly and harriet. So Sally Hemmings is part of an inheritance. I think its important to remember that slaves were property and could be inherited through marriage as well as being bought and sold. So when jefferson married his wife, martha in 1772 she was it daughter of a very wealthy slave trader and it was through john wales that jefferson inherited 135 slaves and Sally Hemmings was one of those slaves. So she was born on the Eastern Shore and arrived here in about 1773 or 1774. Sally hemmings is a person who is shrouded in mystery because we know so little about her. There are actually only four references to deskrapgzs of her that exist in the last 200 years. Jefferson himself never wrote about her explicitly. So she remains this very mysterious figure. But i think its important to emphasize she was related to jeffersons wife. So she was martha wales jeffersons half sister and she may have even resembled jeffersons wife. So in 1784 jefferson took up a post in paris as essentially a trade ambassador. He was trying to forge treaties with the french and other countries so the new u. S. Could survive in the wake of the u. S. Revolution. But he wanted to have his daughters with him. He wanted to have martha and maria, his youngest daughter. But he also wanted someone, an enslaved woman or girl to accompany maria on the long passage across the atlantic and it was the young Sally Hemmings who accompanied maria to paris. So Sally Hemmings came and lived with jefferson and his two daughters in paris and that may have been the beginning of their relationship or however you want to describe it was in paris. And according to Sally Hemmings son, madison she became pregnant by jefferson and extracted a very important promise and that was if she returned to virginia with him and bore the child, that in the future all of her children would be freed. This was a huge decision for her because when she was on french soil she was considered free. If shed remained in paris, she could have been a free woman. But because of what we think transpired, in other words this promise she extracted from jefferson she came back here and when jefferson died, all of those children were freed. The Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson controversy has been one thats been going on for over 2en h e200 years. But one thing we want to do now in the current initiatives that were embarking on the mountain top is to focus on Sally Hemmings herself. We want to divide erhad and focus on her as a person. Because i think in this 200year debate or discussion, shes never been seen in her own light. And we want to restore her humanity. So were standing inside of the space that will be interpreting as Sally Hemmings quarter. We believe its this space or the one next to it to the west. Maybe shes doing mending of clothes or cooking the last meal of the day or theyre sitting around and sharing stories of their day as well as perhaps their past and typical family activities that would have gone on in that space. So behind me what you see is the restoration of monticellos south wing. This wing was built in 1802. It health held a lot of Domestic Service spaces. After jefferson died and monticello was sold, it was actually rebuilt a couple times in the 19th century. So in the 1940s the Thomas Jefferson foundation restored it south wing. So what they thought was its best appearance. Not only did they restore the cook house, but they put bathrooms into what were slave quarters and a dairy. So its much of this material weve been remove the last couple months and were restoring the spaces what was a more accurate representation of what it was like in jeffersons time. Theres document evidence, even a plan to scale. So its tremendous evidence that shows exactly how big the rooms were and what the rooms were used for. So we know what space was the dairy. We know where the slave quarters were in the smoke house. But what was exciting is when we removed the 1940s material, we were able to find physical traces of where the walls would have been placed. On the chimney stacks remains of the plaster that we know was there in jeffersons time because theres a jeffersons letter that talks about asking his workman to plaster the space. Theres a hearth that survived. We believe this was where an enslaved family would have warmed themselves and perhaps cooked an evening meal. And evidence of what the floors would have looked like. Its a small detail but were dedicated to as accurately as possible restoring these spaces. What you see are the circa 1802 bricks. Theyre laid on edge which is particular and well be able to restore the floor very accuratery. We have bricks that there the same size and well lay them the exact same way. Theres also evidence of where the partitions were that divided it two spaces. So you can see the carpenters have started to put back a silt plate. But theyve aligned it with what we call an architectural ghost. So heres where a stud would have sat upon the stove wall in jeffersons time. And the space was plastered and white washed against it. And whats left is this gap in the finishes that tells exactly where the stud would have been and its size. Were able to put it back. And you can see this wall was canted because we have a ghost on this side, on the other side of the fireplace that shows where the wall would have sat against the fireplace. So even thee typical carpenter would love to have a nice straight wall, were putting it just a bit out of square because tlart it evidence is telling us its at in jeffersons time. Whats going on right now is craftsman from local Restoration Company are putting up the timber frame. We know from jeffersons documents it tells us exactly how big it studs should be and so these craftsman have prepared are h all the framing off site. Everythings brought on site and put up. And so whats going on right now is theyre actually fitting the tendance to the mort zns and putting up brick nogging is the next step for the slave quarters and siding like you see behind me on the kitchen for the dairy. So we are in the south pavilion cellar and this is a one of the first buildings built on the mountain top by jefferson, finished in 1770 and it or originally was a kitchen. And were standing four feet above the original floor level and why that is is because jefferson raises the floor level in 1809 after he builds the south wing and turns this into a wash house when the larger kitchen was built to the east. And the amazing thing in this space not just that its this early and that it survived but they survive largely in tact. I call it but in this case all all of that trash were pulling in from somewhere just amazing pieces of ceramic and pins and thimbles. Tooth brush heads. Just a lot of great art facts that will give ossense of how people live on the mountain top. What they also found was evidence of his First Kitchen and it actually changed over time. Theyve come down the original fireplace where he and his wife lived in the room above until the main house was ready for them to move in. So that fireplace was uncovered as well as a stew stove, which was a very high stield kitchen appliance for it mid and late18th century that would have let Jefferson Cook his high style french cuisine that hes probably having in williamsbering at the governors palace. We suspected he had one. He draws it on a document in the 1770s. But we did know if it it was built but tremendous evidence survives of this four burner, you could call it stew stove. This rubble, ruiness structure down below. Theyve removed as much of the material as theyre going to and theyre cleaning up the site for final photos and documentation. You can see theyre meticulously cleaning behind the bricks and they have measured everything in. Its really an intensive process. But it allows us to gather and record as much information on the site as possible so it can be analyzed in the future. So we expect to complete the exterior, perhaps by later this spring and then the interiors, were working on the exhibit plans, the interpretation plans. Those should beopen on the spring of 2018. We hope they can come and experience perhaps a bit more of the slave life, to understand how monticello functioned. But were very excited about being able to put back sally had hemmings quarter, this tremendously important person on the mountain top, important in american history. Its important to remember that mont cello isnt just a home on the mountain rvsh its a plantation, eight square miles and the majority of people that lived here in jeffersons time were enslaved african americans. Most of the labor that went into the building of this home was done by enslaved african americans. Jefferson did hire several white workman including an irish joiner assisted by several skilled craftsman of the enslaved community. It was his home for his entire life. Hes born just seven miles away from where he builds this home. His father dies when jeffersons 14. As a young man hes going to if herit this land as well as the slaves his father owns and hes going to decide to build on this mountain top at a young age. Jefferson is trying to use that plantation to make money, like most virginia plantation owners, he has cash crops, primarily tobacco and later in his life, wheat. And he has mixed success in turning a profit off of this plantation but here on this mountain top this is the center of his home life as well. Throughout his retirement years, this home is filled with his family members. His daughter, Martha Jefferson randolph and hur her husband move in. Throughout jeffersons retirement years as a very public official and somebody who gained fame for not only being president of the United States but wrote the declaration of independence, he would have hosted perpetual we have a lot of accounts from those guests of their visit to monticello. Another guest called this room cluttered. He almost sets it up like a cabinet of museum or curiosities and filling it with things he thinks are interesting that interest him but also influential people, ideas and the creation of his country. So jefferson had maps all of the known continents around the room. It was sent back to him from william and clark diplomatic exchanges with more than 40 indian nations. He had had busts of influential tinkers like voltar, the french philosopher and his arch nemesis, hamilton which he set on the opposite side of the room of a bust of himself. He liked to tell his visitors they would be opposed in death and life. One visitor once told me perhaps it was a political hunting trophy because jefferson eventually won in the political battle by becoming president of the United States. The dining room is one of the brighter spaces at monticello because of the chrome yellow paint on the wall. Would have been on the coldest and darkest side of the house. But tlart where breakfast would be served each morning and dinner 4 00 or 5 00 in the afternoon. Hes famous for his had political uses of food. When he was president he would, multiple time as week, invital politicians to dine in small dinner parties at his home, both democrats, republicans, his party. But also his adversaries, federalists. They would come on separate nights. But jefferson used those conversations to talk about politics but other tings of the day, philosophy, religion. He preferred private, iftimate affairs where conversation could come to life. And the monticello dining room, there are a number of contraption and conveniences that would limit the number of in slaved people. So the food would come in through a side door with revolving shelves so the enslaved waiters underneath the house would not have to be entering the room and exiting nonstop. They could put the food on the door outside the room and the enslaved butler could simply turn the door and bring it food in the room. The wine secellar was located beneath the dining room and jefferson had built into the mantle wine dumb waiters so it could be delivered straight up through it sides of the fireplace. So hes using these contraptions to lim tit coming and going of enslaved servients but at the same time theres a lot of work going on behind the scenes to make that dinner and the engaging conversation taking place possible. The south side of the house is really devoted to private family spaces and private spaces for jefferson and he kind of his own private apartment on the south side of the house and it consisted of three separate rooms. His cabinet or what we would call an office or study. His library and of course his bed chanmber and it bed chamber would have been the most private space. Thats where jefferson would wake in the morning with the sun and begin each day with a cold foot bath and begin to read and respond to letters a few hours before breakfast and the space where he would return in the evening for a few hours of reading before bed as well. The other significant thing about jeffersons bed chamber is its the space where he passed away at the age of 83 which is really one of the more remarkable stories. Jefferson died on july 4th, 1826,ing which was the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the declaration of independence that he was the primary author of. Jeffersons death is a very sad time at monticello for many different reasons. He struggle would debt his whole life. Died about 7,000 in death which is many millions of todays money and the family to sell monticello, the land, many of the furnishings in the home and most heart breakingly of all, they had to sell about 130 enslaved african americans. One of the slaves here on the plantation recalled that jeffersons death was a time of great uncertainty among the enslaved community and you can imagine that enslaved people here would be worried if the death of Thomas Jefferson, that that meant their families would be split apart which is what ends up happening in many cases. The property in the 1830s would be bought by a man by the name of maria levy which is one of the first naval officers of jewess faith in the United States. Levy and his family began the process of tracking down some of the original objects of the home and in 1923 it was uria levys who sold this to the Thomas Jefferson foundation, which continues to own monticello as a Nonprofit Museum and has since 1923. One of the things were striving to bring back is a sense that it was more than just this house on the hill. The house is incredibly well preserved and we want people to walk in jeffersons foot steps but we also want them to understand that monticello had had People Living here and most of them were enslaved. And so over the past several years, weve been working to restore the landscape of slavery to monticello. You can understand that there was a center of industry and enslaved life there and that if you tour the south wing and north wing, you will see that this was a home for the people that jefferson enslaved here as well. And that it was their work that made monticello what it was and in many senses made jefferson who he was. When people leave monticello, i hope they get a sense of the complexity of jefferson but how relevant his story is to the nation that we became. Heres rar man who wrote all men are created equal but was a slave owner. Heres a man who truly believed that governmenticide be representative of the people even though he was very much a virginia aristocrat. But jefferson, at the end of the day, had a very optimistic view of our nation and optimistic view that we could govern ourselves. I hope people leave understand that while monticello was jeffersons lifework, he also viewed the United States as something that would never be perfected and that would need continual work and progress. [ applause ] the 2011 National Medal of arts as poet laureate of the United States 1993 to 1995. Through works that blend beauty, lyricism, critique and