Just in time for July 4th - Sally Hemings' living quarters at Monticello found

[Lady Florida.]

I thought this was interesting, educational, and timely. 

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/thomas-jefferson-s-enslaved-mistress-sally-hemings-living-quarters-found-n771261

Edited July 3, 2017 by Lady Florida.

[Pam in CT]

We visited Monticello four years ago, before the tours focused specifically on the lives and experiences of the enslaved people on the property described in the article were initiated, but after the curators began working to highlight those aspects of Jefferson's legacy and better incorporate the associated archaeology and artifacts, Hemings' story specifically, and to adapt language.  You could walk around and tell at a glance, which of the exhibit labels were "Before" and which were "After."

 

There is maybe still room to go... there's an embedded dissonance in the article's title phrase "enslaved mistress," isn't there.  The article later uses the term "concubine," which to me comes a little bit closer.  But still not all the way.

 

 

It makes me wonder what language Jefferson himself, so stunningly adept with words, used in his own head, when he thought about Sally Hemings.

[Lady Florida.]

.

 

 

It makes me wonder what language Jefferson himself, so stunningly adept with words, used in his own head, when he thought about Sally Hemings.

 

It's especially curious when you consider that he freed her children but didn't free her.