Monticello Podcasts

History has remembered the Election of 1800, pitting John Adams against Thomas Jefferson, as a bitterly contested—some might say nasty—affair. Historian Edward Larson shares the story of this unprecedented campaign, the surprising results that nearly tore our young nation apart, and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that ultimately led to the first peaceful transfer of power in American history.

Author Andrew Smith gives a quick primer on the history of the 'American' turkey as well as a quick review of the validity of story of the First Thanksgiving.

Monticello today is American icon, Jefferson's architectural masterpiece, and a symbol of the American story. It's on the back of the U.S. Nickel. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Replicas of it dot the American landscape, both real and imaginary. But it wasn't always so. At the end of the 19th century, many doubted Jefferson had even designed it. But that changed with the rediscovery of Jefferson's architectural drawings in the early 20th century. What followed is a story of remarkable careers, passionate dedication, economic challenges, and innovative approaches that have made Monticello one of the most enduring places in the American imagination.

It's a crossover episode! This time on "In the Course of Human Events" we highlight the work of an another remarkable podcast series, "Your Most Obedient and Humble Servant,” which showcases women’s letters from the 18th and early 19th-century that don’t always make it into the history books. In this installment former Monticello guide Kathryn Gehred is joined by long-time Monticello guide Danna Kelley for an entertaining look at Jefferson’s granddaughter Ellen Wayles Randolph. Their conversation centers on a letter she wrote to her mother, Martha Jefferson Randolph, while visiting Richmond, Virginia in 1819. In the letter, Ellen, then 23, describes herself as a person whose tongue “runs faster than is quite compatible with the comfort of my friends” and then proves the point with language that is often as withering as it is engaging.

The Hamilton musical has helped popularize early American history, and one of the most famous numbers from the musical details a compromise between Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. In this episode of Mountaintop History, Monticello Guide Kyle Chattleton talks about "The Room Where It Happens" and the "Compromise of 1790."

While living at Monticello during her father’s retirement, Martha Jefferson Randolph played many roles: daughter, wife, mother, and a hostess who welcomed her father’s frequent guests while directing the work of his enslaved domestic servants. But there was period in her of her life when she was away from most of that, away from the social confines and expectations for women of her status in Virginia. As a teenager living in Paris with her father, who was then serving as the U.S. Minister to France, she attended school at a nearby convent and socialized in the highest circles of European society. Known even then for her brilliance, Martha found many admirers and friends, among them the Marquis de Lafayette, whose grand gesture toward her during a parade not long after the storming of the Bastille became the stuff of family legend. On this episode of Mountaintop History, Monticello guide Alison Kiernan looks at how a seemingly innocuous object—a small, decorative cockade given to a young Martha at party in Paris—reveals a story that spans two continents and three and a half decades, from revolutionary France to a joyful reunion at Monticello..

We often describe Monticello as the best documented plantation in America. Partly that's because of the remarkable historical record left by Jefferson and his family that gives us not only the personal details -- names, birth dates, occupations, movements, and family relationships -- of hundreds of enslaved individuals, but information about plantings, harvests, work sites, dwellings, and the workings of a thriving internal economy at the plantation. But historical documents only tell a partial story, based on the perspectives and interests of their authors. In this episode of Sharing History, we look at another historical record, one literally hidden in the ground -- the archaeological record -- and how, in ways not always expected, it revolutionized our perception of Jefferson, Monticello, the surrounding plantation landscape, and the lives and labors of Monticello's enslaved community. Joining the discussion are Fraser Neiman, Monticello's Director of Archaeology, Jillian Galle, Project Director for the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery, and Doug Sanford, a former Monticello archaeologist and retired professor in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington. They tell the story of how archaeology transformed history at Monticello, and how their and their colleagues’ work in turn helped transform the field of historical archaeology.

In this episode of In the Course of Human Events, historians from Monticello's Getting Word African American Oral History Project share the recent rediscovery of Robert Hemmings’s signature, a revelation confirming the literacy and the agency of the man that Thomas Jefferson enslaved as his valet. As a teenage boy, Hemmings was at Jefferson's side in Philadelphia when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, and later gained his own freedom, becoming the first of very few to be freed by Jefferson. Listen as Andrew Davenport, Auriana Woods, and Bernetiae Reed discuss this discovery and describe the life of Robert Hemmings whose story inspired “Descendants of Monticello,” a new exhibition that recently opened at Independence National Historical Park's Declaration House in Philadelphia, PA. By moving Hemmings to the center of this moment in history, this project explores the entangled legacies of freedom and enslavement at the core of our nation’s founding. Since 1993, the Getting Word African American Oral History Project has collected and preserved the oral histories of Monticello’s enslaved community and their descendants, creating an archive of freedom and a fuller story of Monticello and the United States. Getting Word and other staff from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation worked with Monument Lab, the National Park Service, and other organizations to present “Descendants of Monticello,” which was conceived and developed by artist Sonya Clark.

June in the Monticello gardens offers a rich array of plants in bloom from Bachelors Buttons and Canterbury Bells to Chives and Cardoons. This time on “A Rich Spot of Earth” we focus in on another star of June, Amaranths, and discuss how to manage garden pests and diseases. We also take a special look at one of the oldest tree species in existence, the Ginkgo. Featuring Peggy Cornett, Curator of Plants; Michael Tricomi, Manager and Curator of Historic Gardens; Debbie Donley, Flower Gardener; and Robert Dowell, Senior Nursery Associate at the Thomas Jefferson Center Historic Plants.

Years later, a retired Thomas Jefferson later reflected that at least for Virginia the series of British laws in 1774 that came to be known as the Intolerable Acts, or Coercive Acts in Britain, played a crucial role to the path to independence and the American Revolution. But what were the Intolerable Acts? What made them so charged for Jefferson and his fellow Virginians? And how did the acts shape British colonists’ opinions on Great Britain, their relationship to the British Empire, and their ideas about government and rights?