Montpelier Day 3: Home Farm Tour

The rest of the week we only had one tour a day. Somehow, though, I didn't feel as if we had more time to dig. 

Wednesday morning we met in the staff parking lot for our tour of the area Montpelier refers to as the Home Farm. In the early 19th century, President James Madison, Jr. moved the slaves from the left side of the house further away. The blacksmith shop moved, as did the industrial center of the community.

The night before I took a tumble and hurt my ankle. Bill and Bethany were kind enough to be my sherpas on the walk, carrying their folding chair so I could focus on walking without tripping.

President Madison died in 1836. Dolley continued to run the plantation until 1844 when she sold it and moved to Washington, DC with far fewer slaves. This field was mostly left alone, the buildings were left to deteriorate, or were burnt down on purpose to get rid of them.

Prior to the Madison family living here, the area was inhabited by the Manahoac tribe of Indigenous people. Archaeology has discovered pottery and projectile points, making it seem as if this was a long term living places, versus Indigenous people only passed through the area. Archaeologist believe they moved before the Madison moved in. Today Montpelier is working to strengthen their relationship with local Indigenous people. Korie recommenede we visit the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Montpelier received two grants to excavate this area. The first, Phase 1, was a 2011 NEH grant to explore the South Yard, the Field Quarters, and the Tobacco Farm. Phase 2, explored the rest of the Home Farm in 2019. They still want to do a Phase 3 exploration to study the farrier shop.

In 1987 The first units were placed where the tobacco barn was located, and another one near the trailhead. This is where they smoked and cured the tobacco. There were not a lot of artifacts to be found. 

Tobacco was the first big cash crop. Madison Sr. was smart about selling. He had his slaves smoke and cure tobacco in different ways and packed them into hogshead barrels. They figured out which was the most desirable strain of tobacco, and kept the rest safely in storage.

This worked well until the crops started failing. Unlike what I have learned about how the Native Americans, locally the Lenni Lenape, which are Algonquin tribe members, the Madisons did not rotate their crops and they depleted the soil. Add to that the ten year drought, and tobacco could not grow.

They shifted to growing wheat. This is supported by finding tools with teeth used for threshing wheat.

When the duPont family gave Montpelier to the National Trust in the mid-1980s, they originally planned to have the main road come in this area that is now known as the Home Farm. The archaeologists put in shovel test pits (STPs) and realized the area was rich with artifacts. As a result the main road was moved to between what is now horse tracks.

The Madison Family, starting with the President's grandparents Ambrose and Francis Taylor Madison moved into the area called Mount Pleasant. Ambrose received 5,000 acres in 1716 from the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe with the expectation that he would "improved the land" via farming. In 1723 he acquired his first enslaved laborers to take care of the land.

Nine years later, in 1732, Ambrose moves his family to Mount Pleasant.

Three years later in 1735, Ambrose died. It was not a natural death. He was poisoned. To this day, his death is shrouded in mystery. Three enslaved men were blamed, two from his plantation and one from another. The enslaved had no rights or legal aid and were found guilty. The one from the other plantation was sentenced to death. His slaves were allowed to live. This would make for a great historical murder mystery novel.

After his death, his wife, Francis took over running the farm.  She never remarried. 

The original kitchen was turned into the overseer's house. It burned down around 1790. The next kitchen was built to be more conscious of fires. Based on archaeological research, it waws a kitchen fire. There is a 50 year gap between when they know it was there and when the fire took place. A shell of it has been recreated. More excavations are needed. 

In 2022-2023 This was Korie's first site at Montpelier. She is clearly passionate about it. "It is easier to dig in a plow zone. There are plow scars. You can see where the plow teeth scrape through layers. Features are destroyed." Metal detecting and STPs narrowed down the area. They placed units not next to each other to do further exploration. The effect looks like a checkerboard, but makes it easier to not feel as crowded since you can physically spread out into the next pit while digging.

Research has told them about some of the overseers. Some were enslaved men. Some were white. They were in place to make decisions on Madison's behalf. It was a very important role. They know the names of seven overseers, starting with Gideon Gooch (1803-1815) and Abram Eddins (1815 to the late 1820s). Moses, the famous blacksmith, might be able to be put in the category of overseer as he maintained the ledger, materials, and kept track of activities. He had some privilege, some leverage, but not a ton of. It was a nuanced social contract. Some of the overseers were distant relatives of the Madisons. Then there were people from a lower class, these men did not last long in this role.

There is a shift from respected white men to hiring lower class white men as the farm started to lose money. The overseers were blamed, which resulted in greater turnover. There were multiple overseers at the same time, with the principal overseer reporting directly to Madison.

Enslaved overseers were intentionally hired to cause friction. Do you protect your family and take the blame when things go wrong or do you betray your family so they take the punishment? The little bit of privilege came with a lot of drawbacks.

Abram Eddins, one of the principal overseers, had his own plantation. He was not as high society as the Madisons. It was more of a retirement gig for him. He brought his family and his own enslaved people with him. They likely moved into a good size building, perhaps put on an extension.

Excavations inside the house turned up more domestic items including buttons, straight pins, paste gems, nice ceramics. Similar themes (including star motifs) on both the ceramics and on jewelry. It provides a nice snapshot of what the family was like.

Behind the house was a borrow pit where clay was harvested to fill in gaps and weatherproof houses. There were also construction materials, and a trash pit. Bricks indicate a chimney, but this was moved during plowing in later years.

The South Yard archaeology turned up brick foundations. They were not found here. Was it because it became a "robbers' trench" where the good bricks were taken, and the ones left were unusable? When Korie was an intern she did brick analysis as part of her internship. She catalogued thousands of pieces of brick, and compared the weight here versus in the South Yard versus in other places. There isn't as much here. No evidence of brick chimneys. They lived on dirt floors. 

How do you build a home based on scraps? Study the chimneys, wood, wattle, and daub. Computer analyses with glass found on the site. 

Next to the Home Farm was a blacksmith shop. Today Paul Fritz, a fifth generation blacksmith brings in his temporary blacksmith shop with a hand crank to demonstration historic blacksmithing. Though the site once had two different blacksmith shops, neither is standing. There is a goal to rebuild that and the farrier shop.

Following Gabriel's Rebellion in 1800, a plan led by enslaved African American men to destroy slavery in Virgina, blacksmiths were deemed to be rebellious and dangerous. Gabriel's Rebellion was named after their leader, Gabriel, a blacksmith. As a result, Madison moved his to be closer to the overseer.

The blacksmith was a very complicated, important, and skilled role both in society and in their own community. It was the main producer of profit for the plantation. They were responsible for the maintenance of county roads, the main mechanic and gas station of the area (made tools and horseshoes), vet, and they provided services that extended beyond the planation. They could also make prosthetics for the humans on the plantation.

Blacksmiths brought their trade with them from West Africa. Back in Africa they were societal leaders, central to their communities. Everyone came to them to make adaptations to their tools to make their jobs easier, more efficient. 

Even today, reenactors will turn to Paul Fritz and ask him to make them a tool to help with their presentations.  

When the blacksmith was moved to the Home Farm it is hard to see how the transfer affected production. There were two different blacksmith shops. One might have been a farrier (maker of horseshoes). There is a ton of slag in the area. They believe they found the forge based on the bricks they found in situ. Further investigation is needed.

There are little things they know. And big things they don't.

Blacksmith made tools were found inside homes. Perhaps created with specific weight, or grip in mind. These were valuable. Things to be protected and taken with you.

We ended our tour at the cemetery. It was a DAR project to honor President James Madison. The enslaved are in a different area where the periwinkle grows.

The wall surrounding the Madison family site was added in 1810 using the same bricks and mortar as the wings President James Madison added to the home a year earlier. There were no tombstones until 1848 (four years after Dolley Madison sold the land). 

Madison's tombstone was added long after his death because the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) deemed he needed a more substantial one. 

As Madison relatives have asked to join the family burial plot. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has proven that though there seem to be space based on the placement of tombstones, there is not any space to add more people.

Montpelier Day 2: Main House Tour

Bruce was waiting for us on the porch. The seven of us had a private tour of the Main House. We started a few minutes early, which gave us a head start before the next tour group. Ed, who has been on this program three other times, passed on the Main House Tour. We had an engaged group not afraid of asking questions.

Seven rooms are furnished representing the time period of 1818 to 1844, when Dolley Madison sold the home. There are over 4,000 items on display, 200 of which belonged to the Madison family. The rest represent the era. Bruce pointed out the Madison items in each room.

The paint is accurate to the era from Benjamin Moore. I recognized some of the colors from my parents' house.

Three generations of Madisons lived here. Ambrose and Francis Taylor Madison had a tobacco plantation on 2,700 acres that they acquired through a King's Grant.

In 1732 Ambrose dies. We learn more about this on Wednesday's Home Farm Tour. Then in 1761, Francis dies. By this point James and Nellie Madison have several children. They decide to build a home.

In 1801, James Madison, Sr. dies leaving the house to his son, James Madison, Jr.

"Junior" is thinking about retiring at the age of 48, so he puts an addition on the family home. Retirement is short lived. Three years later he is tapped to be Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of State. He then becomes President of the United States and settles into Montpelier as a retired president. He dies in 1836. Dolley sells Montpelier in 1844. After that, there are five owners over 140+ years, most notably the DuPont Family who breeds horses and dogs on the property and start the horse racing tradition when the track is installed in 1915.

In 1983 when Marion duPont Scott pass away and leaves the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

The Historic Trust makes the decision to bring the house back to how it looked from 1818-1844, but with modern touches including air-conditioning (which is fed through the flues). Twenty-six million dollars was spent over eight years to preserve the house.

Seven rooms are on the tour. The first we enter is the mother-in-law suite where Nellie lived after her son took over the house.

Nellie continues to live in this room and the bedroom next to it, basically in the original portion of the house.

We learned about the future president's education. His mother basically homeschooled him and his siblings (she birthed 12, seven lived to adulthood). At that time, most children did not go to university. He was mostly self-educated. He was a great reader and had a scientific mind. His mother sent him away to boarding school 75 miles away on the coast so he could receive a classical education, learning to read and write Greek and Latin. He came home and Scottish minister Rev. Thomas Martin was hired to be his tutor. Madison suffered from epilepsy as a child.

Once he learned everything the reverend could teach him, he was sent to college. He decided not to go to William and Mary because it was a "party school," instead he opted for the College of New Jersey, today known as Princeton University, likely because his parents wanted him to go someplace more liberal and widen his perception of the world. He brought his manservant Sawney with him, but despite Princeton's presidents having slaves, students did not. Madison had to learn how to take care of himself, food, take care of his room, all those pesky details of life he had not had to concern himself with when he lived at home. He learned a few more languages bringing his total to seven.

At this point Rev. John Witherspoon, future signer of the Declaration of Independence, was president of Princeton University. He took the future President of the United States under his wing. He taught him Hebrew, a skill that would be useful if he decided to become a pastor. He also introduced Madison to politics. In those days, Baptists were being persecuted for preaching. Learning about that influenced Madison's views on the freedom of religion. The seeds of the Bill of Rights were formed while he lived ten miles away from me.

Not talked about, but history I know, is that James Madison was at the Battle of Trenton, along with James Monroe, another future president. Monroe was severely wounded at the battle. I mistakenly remembered it was Madison who was wounded. I was correct in that he was there.

Madison witnessed, but did not sign, the Declaration of Independence. 

Ben Franklin's bust staring
at a gadget used to
create electricity

We leave Nellie's Colonial-style rooms. His mother lived to be almost 98-years old. As we moved to the next room where James and Dolley Madison entertained. The room is covered in red wallpaper, which was Dolley's favorite color, Bruce tells us the duPonts covered the hand-carved wainscotting walls with sheetrock. Fortunately for future historians, that had the effect of preserving the walls. The wallpaper is not original to the house, but is a reproduction of a pattern that was in use at the time.

The only original painting in
the room: Lunch at Emaus with
Jesus and his Disciples

Copy of the Declaration of
Independence as published
in a Philadelphia newspaper.

The room is filled with busts of Madison's friends, and those he respected. Only one (of George Irwin) is an original marble bust. The rest are made from plaster.  

In 1844 when the new owners move in, they send everything they don't want to an auction house. Original artwork now resides in museums. The new owners made an inventory for fire insurance. 

Archaeologists have not found evidence of an outhouse or bathtub. Yes, the questions archaeologists ask.

We shifted to the dining room. The addition was built for James Madison's retirement. It is two rooms up, two rooms down duplex. There is no interior access between their side and where his mother lived. That has since been added to make giving tours easier.

The silver on display did belong to James and Dolley. The sideboard, which also belonged to them, was too big to move, which is likely why it remained in this room after they moved out. The dining room table is mahogany. It is one of two tables. The Madisons entertained 25 people twice a week using French-style service. There were seven courses. Each served one at a time. In-between courses, the table was completely emptied with all new plates and silverware. The things one can do with help, I suppose. The Canton China is on loan to Montpelier. It chips easily and cracks.

Madison was a tiny man. Bruce said he was 5 foot 4 inches. I thought he was 5'2". I have a picture of Ashley standing next to a statue of him at Philadelphia's Constitution Center eight years ago in 2018. Rather than sitting at the end of the table, he preferred to sit in the middle so he could better hear Dolley.

The wallpaper chosen for the room was based on what was popular in Philadelphia at the time since Dolley moved here from Philadelphia when they married. The room is decorated with many presidents.

There is also a cutout of Paul Jennings, an enslaved man who spent 50 years with Madison. From the age of 10 he was taught to be a butler and served at the White House.

The medallion is a copy. The original is in Washington, DC.

Above the door is an etching of Napoleon that was recently acquired.

The house has 18 fireplaces, 22 rooms, and six to seven chimneys. The red living room was two rooms and has two flues. During the renovations they converted two flues into one. The air-conditioning and heat flow through the fireplaces.

We moved to what was planned as Madison's final library, but was turned into his bedroom when arthritis made it too hard to climb stairs. Dolley, 16 years his junior, moves her bedroom downstairs, too. From all accounts they had a very loving and affectionate marriage. The furniture in his last bedroom was chosen to be period appropriate. There is a wingtip chair with a chamber pot tucked under it.

 

As we left the room I asked about the parrot. This stuffed parrot represents a gift given to Dolley Madison. It was taught to speak French. I'm glad I asked.

Percy from our group looked at the window hoping for a glance of the Temple and our dig. Alas, the pine trees that are there now block the view Madison hoped to have.

Next to the library was another room with a smaller bed. This is where he died in 1836. His manservant, Paul Jennings, was an eye witness. After 16 years he became a free man, and authored two books including Colored Man Reminisces of James Madison. Available on Amazon. He left behind 120 slaves, and instructed Dolley not to sell them. She did to cover her son's gambling debt before she moved to a smaller place in Washington, DC.

We saw the master bedroom. festooned in fertility symbols despite them never having any children. It is rumored that Madison fathered a child with an enslaved woman, a cook.

She sold her bed to a local family, but the foundation was able to get it back.

Dolley's timeline:

1767 born Dolley Payne

1790 married Mr. John Todd, they have two children

1793 Todd and the youngest son die in Philadelphia from Yellow Fever

Photo by Martha

She stays in Philadelphia. Meets James Madison. He has his eye on her. Aaron Burr makes the introduction. Four months later they are married. They are in love. He adopts her son, John "Payne" Todd.  

They are deep in debt. There was a ten-year drought in the early 19th century. The tobacco industry crashes. Too much money is spent on entertaining. They both grew up wealthy and didn't know any other way to live.

1836 James Madison dies. Dolley moves to Washington, DC. Paul Jennings is freed, but he continues to bring her food. She receives the first wartime pension and lives in genteel poverty. She dies in 1849 and receives a parade and is buried in the congressional cemetery. Her body is later moved to Montpelier and is reinterred next to her husband.

Our tour concludes "in the room where it happened," where James Madison wrote

the Constitution. He spent a year meeting with colleagues discussion the Constitution and the Bill of Rights before drafting them. Later that week I heard a talk about James Wilson, a forgotten Founding Father, who claims to have written the all important phrase: We the People. Montpelier claims James Madison wrote those famous words. Success has many parents. He was 35 when he wrote the Consitution.

The view is virtually unchanged. The bookcases are full of books from his era, but not from his personal collection. The books were listed in his will making it easier to recreate his library.

Montpelier Day 2: Mere Distinctions of Colour Tour

"We have seen the mere distinction of colour made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man." James Madison, June 6, 1787.

Liz guided us under the Main House to the Mere Distinction of Colour exhibit. Before entering, she warned up some of it is disturbing. We were first led to a video that debuted in 2017 that connects the history of enslavement to to our greater national history. It is full of trigger warnings from lynching, to sexual assault, to the Confederate flag. Some feel it doesn't go far enough. Others feel it goes too far. Likely they have struck the right balance. I do think it is time for an update since this does not cover the Trump years or George Floyd.

The rooms outside the video have stations where you can listen to oral histories shared by the MDC (Montpelier Descendants Committee). I could have spent hours listening to their stories.

There is an expression: "hate history, love nostalgia." People like to remember history as it didn't happen. I use the example of the glory days of flying when people dressed up, and there was more leg room. What is forgotten is that people were allowed to smoke while flying.

Though most white families cannot trace our families back to being plantation owners, EVERY Black American family can.

Montpelier was a self-contained community.

The Liberty Pipe found at Montpelier. 

One of the neatest finds is the Liberty Pipe. Carved by Billey, Madison's manservant while he lived in Philadelphia. Of Billey, Madison wrote, "too thoroughly tainted to be a fit companion for fellow slaves." Madison sold him to Philadelphia in 1783 where the law limited enslavement to seven years. He died in 1795 when he fell overboard from a ship sailing to New Orleans. He was a free man who went by the name William Gardener. 

Liz left us to explore on our own, only making sure we saw the other video before leaving. This one talks about the trauma the enslaved faced after James Madison Jr.'s death. Though Dolley was instructed to not sell any of the enslaved, they knew she likely would sell them off in different directions. She needed the money to pay the gambling debts of her son, John Payne Todd, and set up a home in Washington, DC befitting her station. The video is told through the eyes of one of the younger slaves as she watches her brothers, then her mother get sold. 

Montpelier Day 2: The South Yard

Tuesday morning Chris led us in a tour of the South Yard. 

The South Yard was reconstructed based off of a combination of traditional archaeology, oral histories from the descendants, and poring over paper research.

The Madison Family had over 300 slaves, spanning up to six generations, during the years they owned the plantation. Following James Madison Jr's stepson's death, the plantation records were destroyed. John Payne Todd (called Payne) was from Dolley Payne's marriage to her first husband, John Todd, who died in the Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia along with Payne's younger brother.

How houses are used has evolved over the centuries. In the 19th century they were used for sleeping and storage, not for hanging out and entertaining.

I remember visiting in 2011 before these homes were added. I took this picture of shells of slave homes. It is also interesting to note we were standing on a balcony, a place that we did not step on during this year's visit. I wish I had studied my old pictures before the trip.

The reconstruction came about after a 2008 meeting with the Montpelier Descendants Committee (MDC), an independent non-profit dedicated to telling the story of the enslaved at Montpelier. Members tie their ancestry to the enslaved population in Central Virginia. 

The renovations to the Main House had just been completed. The pink building that the DuPonts added had been removed, along with their other changes. There was understandable outrage that the Madison's home was restored to its original glory, but that their homes were represented by wooden railroad tie outlines (later these shells of buildings) that were falling apart. Years of research was conducted and the from 2015 to 2020, new homes were constructed.

Whose occupation do you choose to value over someone else's?

Today there are six buildings representing the site. All based on years of archaeological research. Starting with the closest to the house and going around counter clockwise, there is a kitchen/living space dwelling, a smoke house, a duplex, a second duplex, another smokehouse, and a spinning/living dwelling. They are all made out of white clapboard timber with brick chimneys and look charming on the outside. Unlike the rest of the enslaved homes that were quickly built out of logs and sat on clay floors, these homes were made from milled wood that was processed, had shingled roofs, and were held together with nails.

Looks can be deceiving, as we all know. 

These houses were built to look nice, but they did not have lathe and plaster insulation, hence were not insulated and had very few windows. They were unbearably hot in the summer, and bitterly cold in the winter. But they gave the impression to people visiting the Main House that the Madison's benevolently took care of their slaves. They were modeled after the look of Medieval English villages, as was fitting for the picturesque movement embraced by Madison.

Chris posed the question was it better to live in these houses, or in the log homes on the Home Farm (which we will tour later in the week). The answer is not so simple. These domestic servants were constantly at the beck and call of the Madisons. They were in full view of them at all times. Archaeological evidence shows these homes had door locks and chests that could be locked -- things that were part of the homes in the Home Yard.

Yes they were better dressed and educated. They often wore military uniforms, but that came with the price of a lack of privacy and freedom. Both groups of enslaved received the same cuts of meat, as proven through archaeological research in trash deposits. All enslaved used the same bamboo plates as were used in the Main House.

Back to the modern era. These homes were first painted using authentic paint. This turned out to not be good for low cost maintenance. They were quickly falling into disrepair and were repainted about a year and a half ago.

When recreating the structures Montpelier had to think about the ethics behind the reconstruction, as well as the issues with modernizing them, i.e.,  adding ramps to be ADA compliant and adding electricity. The public tours focus on how the architects interpret archaeological research.

The South Yard had not been explored by archaeologists. An old fire map as a basis for the project. Montpelier invited descendants and scholars to weigh in on the project. As luck would have it, Chris's early anthropology professors, Dr. Iris Ford, is a descendant.

He explained the archeology department is separate from Montpelier. Their department did not have an operating budget for a museum. There was an immediate need for fundraising.

They held a log cabin reconstruction program as part of a public day and created "ghost houses." the ones you see in the picture above. They were partial reconstructions, and very cost effective. They breathe, and are easier to repair and reconstruct than more solid structures. This put buildings on the landscape to help people understand the fuller picture, and to ask questions. David Rubenstein, an already large donor at Montpelier, stepped in with an other large donation for this project.

The finished product is not perfect, but it is research based. For example, they chose windows based on the window glass found during archaeology. Other homes did not have windows like these.

The grass between the the homes would not have been authentic. Archaeological research shows it would have been a hard clay dirt area. The grass we see today is more in line with the pristine look the Madison's would have favored, but was not historically accurate. Through grit analysis and water screening through five different increasingly smaller layers of mesh they analyzed the ground. Tweezers, magnifiers, and scales were the tools for the project. The grit was smaller in the center (where it would have been swept more) and larger on the outsides (where it would have been pushed to).

While excavating the archaeologists discovered post holes, single post holes. They found a giant pit that was filled with animal bones.. An open drain. A trash pit. Brick rubble was found. 

It is easier to get money for buildings than it is for trees. 

In Madison's time people spent very little time in their homes. Laundry took place outside. Cooking. Working. By not preserving the grounds, too, only part of the story is being told.

In the center of the South Yard is a tree that was a witness tree. This past July in Lexington, MA I heard the term witness buildings. There they were describing buildings that were standing when the Battle of Lexington took place in April 1775. In this case, it described a tree that was standing when the enslaved population lived here. This witness tree was in the way while digging, and during construction of the sewing house. Extra effort was needed to put burlap down and to hose it to protect the root system. It was more time consuming, and more expensive, but the end result was preserving it.

Much research has been done to aid in the selection of trees to be replanted on the property. 

Back to the post holes. What were they used for? They were not in a line, as using it for a fence would indicate. As is typical with features, this was excavated separately. It was filled with ash, a readily available material of the time. They think it was used to hang pots and carpets. It would have been used while tanning and butchering. It is a temporary yard form to support seasonal and transient work that was not done all the time. The space was constantly evolving as their needs changed.

In the house that was the kitchen you can see the brick extension wall. It is not connected to the foundation. There is decorative glazed bricks on it. The design is not supported by archaeology, but they know there were glazed bricks.

Note the chimney top is the same as the one in the Main House. They actually found it intact beneath the ground and reconstructed it here. It is different from the tops of chimneys on all of the other buildings. 

Montpelier held a public day where they hand made bricks and heated them in a bonfire. The first batch, using clay from Montpelier, was a disaster. The next batch they made using clay from Williamsburg. That was a success.

There are many discussions that go into a display before it is shared with the public. One was about what to call the first house, the one closest to the Main House. Should it be called James Madison Jr.'s boyhood home because it was the house he lived in while the Main House was being built? He had been living in a small frontier home in Mount Pleasant that is still standing, but temporarily moved here while they were overseeing construction on the Main House.

Which time period is the right one?

This was a kitchen where Corinne, the long-time cook lived. The Cornelian ring was found here.

One takeaway was about the presence of burnt nails. Chris said they were used as a cooking implement in a Dutch Oven. I'll try to remember that the next time I find burnt nails in a dig site. I seem to be the queen of finding nails.

Another takeaway was that in England historical architects work alongside archaeologists to form standing body archaeology. That is not the case in the United States. At Montpelier, the archaeology department recently took over the preservation department. Perhaps started incorporating or merged with are better words to describe the change.

Each of the buildings in the Home Site have subfloor pits (root cellars). The duplexes in the South Yard do not. The people in the South Yard had chests (archaeological evidence: small tacks, hinges, and locks consistent with chests). Were these used to keep water out or to protect their belongings from the guests of the Madisons, or enslaved visitors.

There is evidence of a fence going up in the late 1830s/early 1840s, after the death of President James Madison. This is consistent with someone prepping the house to put it on the market. The home had started to fall into disrepair and needed to be fixed up.

Three owners after Dolley Madison sold the property in 1844 had enslaved people. The original South Yard homes were built in 1809. They survived until 1860 and were gone by the Civil War era.

Chris ended his talk as Bruce was opening up the South Yard for the day. I took a moment to peek inside the kitchen. The rest waited until our last day as I realized it was now or never.

Inside the buildings are large cutouts of descendants with buttons to press to hear (in their voices) about the lives of their family members. It is powerful.

 

The Sewing House is now dedicated to the children
who were enslaved at Montpelier. Their names
are on the walls.

Different buttons found in the South Yard
representing the variety of styles the enslaved population
made and wore buttons.

I am so impressed by this mosaic
made from pieces of bricks

Children were often used to make bricks.
In an 1835 Madison said approximately
1/3 of the enslaved population were
children.

Montpelier Day 1: Tour of the North Yard

After our tour of CALM, we caravanned to the staff parking lot. We were told we were staff members for the week, and given the code to enter the site when the white gates sealed it off from the general public. Martha and I used the opportunity to visit to watch a couple of sunsets. 

Chris described the property in simple terms to help us get orientated. The Main House is in the center. To the left is the North Yard, where the Temple is located. To the Right is the South Yard, with the reconstructed slave homes.

Time for our history lesson.

In the 18th century when James Madison Sr. was in charge, the slaves were more visible. It was a sign of wealth.

By the 19th century when President James Madison Jr. was running the plantation, slaves were obscure, but not completely hidden. The blacksmith shop was moved further away.

Chris gave us a color handout which we referenced throughout the tour. On page 4 is an artist's rendering of what the plantation looked like during James Madison's Sr.'s time. The wings did not yet exist. The main house was much smaller. To this day if you look closely above the door on the left, you can see a triangle indicating that was the main doorway. There is a distinct change in the bricks, again if you look closely it is impossible to miss, but easy to overlook if you don't know what to look for. During this time the blacksmith shop and north kitchen were to the left in full view of the house.

In 1809 President Madison expanded the house and added the wings. He made sure everything was symmetrical in the picturesque landscape style with English gardens. The picturesque movement had started in England in the late 18th century. This was the era of a nostalgic return to nature. He replaced the neo-classic Georgian symmetrical style of his father with hidden symmetry. For example the line of pine trees leading to the Temple on the left were mirrored on the right with a similar row of different trees. Everything was planted with intentionality.

In the late 1920's Madison's pine trees were replaced by the DuPonts. Their stumps were blasted with dynamite, as was proved by archaeological research. In 2013 or 2014, the cedars were replaced by pine trees.

William Thornton, a leading architect of the day, advised the President when building his addition to make sure the library has a direct view of the Temple. I am thankful to Percy, one of our fellow architects for looking out the window during our tour of the house and noting the pine trees obscure the view of the Temple.

The Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson were frequent guests at Montpelier, often debating the ethics of slavery. They brought different worldviews, but eventually came to the same viewpoint.

Jefferson did not feel emancipation would work because they were savages (his word, not mine). He opposed emancipation for clearly racist reasons.

Madison was also against emancipation because the felt white people were too racist and would never accept Black people as equals.

Lafayette, the sole Frenchman in the discussion, believed they should be free.

Montpelier was built on a hill facing mountains.

So far the excavation has found lots of material. There is surface trash from the kitchen, including tavern ware such as mixing bowls, and things needed for cooking, plus bones.

Closer to the Temple, there was a lot of slag, which reflects the activities of the 18th century.

In the 19th century pine allee there have not been a lot of artifacts. In the "lawn spaces" they found silver thimbles and a spool of thread with a makers' mark, indicating elite hobbies took place in this space.

Directly beneath the Temple is a 24-foot deep ice house. We were invited inside of it later in the week. The Temple is thought of as Madison's summer study as it would have been the coolest place that time of year, however there are no writings from Madison to prove that theory. Having twisted my ankle the night before, I only went down about eight feet, took this picture of my friends, and climbed back up. No reason to push my luck.

In Madison's time, this space would have been crammed full of ice each winter, enough ice to last until the following winter. The entrance to the ice house is on the side where we were digging, as opposed to the hatch we used to climb into it. 

Inside the ice house is a platform about four feet down. It was likely used to store food, especially meats, to keep them preserved.

Not many pieces of ceramic were found here, though one piece of American stoneware was located in the area where the pine trees had been. There is a portrait of a woman carrying a stone jar. At that time, the kitchen was on the other side of the house. Archaeologists look for patterns. Why was this piece of the pot here, so far away from the kitchen? Did the pot break and pieces were buried throughout the plantation to avoid detection? Is that where it broke? Archaeologists use a combination of imagination plus science to find answers.

I noted one of the columns was stripped of paint and asked about it. Chris answered in 2016 while conducting restoration work one column had the DuPont-era plaster stripped to the original brick. They left it that way as a teaching tool. The bricks were custom molded, hidden under the layer of historic plaster. The DuPonts also added a concrete floor over a wooden floor with copper flashing painted red. That will be harder to refurbish. 

Further away is a pond that was dug out by enslaved. The current shape is not historically accurate as it was modified in the 1990s. The pond was dredged in the 1990s, but they did not look for artifacts. A lost opportunity. 

Children were sent to harvest the ice because they are smaller than adults and less likely to break through. Many people were involved with ice harvesting, to the extent that they rented enslaved from nearby plantations to help with the work. It was done in the dark when it was colder out. 

In 1908, the area where we were digging was identified as an "old road," one that
had been rerouted in the 1850s or the 1840s. A month ago they discovered wagon ruts in the ground. Nearly 200 years later, it is possible to see the path used to bring items to the Temple, then head to the road. It is amazing the ground is able to retain changes such as that and post holes for centuries.

In the 18th and early 19th century this area was filled with top soil. It was later paved, and the area was filled with slag. Slag helped the area retain its shape.

The owners took credit for the engineering feats, while the enslaved did the work, and likely understood the engineering better than the slave masters. A trend that continues today in the workforce. 

In the 1990s, while installing a French drain, this area was identified as the North Yard blacksmith shop when they found slag dumped into a ravine gully. This was disproved this digging season. They now think the slag was dumped to create a road, with one layer filling tree holes.

Further away from the Temple and the units is a field marked with flags for metal detecting. A grid was marked out with blue flags every ten foot. Red flags indicate zero to three samples found, mapped, and quantified. Many 18th century wrought nails have been found. As Chris was talking, Dennis walked over showing us the perfect pewter button he just found. He said that is rare as pewter buttons tend to disintegrate. Dennis is clearly passionate about his job, as are all of the archaeologists. Their work is deepening the story of the site.

Throughout the area were STPs that are one foot across. STP=Shovel Test Pit. Martha and I have done some at Newlin Grist Mill. We were hoping to do more that week. The STPs have uncovered metal, ceramic, and brick, as well as brick and slag filling in tree roots.

Through archaeology they have discovered the 1809 blacksmith shop. They hope to also find the original one. Moses, the blacksmith, left behind a ledger book identifying what he sold during the war years, from 1776 to 1784. The University of Virginia has been studying these books. They had customers from all over the state. Moses was quite talented. Even plantations with their own blacksmith still purchased items from him. He made and fixed items used during the Revolutionary War, including repaired flint locks on guns. Gunsmithing was a specialized field, as was farrier (making horseshoes), but sometimes blacksmiths were called in to make repairs.

One thing I remember from a lunchtime lesson is that during the war sometimes payments were made in items for the troops, such as socks, as opposed to in cash. 

During the 1760s and 1770s as iron was harder to come by, steel edges were added to tools. Madison Sr. often took risks with Moses making things, but others bought them as evidence of economic rebellion.

The Temple symbolism dates back to France and Germany in the 18th century. President Madison never said why he wanted to build one, other than it was in vogue.

Liberty was a big topic of discussion amongst Madison and his friends. Lady Liberty was an iconic symbol of the day, right up until the Civil War era when she disappeared from most images. It was reported that the top of the temple had a statue of Lady Liberty, but that has not been proven using archaeological research, including there is no indication of a change in paint at the top of the temple where a statue would have been attached. 

Chris handed us off to Korie for a brief site orientation and site safety discussion before breaking for lunch. As she gave her talk I had flashbacks to the ones received at Red Bank that include the "Jacquie and Dan" sections about standing too close to the edge and not taking pictures. The "Dan" section was omitted, and we were encouraged to take and share pictures. They heavily photographed us and will share the images via Flickr.