Monticello Blog

Workshops located on Jefferson’s Mulberry Row included a nailery, which became operational in 1794. Jefferson hoped the nailery would become a source of cash income where “a parcel of boys who would otherwise be idle” could turn “tons of nail rod into thousands of nails.”

For many people enslaved in the United States, Christmas was the only holiday they ever knew.

Archaeology is an historical discipline whose goals are to advance our understanding of what happened in the past and why. But unlike the documents on which historians rely -- think Jefferson's letters -- archaeological deposits do not come with dates. In archaeology, we have to do work for the dates that are essential for turning artifacts into history.

In recognition of Presidents' Day and Black History Month, CBS This Morning aired a story about the connection between Thomas Jefferson's descendants through his wife, Martha, and his descendants through Sally Hemings.

Almost 400 years after the first enslaved Africans took their first steps in an English colony, a group of Virginians took their own steps to remember the captives and what they endured

Monticello provides an inspiring setting for this song and video, and affirms our commitment to sharing diverse stories in American history.

On December 28, 1993, Monticello Getting Word historians Lucia "Cinder" Stanton, Dianne Swann-Wright, and Beverly Gray traveled to Chillicothe, Ohio to interview five members of the Pettiford family—three of whom were descendants of Madison Hemings.

Accepting that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings’s children is not an “attack” on Jefferson. Nor is it giving in to some notion of “political correctness.” Rather, it is an acknowledgment and acceptance of historical evidence. It does not diminish Jefferson’s many accomplishments and achievements which are of world-historical importance.

On June 16, 2018, Monticello unveiled exhibits and newly restored spaces, including the opening of the South Wing and The Life of Sally Hemings exhibit. This landmark conclusion of a major restoration initiative at Monticello also commemorated 25 years of the Getting Word Oral History Project.

The issue of Jefferson’s paternity has been the subject of controversy for at least two centuries, ranging from contemporary newspaper articles in 1802 (when Jefferson was President) to scholarly debate well into the 1990s. It is now the Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s view that the issue is a settled historical matter.