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Domestic workers

Artisans Classroom application

Field Workers

NEH Landmarks Workshop: All Men Are Created Equal? Jefferson and Community Life at Monticello

and the University of VirginiaEnslaved Community

Richard Vanden Bosch, Carol Grossi, Vantina Huang, Janet Kanady

Teacher Bios

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Janet Kanady is a library media specialist at Dover High School in Arkansas. She has been teaching for 22 years.

Teachers

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Richard Vanden Bosch has been teaching American history and political science for the last twenty-five years at both the secondary and college levels. He resides in Modesto, CA.

Vantina Huang is a kindergarten teacher in Brooklyn, New York. She has been teaching for 16 years.

Carol Grossi has been teaching social studies, math and language arts to 5th graders for 14 years in Torrance, California.

Name of MuseumDiscuss the stratification of slave society:

The Enslaved Field Works

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Artifact 2

Artifact 4

Family Life of Field Workers #3

Treatment of Field Workers #1

Field Workers Spent Their Time

Field Workers Treated Differently

Field Workers and their Families

Name of MuseumDiscuss the stratification of slave society:

The Enslaved Artisans

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Artifact 5

Theme #2

Artifact 7

Theme #1

Center of Industry: The Artisans of Mulberry Row

Meet Some of the Artisans

Meet Some of the Artisans

Learning the Skills

Name of MuseumDiscuss the stratification of slave society:

The Enslaved Domestic Workers

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Artifact 11

Artifact 13

artifact 11The Hemings

Family

Edith Fossett Burwell Carter

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Slaves that worked in the fields were treated differently from

the household slaves and the artisan slaves. The equipment they needed was different and the work harder. The field workers also had an overseer to watch over them. In Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book, the women slaves were issued hats because they were outside working in the sun. slaves were given weekly food rations. Twice a year they were given cloth for a suit of clothes. Once every 3 years they were given hats, socks, a blanket, and a mattress.

There were several types of field work. The enslaved could work on crops, with bees, cattle, poultry, and sheep. (Monticello website)

link to the book: http://tinyurl.com/jo5od2s

Field Workers Treated Differently Insert Artifact Picture Here

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The jobs of the field workers varied. Here is a link to the work one woman slave, Minerva, did.

https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/minerva

Here is a second link from Monticello on the work field workers did.

https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/work

Here is a third link to the quarter farms Thomas Jefferson owned.

https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/quarter-farms

Field Workers Spent Their Time

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Thomas Jefferson tried to keep families together for the most part. Jefferson said “Nobody feels more strongly than I do the desire to make all practicable sacrifices to keep man and wife together” He did, however, rent slaves out to other plantations which divided families for periods of time.

In one instance he allowed a husband and wife to remain together. From the book Those Who Labor for My Happiness:

The situation may have been similar to that of the wagoner David Hern and his wife Fanny, as remembered by Edmund Bacon. Fanny, too, was a trainee cook at the President's House, and she and her husband "got into a terrible quarrel. Davy was jealous of his wife, and, I reckon, with good reason." Bacon was summoned to take them to Alexandria to be sold. "They wept, and begged, and made good promises, and made such an ado, that they begged the old gentleman out of it. But it was a good lesson for them."

Field workers and Their Families Picture

from Monticel

lo.org

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Essential Question: What professions did enslaved artisans do?Mulberry Row was the home of more than 20 workshops, storage facilities, and homes where enslaved individuals lived and worked, but it also included free African Americans, indentured servants, and white artisans. Trades helped build and maintain Monticello, but these trades also augmented the resources of plantation society. Members of several enslaved families, including the Gillettes, Grangers, Hemingses, Herns, and Fossetts, lived and worked on Mulberry Row.The enslaved community served as joiners, tinsmiths, nailers, weavers, spinners, blacksmiths, carpenters, sawyers, or house servants.

Center of Industry: The Artisans of Mulberry Row

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http://classroom.monticello.org/teachers/gallery/image/111/Isaac-Jefferson/https://www.monticello.org/mulberry-row/people/joseph-fossett

Meet Some of the Artisans

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Essential Question: What was life like for various enslaved artisans?Isaac Jefferson operated the plantation’s tinsmithing shop. He also worked in the blacksmith and the nail making shops. In a fourteen-hour workday, he "cut and headed one thousand nails." In six months, he could make "one thousand pounds of nails in six sizes." For his work, he earned about eighty cents a day.

Joseph Fossett at the age of 16 began to learn blacksmithing, and from 1807 to 1827 he ran the blacksmith shop at Monticello. In 1806, Jefferson considered Fossett a runaway when he journeyed to Washington, D.C., to see his wife; they were finally reunited in 1809 when Jefferson left office. He was described as “a very fine workman; could do anything it was necessary to do with steel or iron.” Unlike most slaves, Joseph received a share of the shop’s profits, earning one-sixth of the money collected.

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Learning the Skills Guiding Question #1Theme #3

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Essential Question: What was life like for various enslaved artisans?

Jefferson wanted to hire white artisans to train African American artisans. Jefferson hoped that African Americans would be encouraged to imitate their mentors and achieve mastery. He wanted to incentive production. Often, slaves became just as highly skilled in specific trades as the white artisans who taught them.

https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/textile-shop

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Learn More About the Families Guiding Question #1Theme #3

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“The participants in the Getting Word project tell stories that show the skills, values, and powerful bonds of family that have been passed down over seven generations.”~ https://www.monticello.org/getting-word/stories/hear-stories

Download the following app: "Slavery at Monticello: Life and Work on Mulberry Row"

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10 chi

The Hemings FamilyWhat was the social status of those that

worked in the house?

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Elizabeth Hemings (Betty) was matriarch of the Hemings family. 75 of her descendants worked at Monticello. Many of them were domestic workers or artisans with significant roles on the mountaintop though they were not always visible to guests as a result of Jefferson’s social engineering of the house itself. Some were allowed to retain profits they made off the mountain. They enjoyed more freedom of movement than most of Jefferson’s slaves, and in the hierarchy of slaves, they were at the top. Thomas Jefferson freed three of Betty’s sons and six of her grandchildren, the only slaves that he freed during his lifetime. Lucia Stanton explains that during Jefferson’s retirement a “visitor who did not wander over to Mulberry Row or down to the cellar dependencies would have seen only Hemingses.”

Jefferson’s deed of manumission for Robert Hemings.

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10 chi

The Hemings Family Descendents Descendents of the Hemings Family

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https://www.monticello.org/getting-word/people/peter-fossett

https://www.monticello.org/getting-word/stories/religion https://www.monticello.org/getting-

word/stories/equal-rights

Peter FossettRev. Robert Hughes

Frederick Madison Roberts

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10 chi

Burwell CarterWhat was the social status of those that

worked in the house?

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Burwell Carter, a grandson of Elizabeth Hemings, began working in the nailery at 10 years old. He learned how to paint and glaze windows which were valuable skills during the building of Monticello. During Jefferson’s retirement, he became his man servant. As the butler, he directed the activities of the housemaids, waiters, and porters. He was very highly regarded by Jefferson who granted him his freedom and gave him $300 to being a trade of painting and glazing. He worked for friends of Jefferson and at the University of Virginia.Burwell Carter was present with

Jefferson when he died on July 4, 1826,

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10 chi

Edith FossettWhat was the social status of those that

worked in the house?

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Edith Fossett was married to a grandson of Elizabeth Hemings. She was trained to cook in the French style while living at the President’s house. Benjamin Latrobe commented that, “The dinner was excellent, cooked rather in the French style, the dessert was profuse and extremely elegant” When the president retired, she returned to Monticello and resumed her duties as head cook. To reward her for her service, Jefferson paid her $2 a month. In 1837 Edith’s husband Joe purchased her freedom.

The Kitchen at Monticello

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For lower levels:*Use Pictures and Slide show to tell a story

*Compare dress styles from then and now

*Family Tree

*Use primary documents to think/pair/share or jigsaw

Teaching Applications

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For Middle Levels:*Use technology to download the Monticello Slavery APP*Use the Slavery at Monticello APP to tour the grounds at Monticello on field trip*Describe the patterns and shapes in Monticello buildings and grounds*Using a quill pen, write a letter detailing your activities for a day

For High School Levels*Explain how Jefferson was hypocritical about slavery*Why study Jefferson?*Compare and contrast household, artisan, and field slaves.*Critique writings on Jefferson*Explain letters of introduction & Create one for a friend to meet Thomas Jefferson