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…”
-Augustus John Foster, British
Diplomat , August 1807
*ford-A shallow place in a river or stream allowing one to walk or drive across.
^ascend- to go up
“[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…”
-Augustus John Foster, British Diplomat , August
1807
*indiscreet- lacking good judgment
(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/AboutThe
River.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
Lt. Col. Tarelton was sent to
Charlottesville to try to capture
Jefferson and others. – Jack Jouett
rode to warn Jefferson and the others.
“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.
(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.
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…”
Captain Jack Jouett Jr.
(Jack Jouett Chapter – National Society, DAR- Dadney, Virginius)
“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…
(Courtesy of the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia – Monticello.org)
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.”
JEFFERSON’S ESCAPE
(Jack Jouett Chapter – National Society, DAR Dadney, Virginius)
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
“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.”
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,
Visitor from France
*intolerable- too much
(Visitors to Monticello – Peterson, Merrill)
“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
(Visitors to Monticello – Peterson, Merrill)
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Visitor
From France
“As he cannot expect assistance
from the two small neighbouring
towns, every article is made on
the farm; [enslaved AfricanAmericans] are cabinet-makers,
carpenters, masons, bricklayers,
smiths... The children he
employs in a nailmanufactory…”
(Visitors to Monticello – Peterson, Merrill)
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,
Visitor from France
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
Democratic-Republican Party
JEFFERSON
Federalist Party
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)
Ah, Jefferson!
Marquis de Lafayette’s Return to
the United States
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 Virginia
This 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
The work was done using horses, mules, wagons, dynamite, wheelbarrows,
hand tools, and thousands of Irish laborers.
*canal – a man-made water way used to transport people and goods.
(from "Backsights" Magazine published by Surveyors Historical Society)
“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.”
George Ticknor – Visitor from
Boston, Massachusetts
(Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College)
*ascent – to go up
(The Papers of Thomas Jefferson –Vol. 8)
“You enter, by a glass foldingdoor…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)
George Ticknor – Visitor from
Boston, Massachusetts
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 War of 1812 – Battle of New Orleans
“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.”
George Ticknor – Visitor from
Boston, Massachusetts
(The Papers of Thomas Jefferson –Vol. 8)