James Madison's Montpelier

The first time I visited Montpelier, they had just opened the house for tours.  It was, quite literally empty. Nothing had been restored, there was no furniture, no carpets, just an empty house, stripped of its years of changes back to the original walls.

Wow what a difference less than a decade makes.  There were many pieces that were original to Madison's time at Montpelier including furniture and at least one original window.



Montpelier was also home to over 300 human beings held as property by the Madison family.  Montpelier has put together a fantastic program "The Mere Distinction of Colour", and it is so powerful.  I stifled sobs walking through the presentation and how it humanized the enslaved community that lived, worked, dreamed, loved, suffered, and died here.  At it's height, slavery was a Three billion, yes billion, dollar industry.  There was no way, no matter how much our Founding Fathers preached against slavery they weren't willing to go against that economic engine.


In fact, over and over during the tour of dead presidents I was reminded that while they said they right things about slavery they all (YES, ALL, EVEN OUR VERY FAVORITES) time and time again chose their personal and family wealth and well-being over the moral choice of freeing their human property, or passing laws against owning human beings. These men, who created an entire country out of big ideas couldn't come up with one big idea that ended slavery.  And I don't really think they even tried that hard.

At 8 years old, Madison was deeded an infant (named Billey) by his maternal grandmother. Billey was the only slave Madison freed, and in fact, he didn't actually free him.  He sold him into an apprenticeship from which he would be free in seven years.  And he only did that after considering bringing him to Virginia.  He said of Billey,

"I am persuaded his mind is too thoroughly tainted to be a fit companion for fellow slaves in Virga. [Yeah, Madison was afraid he'd talk the others into thinking freedom was attainable - WHAT AN ASSHOLE] The laws here do not admit of his being sold for more than 7 years.  I do not expect to get near the worth of him..."

Virginia is for Lovers (of Cider, History, and other Adventures)

I decided that on this trip to Charlottesville I'd do all the stuff I never seemed to have time for when I previously visited.  I love Charlottesville and the surrounding area of Virginia, and it's definitely on my short list of places to live.  

First up, Albermarle Ciderworks
I love a good cidery and this one wasn't too far from some of the other places I wanted to see. I stopped by and did the Classic tasting flight and bought a baguette for lunch.  



As I was finishing up one the employees came over and asked how everything is.  I told her that I ranked them, she took a quick look and declared I had a "softer palette".  I also mentioned that I was wondering if I should buy a bottle of something from the Premium tasting without actually tasting.  "No need," she declared and brought me a taste.  She also brought me another to taste that she thought I'd like based on how I ranked the others.  I ended up buying bottles of both of the extra tastings, and found out she was actually one of the owners.





Afterwards, I headed over to James Monroe's Highland. This is perhaps the least developed of the Charlottesville area presidential homes.  James Monroe was our 5th president and lived at Highland with his family from 1799 to 1823.  Fire destroyed the main house in the mid-1800s and that coupled with "enhancements" made by later owners meant that mystery and misunderstanding surrounded the site for years.  Historians and archaeologists are working hard to uncover the truth and restore the property to the age of the Monroe's. 

In 2016, archaeological work uncovered remains from the 1799 main house.  This meant the "house" they'd been showing for years was likely actually the guest house.

I also found out on this tour that Monroe died on July 4th, 1831. The simultaneous deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (2nd and 3rd presidents) were exactly 5 years previous.  


Even though he called for the abolition of slavery, Monroe also enslaved as many as 250 people in his lifetime, freeing only 1, Peter Marks.  He inherited legal human property at 16, when his father bequeathed to him an enslaved boy name Ralph as well as several unnamed farm hands. In 1810, Monroe was one of the county's largest slave owners with only 14 households owning more human beings (one of which was Thomas Jefferson).

In the late 1820s Monroe established Liberia as a place where freed US slaves could be resettled. It did not go well.  He was one of the few founding fathers not to die in debt - primarily because he sold off his property (including slaves) and then petitioned the federal government for reimbursement of tens of thousands of dollars for entertaining and protocol expenses incurred as a public servant.