CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA

Charlottesville is another cute little college town. Lots o'brick buildings and standard fare college town shops, restaurants and coffee. One can sense D.C. is near...



Monticello
Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello is smaller than I imagined - it looks more grand on the outside - and on the nickel ;-).


Here's some fun facts from today:
1
Over his lifetime, he owned over 600 slaves. At any given time there were 200 slaves living at Montecello.
2
He read and wrote 5 languages.
3
Jefferson had a passion for plants. He even had an exotic ginko tree imported from China for his property (1 of 2 in the U.S. at the time). Meriwether Lewis spent a year with Jefferson prior to his westward journey. Lewis then sent back seeds for Jefferson to attempt to cultivate at Monticello. Like this echinea plant:


4
He had a large vegetable garden as he ate mostly vegetables and meat only occasionally. This semi-vegetarian view was particularly unusual for the time.



5
Each morning he put his feet in cold water to ward off illness.

6
DNA testing has indicated that he fathered children with slave Sally Hemmings (who was mulutto and likely the half sister of his late wife). Later, he helped to free these children. Two these children married and 'passed' as white once out of Virginia.

7
He was a total Francophile - even sending slaves to France to learn French cooking in Paris so they could cook for him at Monticello. Additionally, he brought back many ideas from French gardens and architecture that he used at Monticello - such as skylights and meandering gardens.