Restore the SLAVE QUARTERS at Jefferson's Monticello
- by: Brad Humphrey MA/MS
- recipient: All human beings who deplore coverups, historical white-washes and lack of transparency
The agency that restored Monticello to it's 1809 glory (the year Thomas Jefferson retired from the Oval Office) and returned to his "beloved Monticello" have done nothing to restore the (dare I say) "beloved slave quarters" of the slaves he owned.
How come?
The curators have recently added a multimillion dollar gift shop and visitor center; but in "12 years of planning" (according to one of their spokesman at Monticello) they have not managed to reconstruct the slave quarters where he housed his "beloved slaves" (the slaves, I might add, who actually built Moticello - the same slaves he failed to emancipate in his will - the same slaves that allowed him to acquire all he had and who helped him accomplish some of the marvelous things he accomplished on the backs of their labor!
Come on curators of Monticello! Get with history! Stop your historical whitewash. Tommy Jefferson had a "great mind," but in the end he simply did not have a "great heart." He did not do the right thing with respect to "his slaves." Many other people of his time did!
Tommy wrote that he knew beyond a doubt that slavery was an "abomination" but, with respect to slavery and human bondage, he simply did little about it.
Monticello was not built by Thomas Jefferson it was built by his slaves.
Monticello in it's present "restored condition" is a historical sham. It seems to me that the curators have as little integrity, with respect to historical accuracy, as Tommy J. did with respect to slavery.
Come on curators of Monticello, do Monticello right, do history right, do justice right ... or don't do it at all!
It is my hope that American citizens will begin to boycott this grossly "unhistorical site" until they actually restore Monticello to the state they say they have restored it - slave huts and all, and not just the fancy windows he designed.
The present day curators, are, as a body, little more than "HISTORY ABUSERS" of the first order. I, for one, would rather see Monticello bulldozed and salt ground into the soil (so that nothing might ever grow there again) than to see the Toy-R-Us treatment of his Mansion and estate continue to exist in its expurgated, inaccurate, censured, condition.
I would be most happy to debate and exchange ideas with the curators on this matter.
In the meantime perhaps this petition (should it be lucky enough to gain momentum) will discourage people from visiting - "Monticello, the Whitewash," "Monticello, the fairy tale version."
Sincerely,
Brad Humphrey M.A./M.S.
We the undersigned want the slave huts of Monticello reconstructed.
I recently visited Monticello. Please do not visit Monticello - despite it's beauty and grandeur - until the curators reconstruct the dismal slave quarters of the slaves who constructed it and who were owned by Jefferson.
I was very upset to see that the curators of Monticello just completed a multimillion dollar gift shop complex and information center (one of the most luxurious gift centers you will see in the world)! These curators also maintain a beautiful little brick observation point and garden house where Jefferson sat and looked at his garden and fields and property (and slaves and slaves quarters).
The Curators who say they have restored Monticello to it's 1809 state, did not however, reconstruct the stone slave huts right next to the garden sitting spot! These same curators say they have been "planning to do more" for 12 years! (Time during which they build the multimillion dollare visitor center and luxurious gift shop). I say there time is up!
It is time for them to put up or get out.
They are whitewashing OUR HISTORY! They are selling a "fairy tale version" of Monticello to your children. Thomas Jefferson, himself, would deplore their obsequious approach to his story.
For theme to say "this is Monticello in 1809" is simply "history abuse" in its worst form.
Please boycott Monticello. Please email your friends to sign my petition for the reconstruction of the huts of "the Slaved" - the people who built Monticello - the people who provided Jefferson the wealth he had - let us see how they lived while he sat in his garden. Let us see how they lived.
Let us see where they were when, after his death, they were all sold down the road!
Thank you for reading.
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