“We were scattered all over the country, never to meet each other again until we were in another world,” wrote enslaved laborer Peter Fossett after his family and friends were sold in Monticello’s 1827 and 1829 estate sales. Thomas Jefferson died in debt, and soon after his death his family auctioned off the crops, furniture, […]
“We were scattered all over the country, never to meet each other again until we were in another world,” wrote enslaved laborer Peter Fossett after his family and friends were sold in Monticello’s 1827 and 1829 estate sales. Thomas Jefferson died in debt, and soon after his death his family auctioned off the crops, furniture, […]
Back in 2018, the wedding site Zola published an article titled “8 Unique Charlottesville Wedding Venues,” including The Jefferson Theater, Meriwether Springs Vineyard, and James Monroe’s Highland—one of Virginia’s most famous plantations. But now Zola is one of several wedding planning websites that will no longer promote former slave plantations as wedding sites. While Zola […]
The developers of Six Hundred West Main, a luxury apartment building that opened in September, promised the city a “gift” in the form of a public mural from internationally acclaimed artist Faith XLVII. But some residents may want to give it back. The mural, which was unveiled during the week of September 23, features a […]
By Jonathan Haynes A little backstory: Charlottesville began as a plantation community with slavery as its foundational industry. Racial violence did not stop after Emancipation, but continued with lynchings and segregation, according to Monticello historian Niya Bates. The University of Virginia, she adds, was a big proponent of scientific racism at the turn of the […]
On February 20, 1962, Americans sat around their radios or TVs, transfixed by every update as astronaut John Glenn was launched into space, and became the first American to orbit the Earth. It was a big deal, not only for the country, but for the world. But as with many major scientific milestones, individual icons […]