Look Closer: A Historic Moment for Monticello

[@LibertyTalkFM]

Wow. So so so important as this seems a much preferred method of reconciling the great contradiction of our founding's history as opposed to those who seek to tear or burn down the past in toto thus prescribing amnesia as cure and bulwark against making the same misstep in the future. Bravo to all the contributors.

[@monicaobare7344]

A very interesting of a great man and his life. Something is missing in the puzzle. I wish we could hear that part of the story. While Jefferson was on Government mission as ambassador to France, the nanny of the house was Sally Hemmings. She was free to remain in France as a fee person and not a slave. Sally chose to go back to the US as a slave on condition that her children would be freed. At that time she had no children so why that condition of going back to the US. To me Sally and Jefferson already had an intimate relationship. This is my take

[@MrBigpete28]

Great man?

[@MissJocelyn]

Yes, they were in love already. Or she was, but I really believe he was too.

[@lorimayer1514]

So well said. The great American contradiction. This whole scenario of founding fathers making there livelyhood while enslaving people but disagreeing with it is difficult to wrap your mind around. They weren't horrible people, they did good things for our nation but couldn't solve that big issue. I say if you could take on the king of England you could have solved this issue too. I think they wanted there lives to be easy and left the fixing of the issue to future generations. So there flaws are easy to see. They are human and were raised in that situation but they had a chance at the beginning to fix it. I'm so torn.

[@caroltydings4996]

Interested love it love monticello

[@deborahhoffman7394]

Must be gratifying to be part of this interesting legacy of this most incredible man and see how far we’ve come.

[@mermaidwe2743]

The gentleman at the end is impressive

[@nataliemay415]

"When you only learn the good in history your not really learning history" reminds me of what a holocaust survivor said "if we don't learn by the past we are bound to repeat it".

[@malicktchakpedeou9989]

3:55 Her head is shaped just like his.

[@blackkeysmatter9944]

A pleasantly biased, one-eyed glimpse into Monticello with no equality of time given to pro-Jefferson forces. Interesting omission from the ‘featured remarks’ name list is that of Monticello’s Community Engagement Officer Gayle Jessup White, five times great granddaughter of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Her thirty seconds (3:57 - 4:27) is the must-see heart of this video but because she has feelings of comfort when at Monticello she had to get the anti-Jefferson axe somehow. Ironically, black woman Ms. White will never truly connect emotionally with her ancestor Sally Hemings until she comes to accept and rejoice in Sally’s whiteness more than her blackness. Hemings was 75% White and 25% Black and nearly white in skin tone. The big FYI for the Monticello folks is that they better start making plans for a new Checkers wing. It’s little known but well enough established that the Jefferson’s phrase ‘all men are created equal’ came from the game we now call Checkers. Then and now the game-pieces called ‘men’ and all the men on board are equals at the start of the game.

[@waltking9141]

I want to Monticello about a month-and-a-half ago and I know that they don't need to whitewash Jefferson he did say a lot of bad things but there's a certain point where it goes overboard the whole tour the tour guide kept reminding us how bad of a man Jefferson was for owning slaves and how thanks to their backbreaking labor he lived a life of comfort eating fine food and drinking fine wine basically the whole tour was Jefferson was bad whenever we asked a question about some of his scientific instruments or his family or as we were reminded repeatedly his white family it was always turn back too how bad of a man he was that's all I can say about it!!!

[@bdm1000]

Gayle Jessup White is almost surely not Jefferson's 5x great granddaughter. She is likely his 5x great grand niece! Jefferson's younger brother Randolph was known by slaves to party and play music with them well into the night; something they said Jefferson himself never did. When you look at the body of evidence, it almost surely was not Thomas who fathered her children.

[@carlosspicywiener05]

@@bdm1000 spoken like someone who hasn’t surveyed the evidence

[@OakedRS]

Nice.

[@finnjones6912]

Enslaved people built that place...and kept it going. As a non American I get that times and attitudes were different but even back then they knew slavery was abhorrent because in other parts of the western world they denounced it as an evil. Ironic that the founding fathers who bleated on about freedoms and liberties couldn't see beyond their own self interest....and then using black women....and fathering children who were kept as slaves! It's Rape.. I mean the whole thing is disturbing and disgusting.....and it would have been back then too. Where there's wealth to be made people will turn a blind eye and kid themselves that what they're doing isn't so bad....or indeed for the greater good

[@sherryleonard8514]

How do I feel about indentured servants. My gggggf was an endentured servant there.

[@stflaw]

There is no definitive scientific evidence that any of these descendants of Monticello's slaves are direct descendants of Thomas Jefferson. All that has been proven thus far is that one of Sally Hemmings' children was fathered by a male Jefferson, which could have been Thomas Jefferson's brother (who was known to frequent the slave quarters at night) or Thomas Jefferson's nephews, each of whom confessed to having been the father of at least one of Sally's children. Other male Jeffersons also frequented Monticello during Sally's reproductive years. Why the people entrusted with the legacy of Thomas Jefferson have chosen to become complicit in this organized act of character assassination is beyond comprehension.

[@sct4040]

stflaw DNA don't lie. It was proven.

[@stflaw]

@@sct4040 There was only one DNA sample that traced to the Jefferson family, and all it showed is that a Jefferson male was the father of one of Hemmings' children. The father could just as easily have been one of TJ's nephews, each of whom was heard confessing to having fathered a child with Hemmings, or TJ's brother, who was known to fraternize with the slaves and was often seen around their living quarters at night.could have been. TJ has NOT been scientifically proven to be the father of any of Hemmings' children. There is absolutely NO DNA evidence tracing ANY Jefferson to any of Hemiings' other children.

[@deemcnealy5813]

DNA has proven that Thomas Jefferson fathered her childern.

[@stflaw]

@@deemcnealy5813 You are wrong. Only one of her children has a proven DNA link to the Jefferson family, and it only proves that a male Jefferson was the father. not Thomas Jefferson specifically. I addressed this in my previous comment. Both his brother and his nephews could have been the father. There is no DNA evidence linking a male Jefferson to any other of Hemmings's children. I have done more reading on this subject than you have.

[@stflaw]

@@sct4040 No, but the people interpreting the DNA evidence to pursue a political agenda do.

[@mariebelle3493]

How about reperation!!!

[@ednakelley814]

well they were given about 20 millions acres of land so theres your reperations.