September 25, 2006

September 25, 2006

This morning we drive the few miles back towards Charlottesville and stop at the Thomas Jefferson Visitors Center. The Center has a 45-minute film on his life and some museum exhibits on each period of his life. Jefferson was a true Renaissance man. He was the author of the Declaration of Independence, a major politician in the birth and early life of the US, an amateur scientist, self-taught architect, a farmer and plantation owner, and a philosopher. Amazingly despite all his accomplishments and his being a large landowner in this area he died heavily in debt, and all his possessions were subsequently sold at auction.

From the Visitors Center we drive across the highway and up to his beloved home he called Monticello. The name means ‘little hill’ and accurately describes its location. From this little hill, the home has a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside. We first get a tour of the home's inside. It is stuffed with memorabilia from the return of the Lewis and Clark expedition he authorized and from his time in Paris serving as envoy to King Louis XVI (he witnessed the storming of the Bastille). Jefferson was an avid reader. Monticello would have had many more books (6000!) but he donated most of them to the US to restart the Library of Congress after the British burned Washington DC in 1814. The tour ends in the large backyard and the famous view of Monticello seen on the back of the nickel. After taking a picture we join a tour of his gardens. The gardens are nice and contain flowers of all kinds. I am most fascinated by a Mimosa vine. Known also as the Sensitive Plant, its fern leaves fold up at the slightest touch. Magic! Jefferson designed both the house and the landscaping. Uniquely, the plantation back offices (stables, kitchen, smokehouse, servants quarters are all hidden from view behind sunken wings that extend from either side of the house.

From the backyard we take the long way back to the entrance passing by TJ’s grave. His gravesite is now the location of a family plot for any direct descendent of Jefferson. The family association that runs the cemetery plot does not allow the burial of any descendents of Jefferson’s probable association with his slave and companion Sally Hemings.

From Monticello, we drive southeast past Richmond to a campground outside Williamsburg. There we have a long talk with another traveler from Chicago and get a lot of ideas for places to see in the near future.