The Place of Black Lives at Virginia’s Presidential Plantation Museums
By: Dr. Steve Hanna - Research Fellow
The plantation homes of early American presidents are among the most consequential heritage sites within the United States for understanding tourism’s unrealized potential for confronting systemic racism. Traditionally characterized as “Founding Fathers,” George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe operated plantations in Virginia. In this role, these men owned, purchased and sold hundreds of enslaved people of African descent thereby denying Black people the liberty and rights they proclaimed as “self-evident.” Their famous homes – Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier, and Highland – have been transformed into national shrines where people go to learn American history and practice their national identity. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, these plantation museums together hosted more than 1.6 million visitors per year.
Over the past 30 years, staff at the four sites have worked to make the lives of people once enslaved more present in the experiences they design for visitors. They have also, to varying degrees, forged relationships with descendant communities – associations of Black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved by Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. To understand the impacts these efforts have had on how visitors engage with enslavement within these spaces designed to celebrate the lives and contributions the four presidents, TourismRESET scholars and students surveyed over 1500 visitors and documented guided tours and exhibits at Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier, and Highland in 2019 and early 2020.
Final reports authored by TourismRESET research fellow Steve Hanna and his students delivered detailed results and recommendations to management at each site. In summary, the results indicate that the four museums continued to celebrate the contributions of the four presidents/enslavers to the development of the American nation while providing substantial opportunities for visitors to learn about the lives of Black people these men and their families portrayed. The roles of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe in sustaining slavery and contributing to how systemic racism became embedded in America’s foundations were almost absent from the average visitor experience, however. There were some notable variations among the four sites. These as well as links to the final reports including the team’s recommendations can be found below:
Enslaved cabin at James Monroe’s Highland plantation
James Monroe’s Highland: At the time of our research, Highland did not have a significant exhibit or tour focused on enslavement. A small exhibit had been placed in a reconstructed quarters and the main guided tour typically included a little information about a few of the people enslaved by Monroe. In addition, Highland had recently launched its Augmented Reality Tour that superimposed images and audio on the landscape. One scene on this tour featured a conversation between two enslaved people worried about family separation. More significantly, Highland’s management had begun forging relationships with its descendent community and was at the initial stages of thoroughly reworking its tours, exhibits, and landscapes.
“The Mere Distinction of Colour” documents the stories of the enslaved individuals who lived at the plantation and parses Madison’s complicated relationship with slavery. It also explains how the legacy of slavery persists today—especially regarding its place in historic retellings.
James Madison’s Montpelier: While the tour of the mansion focused on James Madison’s contributions to the U.S. Constitution and Dolley Madison’s pioneering role as First Lady, it also typically included information about Paul Jennings, an enslaved man who worked as Madison’s butler, pulled from his autobiography. The Mere Distinction of Colour exhibit, however, provided a radically alternative vision of the reality of Montpelier as a plantation. Housed in the mansion’s basement and in reconstructed slave quarters, this exhibit featured the voices of members of the descendant community speaking about and for their ancestors. The 70% of visitors who included at least part of the Mere Distinction of Colour exhibit in their experiences reported becoming more interested in enslavement, learning more about enslaved people’s lives, and feeling more empathy for once enslaved people than their counterparts at the other three presidential sites. In June 2021, the Montpelier Descendants Committee became an equal co-steward with of Montpelier with the Montpelier Foundation.
Tourists in front of enslaved cabins at Monticello
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello: A typical tour of the mansion at Monticello focused on Jefferson as a natural philosopher, inventor, and politician but always mentioned his deeply problematic relationship with Sally Hemings and the children he never recognized. Hemings and her family were given considerable space in exhibits housed in the workspaces in the South Wing and were featured prominently in the popular Slavery at Monticello tour and the new Hemings Family Experience tour. The general public’s knowledge of Sally Hemings is the most likely reason more visitors arriving at Monticello stated they were interested in learning about enslavement than we found at the other museums.
Enslaved quarter at Mount Vernon
George Washington’s Mount Vernon: As the home to a man referred to as “the father of our country,” the tensions between celebrating Washington and more fully and justly representing enslavement was very evident at Mount Vernon. The museum has devoted considerable resources to developing exhibits dedicated to once enslaved people, including the Lives Bound Together Exhibit, their content generally did not challenge Washington’s reputation and the majority of visitors chose not to include them in their experiences. In addition, the Enslaved People of Mount Vernon tour on ran once per day.
The core members of the research team included TourismRESET founder Derek Alderman and research fellows Candace Forbes-Bright, Steve Hanna, Perry Carter, Amy Potter. In addition, research fellows Ethan Bottone and Emma-Walcott-Wilson helped organize the fieldwork and collect data. Graduate and undergraduate research assistants included:
University of Mary Washington: Chinnae Faustor, Kylie James, Kelsey Chavers, and Beth Devine, and Thomas Blackburn.
University of Tennessee: Reagan Yessler and Yael Uziel
Georgia Southern University: Emily Lancaster, Reilly Corkran, Kate Wheeler, and Cameron Swanson.
East Tennessee State University: Alex Smith, Chris Burton, Madison Klosky, Amyre Cain
Texas Tech University: Hannah Webb