There are no known first-hand accounts of Christmas holidays written by a member of Monticello’s enslaved community or a descendant. Yet other primary sources shed light on a season that was at once a complicated mix of labor, resistance, celebration, and family reunion. Watch this Q&A with Emmanuel Dabney, Museum Curator at the Petersburg National Battlefield, and Brandon Dillard, Monticello’s Manager of Historic Interpretation, as we discuss winter holidays for those who lived in bondage.
