We’ve Totally Been Here

(Jared Morris – Barringer Fellowship 2013)

“There was a very disagreeable ford* to cross at the North [Rivanna] River near Monticello which lamed one of my horses just as I was preparing to ascend^…the ascent itself is very winding, about a mile in length…”

*ford-A shallow place in a river or stream allowing one to walk or drive across.

^ascend- to go up

-Augustus John Foster, British Diplomat , August 1807

“[In his library] he sat and wrote and did not like of course to be disturbed by visitors who in this part of the world are rather disposed to be indiscreet*.”“The Family breakfast hour was eight o’clock. After breakfast…the other female relations of the house set about cleaning the alabaster lamp…After this operation the President retired to his books…”

*indiscreet- lacking good judgment

-Augustus John Foster, British Diplomat , August 1807

(Courtesy of the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia – Monticello.org)

“…the guest were left to amuse themselves as they pleased till four o’clock, walking, riding, or shooting. The President took his daily ride at one o’clock to look at his farm and mill, at four dinner was served up and in the evening we walked on a wooden terrace or strolled into the wood, Mr. Jefferson playing with his grandchildren till dusk…”-Augustus John Foster, British

Diplomat , August 1807

RIVANNA RIVER

The Rivanna River, the largest tributary to the upper James River, was named for Queen Anne, as it was the custom in early Virginia history to name streams for royalty. Its headwaters originate in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia, in both Albemarle and Greene Counties. The river meanders through the City of Charlottesville and stretches south through Fluvanna County, joining with the James River at Columbia.

http://rivannariver.org/AboutTheRiver.html

American merchant vessels were a common target of impressment*. Between 1793 and 1812, the British impressed more than 15,000 U.S. sailors to supplement their fleet during their Napoleonic Wars with France.

*impressment- the act of taking men into a navy by force with or without notice.

(PBS.org – British Navy Impressment)

Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton

British Dragoons* – Cavalry

“Soon after daybreak, some of the principal gentlemen of Virginia, who had fled to the borders of the mountains for security, were taken out of their beds: …In the neighborhood of Dr. Walker’s, a member of the continental Congress was made prisoner, and the British light troops, after a halt of half an hour to refresh the horses, moved on toward Charlottesville.” -Banastre Tarleton (remembering his ride to raid Charlottesville and Monticello in 1781)*dragoon - a member of a British Army made up of heavily armed troops on horseback.

Lt. Col. Tarelton was sent to Charlottesville to try to capture Jefferson and others. – Jack Jouett rode to warn Jefferson and the others.

(Meriwether Connections, the quarterly newsletter of The Meriwether Society, Inc. Vol. XXIV, No. 1)

Lord Cornwallis

-General Charles Cornwallis will eventually find himself

surrounded at Yorktown, Virginia four months after he sent

Tarleton to capture Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature in

Charlottesville. He surrenders 8,000 British troops to General

Washington and General Rochambeau, basically ending

the war.

Captain Jack Jouett Jr.

I must warn Governor Jefferson!“(After a 40 mile horse ride through the night) Crossing the Rivanna River at Milton Ford, he rode up the mountainside and arrived at about 4:30 in the morning. He proceeded to wake up Thomas Jefferson and his guests…”

(Jack Jouett Chapter – National Society, DAR- Dadney, Virginius)

(Courtesy of the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia – Monticello.org)

“He took a final look through the telescope, and was startled to see British

dragoons, in green uniforms, faced with white, and mounted infantrymen, wearing red, swarming the streets of Charlottesville…

Jefferson leaped upon his horse and barely made his getaway into the

woods…He was not pursued, and he was able to join his family later that

day at Blenheim, where all the Jeffersons dined with the Carters.”

(Jack Jouett Chapter – National Society, DAR Dadney, Virginius)

JEFFERSON’S ESCAPE

The First Continental Congress – representatives from all colonies but Georgia met in Philadelphia, Pa. to discuss the problems the colonies were having with Great Britain. 1774

The Second Continental Congress – representatives met in Philadelphia and voted to declare independence from Great Britain. 1776

La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,

Visitor from France

“From its great elevation [Monticello] enjoys the purest air; and the sea-breeze, which is felt on shore about eight or nine o’clock in the morning, reaches Monticello at one or two in the afternoon and somewhat refreshes the atmosphere, but the sun is intolerable* from its scorching heat; as indeed it is in all southern States.”

(Visitors to Monticello – Peterson, Merrill)

*intolerable- too much

“In private life Mr. Jefferson displays a mild, easy, and *obliging temper, though he is somewhat cold and reserved. His conversation is of the most agreeable kind, and possesses a stock of information…”

*obliging- kind, cooperative

La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Visitor From France

(Visitors to Monticello – Peterson, Merrill)

“As he cannot expect assistance from the two small neighbouring towns, every article is made on the farm; [enslaved African-Americans] are cabinet-makers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, smiths... The children he employs in a nail-manufactory…”

La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,Visitor from France

(Visitors to Monticello – Peterson, Merrill)

The Nailery and Mulberry Row

In 1794 Jefferson added a nail-making shop to Mulberry Row at Monticello. He hoped it would make a profit for the plantation, as well as, make Monticello more self-sufficient.(Courtesy of the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia – Monticello.org)

Mulberry Row was the “main street” of Monticello. Besides the nailery, the row was made up of woodworking shops, diary, stables, smokehouses, storehouses, wash houses, and housing for enslaved workers and white artisans*.

*artisan – a skilled craftsman, like a cabinet-maker.

The Presidential Election of 1796

JEFFERSON ADAMS

“Mr. Jefferson is invited by the republican party, named anti-federalists, to succeed George Washington in the President’s chair of the United States…The other party is desirous* of raising John Adams to that station…” -La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

(Visitors to Monticello – Peterson, Merrill)

Democratic-Republican Party Federalist Party

Marquis de Lafayette’s Return to the United StatesAh, Jefferson!

Ah, Lafayette!

Lafayette arrived at eleven in the morning in a carriage that was sent to carry him to the

top of the mountain to see his old friend, Thomas Jefferson. There were hundreds of

people outside Monticello to welcome Lafayette and to witness the meeting of the

two men of the Revolution, who had not seen each other in over thirty years.Twilight at Monticello – Crawford, Alan Pell

Marquis de Lafayette

QUICK FACTS:-French- aid to General Washington during the American Revolution- earned his own division of troops during the war- sent back to France to gain their support for the Americans- returned and helped lure Cornwallis into trap at Yorktown, Virginia- forty years after the Revolution, he returned to the U.S. on a farewell tour where one of his stops was Monticello and Charlottesville.

(by Joseph Boze. Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc.)

Marquis de Lafayette

“I have been received with much emotion by Mr. Jefferson. [Jefferson has] greatly aged after a separation of thirty five years, but carrying his eighty-one years admirably and enjoying the full vigor of his mind and soul…[and he] has consecrated the building of a superb university.

(Marquis de Lafayette, 1825, by Charles Cromwell Ingham)

The University of VirginiaThis public university was founded in 1819. Its first class entered in March 1825, which was just four months after Lafayette’s visit to Monticello and Charlottesville. During Lafayette’s visit, it was he who toasted Jefferson as the “Father” of the University.

ERIE CANAL* CONNECTS THE GREAT LAKES TO NEW YORK CITY by way of the Hudson River!

-finished in 1825

*canal – a man-made water way used to transport people and goods.

(from "Backsights" Magazine published by Surveyors Historical Society)

The work was done using horses, mules, wagons, dynamite, wheelbarrows, hand tools, and thousands of Irish laborers.

George Ticknor – Visitor from Boston, Massachusetts

“He lives, you know, on a mountain, which he has named Monticello…The ascent* of this steep, savage hill was as pensive and slow as Satan’s ascent to Paradise…When we arrived we were about six hundred feet, I understand, above the stream which flows at its foot.”

(The Papers of Thomas Jefferson –Vol. 8)

*ascent – to go up

(Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College)

George Ticknor – Visitor from Boston, Massachusetts

“You enter, by a glass folding-door…On one side hang the head and horns of an elk, a deer, and a buffalo; another is covered with curiosities which Lewis and Clarke found in their wild and perilous* expedition. [On another wall] is an Indian map on leather of the southern waters of the Missouri, and an Indian representation of a bloody battle, handed down in traditions.”*perilous- dangerous

(The Papers of Thomas Jefferson –Vol. 8)

Thanks for the antlers Meriwether Lewis and

William Clark!

When Thomas Jefferson was president he sent an expedition west of the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. His main goals were to develop an understanding of the land and the native people and to develop a trade route to the Pacific Ocean. Many items were sent back or brought back for Jefferson to examine. Among those items are these elk antlers which still hang at Monticello today.

“I was astonished to find Mr. Madison short and somewhat awkward, I was doubly astonished to find Mr. Jefferson…more than six feet high, with dignity in his appearance.

“We conversed on various subjects until dinner-time, and at dinner we were introduced to the grown members of his family…I assure you I have seldom met a pleasanter party.”

George Ticknor – Visitor from Boston, Massachusetts

(The Papers of Thomas Jefferson –Vol. 8)

“The night before we left, young Randolph came up late from Charlottesville, and brought the astounding news that the English had been defeated before New Orleans by General Jackson…[Jefferson] had gone to bed like the rest of us; but of course his grandson went to his chamber with the paper containing the news. But the old philosopher refused to open his door, saying that he could wait till morning.”

The War of 1812 – Battle of New Orleans

(The Papers of Thomas Jefferson –Vol. 8)

George Ticknor – Visitor from Boston, Massachusetts