Thomas Jefferson
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Dear NBC: A Slave Cannot Be a ‘Mistress’
There are times when black America’s feathers are ruffled, and our reaction does not come from anger or aggravation but from wonder. Even though many of our bruises have calloused over, every now and then someone will stick us in the exact right spot, and when we feel the pinprick, instead of getting mad, we…
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Jefferson’s Monticello Makes Room for Sally Hemings
As the country slowly, surely comes to grips with its slaveholding past, one of its most iconic buildings is set to do the same. Monticello, the estate where President Thomas Jefferson lived (immortalized on the back of our nickel), will now give the enslaved young woman and alleged “mistress” of Jefferson “a room of her…
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The Conversation on Slavery and Its Legacy Has a Place at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
Thomas Jefferson. The mention of the name of our nation’s third president, for some Americans, brings to mind the Declaration of Independence, the founding of our country and Jefferson’s home, Monticello. For many others, his name is inextricably linked to a woman who could not access the independence guaranteed by the declaration he penned: Sally…