Live Q&A: Thomas Jefferson & Jupiter Evans

[Music] with bill barker as thomas jefferson and jamar jones as jefferson's enslaved manservant jupiter evans today we're going to be discussing the relationship between these two men and then we'll have have a chance for them to come out of character and talk a little bit about the challenges of first-person interpretation of difficult history please post your comments your questions in the comments and let us know where you're watching from oh well citizens what a pleasure to to meet with you once again to visit with you here at el monticello it is a a wonderful opportunity today that i have the pleasure to introduce you to well an individual without whom there will be a great void in my domestic affairs i'm referring to an individual i have known from the time i knew anything um someone that i can refer to as a man servant in a valet um one very much of the family jupiter and so therefore uh jupiter if you will we would love to to meet with you here together today thank you pleasure and citizens if you would allow uh we would not be so presumptuous to do it otherwise may we remove our mass to be better heard and more clearly by well thank you well there we are much more comfortable i'd say indeed well there are questions i know that you all have so i'd be happy to receive them uh what may be our first question and i think i was just engaged here in writing a missive that uh jupiter will be delivering to the post writers shortly so we will attend to it if you will the first question can you tell us a few memories of your early years when you were in the same places well our earliest years were spent at chadwell farm uh where i was born and grew up uh the plantation that my my father cleared out of the wilderness in the 17 and 30s that's where i was born and that's where jupiter was born and his family and of course uh i had the opportunity to to travel when i was two years of age that was my very first memory uh i remember being placed on a velvet cushion uh and then handed up to a servant on horseback as our family began their journey to tuckahoe plantation and there i'd lived for another oh five seven years attending to my education i i believe that uh that you remained at chadwell if i recall distinctly and then of course returning home uh i was entered into the reverend james morris classical academy but at same time 17 and 57 my father passed away i was only 14. so were you i recall and uh everything of course was held in trust by my father's executives uh you remember them dr harvey dr gilman dr walker uh held in trust until i would approach my majority and that occurred when i was 21 years old in 1764 and then well then jupiter we were together much more often and these are became much more serious did it not no longer uh our delight in going out and and hunting together no more our delight and and well rummaging through the woods and bullfrog no no jupiter we had to attend to uh our proprieties of course you became our ballet my man's servant uh 21 years of age now um i dare say before that time you did accompany me to william and mary uh as i attended to my studies there i recall you you slept on the floor there in the garrett that's right along upon the palate and i do remember giving you um coins to go out purchase if you will some uh paper for me on fiddle strings if i remember powder for your wigs for the wigs indeed and oftentimes um i had to borrow monies from you did i know on a few occasions uh quite a few in any respect uh beginning in 1764 i had to attend to a lawyer's circuit writing about all of the general courts uh to be held in williamsburg those were twice a year i remember in the general court there and then at the county circuits all about the former colony of virginia we traveled extensively did we not during that time williamsburg fredericksburg all about of course he attended to my shaving he attended to my dressing and and rode uh on horseback alongside me i always preferred to drive the the fate in myself well that's what i remember of uh of my youth our youth uh growing up at chadwell then what were the consequences for each of you when you mr jefferson began courting martha whale skeleton at your at her father's plantation well our consequences of course began with the fact that when we learned of mrs whales or mrs skelton the former martha whale's husband battler skelton's death was he killed it in a carriage accident near williamsburg i believe so i believe it was well there was a widow's seclusion customary for two years and well of course towards the end of that two years i indeed the campaign court uh to the widow's skeleton uh predominantly at her father's plantation the forest and yes jupiter accompanied me on on many of those journeys to the forest uh in fact um if i remember uh early on um i i believe you took quite a liking to uh to sort of miss mr wales uh people that's a that's another story it was a combined story i may tell you that distinctly because um once uh the widow's skeleton and i were married the first of the year 17 and 72 the widow skelton now mrs jefferson and i came westward uh here to to monticello well then well within a year or two i believe mr wales passed away a year later wasn't mayor 73 uh i recall well then a quarter a quarter of mrs jefferson's dowry was mine and many of mrs jefferson's people then came to live with us here at monticello and i believe it was about that time was it not 73 or 74 that uh that you and sook jumped a broom indeed [Laughter] the next question how did your lives overlap in the years when mr jefferson was a practicing lawyer than at the first continental congress in philadelphia so where were each of you on july 4 1776 well if i remember beginning to set out to philadelphia and i had every intention of course to uh to attend the first continental congress that was in the september of 74 but i fell ill was unable uh then to go up and to fulfill my obligations under my cousin peyton randolph uh for whom i would be second that is as if he going up to philadelphia were recalled to come back to williamsburg because he was speaker the virginia house of burgesses at the time well then i would remain in his stead but unfortunately i fell ill and and i could not go up to philadelphia in 74 and so i had sent up uh to philadelphia my summary view of the rights well i did not send the summary view of the rights of british america to philadelphia before being ill here at monticello i do believe i gave my draft to you to take to williamsburg and therefore to have it printed up in williamsburg by mrs ryan was it not clementine of ryan who seceded her husband his printer and she printed up the some review and so it was brought up to philadelphia and i became known as an author even in my absence imagine and uh as far as being um being in philadelphia on the fourth of july well um i i remember that distinctly i went out and bought a bought a thermometer for the day i tested the temperature several times a day i bought morning gloves for the ladies in my family my mother having passed away at about the time i was setting out for philadelphia and um well as far as jupiter on the fourth of july uh i believe you well well you did not go to philadelphia with me i believe that uh at that time big pardon sir i i believe i might be able to answer that uh you see we weren't together of course i was here uh well i was here to the to the plantation here uh right on mulberry road and i recall that uh the summer was very hot i remember called that the horses were very spirited because i was working the stables at that time and i recalled that uh sook was preparing to give birth to our firstborn uh our little girl aggie so that's what i recall uh about the fourth of july well i remember you wanted to come up to philadelphia with me but i remember at the same time you were becoming quite adept at uh hostelling uh caring for the horses and coachmen and um i brought um let me see i brought to robert hemings did i not he came up to philadelphia with me only 14 years of age oh yes well i i thank you for providing your remembrance of that occasion and i think i am going to give this to the postman myself oh and uh by all means sir well i thank you no i will be with you again shortly well master jefferson certainly does have a way with words doesn't he uh he always uh has had a knack for what i call pontificating but um so i suppose that just means it's myself and you all now oftentimes i find myself a bit more quiet and you always have to keep your eyes and ears open you understand my meaning you never know uh what's around you or what's being said and and trust me i'm always mindful of uh the eyes and ears that are open and watching me as well but i think we all might have a little bit of time together and if you can't do i'd be more than happy to speak to you a little bit about uh things from my perspective uh you might be surprised how things can appear differently depending on who you ask and who you're talking to so we did have a question um from julius about your lineage how peter jefferson acquired you but we'd also just like to hear a little bit more about your family and your family life well of course uh well all i recall is shadwell that's how things begin that's my earliest memories and and tom you see i've always had to refer to him as something different uh i remember when he was just tom now of course he's a master jefferson but um that's always uh home now my parents went around uh when my mother passed when i was quite small and some of the elders on the property tell me about her and saying the memories are very small and short of my father but i can tell you about my family now uh well the best woman i know happens to be my wife suk now i i call her sookie that's just a name for me but the way i met her at the forest she said that she was the best cook on this side of the rivanna river and she's smart uh she tells the best jess and uh even in my darkest days she always finds a way to make me smile and and as you heard earlier we did we jumped the broom close to the time that uh master jefferson married uh the widow skeleton as well and uh we had a ceremony with a few folks in the community and some words were said and that broom was laid right before us and no longer were we two we jumped right across it and became one and uh we've been going that way ever since now that's not to say that sook and i haven't had uh some difficulties um you see we we've had three children but um only one remains my son phillip and uh we lost our first born our little girl aggie and also lost my youngest son uh at early ages and uh it does something to you and and it's quite uh it's quite fascinating that uh master jeffs and i we've experienced similar things around similar times whether that's marriage uh whether that's loss of children and uh but silk and i will we just we stay as close to one another as possible even when uh things with this law make it uh make things unpredictable at times so how has your life as an enslaved manservant at monticello differed from the from those who work on mulberry row or in the fields well i tell you the work changes but the circumstances are always the same now you see i've traveled everywhere with master jefferson i recall being in williamsburg as his manservant i was purchasing those fiddle strings i was walking up and down the duke of gloucester street paying debts to to the shoemaker purchasing candlesticks purchasing books for his law studies at william mary and i was just seeing him interact with all sorts of folks i recall when he was having supper with the governor at the palace now all of those things being a manservant you really begin to see a different world now i was privy to a lot of different conversations i remember those early conversations when they were beginning he was beginning to mull over the ideas with which ultimately became what he put into that declaration of independence now imagine my thought attending him uh picking up things for him perhaps making sure that he was dressed uh see to his appointments and and hearing some of those initial talks of uh freedom and independence now things did change when i no longer served as his direct manservant there were some differences and i i really want to tell you the truth that it was quite tiresome traveling everywhere with him going here and there throughout the years seven and eight months on the road and and well i just wanted the opportunity to actually be be and have a family with my wife or at least get uh have some semblance of it you see and so i started to serve as the head of the stables in monticello now i also if you ever happen to pay call upon us here if you make your way through the front portico you'll notice some of the columns there uh i learned some things from mr william rice a stone cutter here and i myself even designed some of those uh columns out there if i do say so myself i think they look uh pretty good but [Music] the nature of the work changes and most importantly i'm no longer at arm's length to master jefferson now that i attend to the horses and work the stables uh i'd say that would be the largest difference so we have a question from norman who wants to know if you went to the white house with jefferson oh no i i never i never made a journey there not to the white house i i was uh the only the remaining home that i knew was right here in monticello all the way um for quite a few years but i never made it anywhere else so how has your perspective of thomas jefferson shifted over the years well i'll tell you all this i i i encourage you to think about your family and think about the people in your community and the people that you've always seen all the time now when we were growing up as boys we'd be by the river uh i'd be listening to him hum loudly he always had a tune in his head uh we'd be making our way around the woods and and i recall being a child thinking well that that's my friend tom now of course as we got a bit of age on us i realized that i was considered to be property to someone who i saw as a friend now imagine that change um the perspective has often shift you have to i've gone from knowing him as someone who i've played um in the on the fields with all sorts of things to getting to a point where he is someone that uh i'm supposed to represent him everywhere he goes i have to make sure that i'm attending him uh people know recognize my face all the time because of who owns me and so my perspective it's uh it's something i'm always trying to understand myself to tell you the truth um things change rapidly but uh to legally be considered property to someone who who you are the same age you've you started in the same place it's uh it's a great deal to process for yourself i'll tell you that so we do have an interesting question from deborah who asks if you were ever allowed to sit in classes at the college of william and mary or did you have to hide any academic knowledge you may have acquired well i tell you oftentimes there were occasions where i'd be in the back of the classroom because of course i always i would always be attending him now i will tell you uh you can go anywhere and if you go somewhere you might not know exactly uh what might be discussed or what's happening at the time but if you continue to go all the time you can't help but take so many things in you have to understand i was going with him to these classes and so i was hearing all sorts of conversation all sorts of lessons i was up bringing those candlesticks to him late at night when he was trying to go over uh the book or try to make things uh make sense to him think about those rides if we take those long rides up to fredericksburg and he'd be talking about certain uh certain aspects of his life so of course i i began to hear quite a bit and i i've picked up quite a quite a wealth of information i often think about when he go he when he went over to france now of course i didn't travel to france with him but it makes you wonder uh if i were to go to france or if you were to go to france for a specific amount of time and you would be there for six months a year you might not know the french language when you get over there but when you come back i'm certainly sure you'll be able to share some words and some phrases with me wouldn't you now imagine what that's like doing it for a lifetime imagine the things that you hear and the things that you uh see there so uh yes was i did i attend some classes just from a distance that happened but oftentimes you have to know that life taught me uh most frequently traveling around williamsburg and all over uh different places uh tending to his business for him settling debts for him loaning him money all sorts of things well uh that was quite an education in itself so we have a question from bridget and this is a really interesting one too so what do you think about jefferson's words all men are created equal the words he wrote in the declaration of independence what does that mean for you do you think it applies to everyone well bridget you just uh you've asked me something i've pondered for quite some time now i i did happen to uh of course everyone knows what the declaration says now and uh they're beautiful words aren't they that's what i thought when i i first heard it and uh all men are created equal that's something that really stayed with me because you see at that time my first child was entering the world and and i i was thinking about what it really meant i i thought does this mean it's going to be a new beginning and exactly who are they talking about and i'll be honest with you i was hopeful i was i was i was hopeful for something different because uh well how could you not a war was going on where people were demanding freedom and and liberty and equality and and one of the things that i often hear were was that uh people no longer want to be slaves to england now that's quite a statement isn't it um we have this beautifully written document saying that all men are created equal yet people who hold people in bondage who uphold the law to maintain people in bondage say that they will not be slaves and that's when i began to get confused and i don't really know how to feel about the document anymore now can i say i'm still a bit hopeful certainly can i say that i'll see things in my lifetime that that document says that we all are created equal that we're seen as equal beings i don't know uh i even know that there's some text out there that speaks about how uh the negro is inferior uh to a white person that they don't have the capabilities of understanding they don't have the capabilities of reasoning now when words like that happen and there's a word a document that people are living by to say all men are created equal that seems well i don't really know i don't know well thank you so much um jupiter and let me then introduce um jamar jones who has been portraying jupiter evans um i'd like to invite mr jefferson as portrayed by bill barker back into the scene and have these two gentlemen speak out of character a little bit about some of the challenges of first person interpretation of difficult history take a moment let's take a moment indeed so um we have a few questions if i can direct a couple of questions to you so first of all what are some of the things that we do know about thomas jefferson and jeff and thomas jefferson and jupiter evans connection like what did it mean to be a manservant and what happened to jupiter well uh that's a great place to start so a lot of things that we alluded to in the conversation jefferson and jupiter did grow up together both born in the year 1743 on shadow plantation and what we know often times about the man-serving master dynamic oftentimes you find that these individuals are relatively close in age or also they they grow up together for a while and the instructions the uh it's kind of well the truth is it's this idea of grooming an enslaved child to attend someone so a manservant you know they would be uh running errands they would essentially they you would see if you saw the master you would often be seeing the man servant or the maid servant they were dressing they were washing this person they knew this person better arguably than anybody else at the time truthfully because they are always around their their role their duty is to know the master or the mistresses need before before the master mistress even knows them so imagine what that's like so these people they have to they're observing and it's quite a a task and on top of that you know they are always with that person you know and that means oftentimes than their needs those personal needs or if they had a family like jupiter did you know the needs of thomas jefferson would have come before say jupiter's needs as a husband or a father at that time but of course we know there was a change in their dynamic uh by that time it but that's that's a little bit about the the manservant um yeah yeah the element uh two of knowing so much about one and the other but the more so that jupiter would know so much about jefferson uh you'd be concerned about secrecy as to what he knew about thomas jefferson and uh be concerned about trust as to whether you can trust one and the other about that and uh we have in jefferson's writings that he did hold a great trust for jupiter commented about that as well and mr jefferson commented as we began our session today that without him there would be a void in his domestic affairs now that means not only uh affairs that are administrative such as writing and mailing letters and attending to purchasing this or that when they were together in williamsburg but it also means in family relations i think as well indeed and what happens with jupiter we know that he does live out the rest of his days at monticello after he stops serving as jefferson's i recommend servant roughly around 74 75 he is here in monticello serving as the head of the stables um we do know that he did work on the uh the columns in the front of monticello as a stone cutter um and he died in the year 1800 but what's interesting all through those years after he no longer was serving as uh jefferson's direct manservant um you can look at jefferson's memorandum books there's he is still referencing jupiter a lot in letters uh to his daughter he's he's talked he's still having jupiter uh take care of a lot of business for him and also we know uh that jupiter is receiving uh certain things like uh in the allotments in the memorandum books and i will say it's also what we do know about their dynamic we do believe there certainly were moments of uh contention between the two absolutely based off of letters you know there is one account where the people in the household had never seen jefferson so impassioned as what happened between a a situation between jupiter and uh he revolving around uh what we believed to be a a horse where jupiter didn't want to lease out a horse to um another young enslavement because he said that they didn't they weren't capable and he he told jefferson no simply but you know i think i think that's a very interesting thing when we think about these two yeah exactly i mean jefferson and jupiter had quite a a discussion argument let's just say an argument over this and uh and jupiter won out yeah and you know and it's something to think about you know we jefferson of course is very public figure but really step step back and think about the idea of what's happening privately and also they've been knowing one another all their lives now there is a familiarity there right because of where they come from and how long they've known each other and jupiter knows him the best but you know you you think about that uh those lines right but you know you the blurriness of lines because one is property to the other it's a quite a bit it is and i think one of the most telling uh comments in jefferson's writing is something he writes to his daughter uh mariah epps and this is just after she is married and jefferson is relating uh what his granddaughter ellen randolph uh is saying as a young child i think she's about uh oh maybe three four years old at that uh he relates to his his daughter mariah ellen uh asks about you frequently because you know she holds the greatest affection for you next to the affection she holds for her her mother and uncle juba meaning the affection she holds for jupiter coincidentally uh ellen um then eleonora randolph actually marries here in this parlor a gentleman from boston a joseph coolidge jr and ellen and joe cooley jr go up to to live in boston for the rest of her life so these stories are carried through the family uh for several generations so we had another question from bridget and she asks that or well she mentions that some people today think that monticello and other historic sites give too much emphasis to the enslaved do you think this type of two this first person interpretation helps to change that perception i i would love that well thank you for that question uh bridget um one we certainly would hope uh that it would encourage people to look beyond look beyond maybe their initial foundational education and explore the lives of the people who were also immersed there you know speaking personally i grew up in virginia and you know in elementary school when it came to the revolutionary war period um slavery was not a topic it was not a point and when we think about williamsburg williamsburg was the capital for the majority of the revolutionary war period and over half of that population was where people of african descent and the majority was enslaved and to not hear about them well um well that's not the it truly isn't the full story when you think about monticello you know who were the majority of the people on the property of course you we're going to hear about the story and everything that jefferson accomplished however who was in the room with him who was attending him as he traveled up there to uh well we know bob hemings you know is up there with him when he was creating this wonderful document that we still celebrate today the declaration of independence and so um you would hope but that people would be uh receptive to it and want to hear because um a question something that's been posed to me in my time in my work of doing things like this someone said you know why do you focus on the bad part of history now slavery i would say it's just it's a part of the history you know my interest and the whole purpose that i'm here today the whole purpose that i do this work is because these people existed and they were here and oftentimes what do we know you know even in death we're talking about jupiter because of who he was owned by and who he was tied to but my interest is hopefully people are curious to go beyond and think about the humanity of these humanity of these people think about the lives of these people and think about them where they're not defined by their work because these people aren't what we do imagine none of us probably today we don't want to solely be defined by oh this is my job my my nine to five whatever career you're so much more than just the work you do and that's the same for these people and that is certainly a push when it comes to this interpretation to go beyond the idea of someone seen as someone slave but they were enslaved people who had lives who had families who loved life hated all sorts of things and that is what's uh i think extremely important very important bridget and and very important to keep that history and story alive in recognizing this has always been who we are it has always been who we are as americans and when you think of the the waves of immigrants coming into our new nation uh there towards the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century well very early on particularly as they're coming down south where they're coming say into to norfolk uh and then venturing farther west they're encountering upon encountering a population that has already been here for many generations i mean that the natives and the black and the white this is where we are coming from and and how we are building a nation uh when you walk around monticello and you see the beauty and the the uh the sublime uh architecture of the house itself you cannot ignore that surrounding all of this as well as in and out throughout the house are our african-american enslaved and so this is a part of the entire story you you cannot really segregate the one and keep it in its place without involving everyone else collectively so i think the necessity of uh of continuing to relate uh the enslaved history of our nation uh is something that continues to remind us who we have always been uh jamar and i were talking earlier remember about what we were learning in school and so i'm nearly a generation older and i remember we were taught our enslaved history right as we got into american history we would spend several months on the american revolution and that would be a part of the story of our american revolution and then we would spend several months on our american civil war and of course slavery was very much a part of learning about what nearly tore our nation asunder so we cannot forget this and it's of late it's become very necessary if we are going to help to continue to heal ourselves with respect to that history that we have to remember so essential we have to remember you know one of the the great cures for loneliness is solace in order to think and think about these things and remember it enter into it and that helps us then to be able to to cure and heal and bring us the closer together this is what history is to remind us where we've been to help us better understand where we are and to continue to bring us together and move forward indeed indeed so we've kind of touched on this a little bit but maybe um jamar you could tell us a little bit of the challenges of um interpreting someone for whom there's not a large historical record you know maybe thinking about that a little bit what are some of the challenges of interpreting that way yeah of course of course my my focus is primarily uh in the 18th century even though i've ventured to other places but i portrayed of course primarily enslaved individuals and you know it's a lot of times going off of what you have right now jupiter is somebody because of many notes and references we have a lot more insight into him and letters and things about a little bit about him and maybe we can infer some things about his character but just in general you have to kind of take a moment and really think about the time the circumstances and a lot of times my entry point in uh portraying individuals is think of them as people right i always say you know people are people you know with regardless of the centuries and things so that means they have personalities they have likes they have dislikes and a lot of that goes into beginning so uh beginning to craft uh interpretation of the historical figure because a lot of times you know what's jarring about the lives of in uh the records and things we have enslaved people you might have a runaway ad where a runaway ad is you know keep in mind through the perspective of the person who wants to get somebody back who they consider to be their property but a runaway ad is you know you get a lot of descriptors about someone get a name you get clothing get uh their behavior things of that nature or certain skills or you might have household inventories where sometimes all you have is an enslaved person's name and the value that has been put upon their life and where do you go from that and so that that is a difficulty but you know um for me uh how do you how do you deal with those challenges you know kind of like what we were just saying i'm thinking about specifically just including them right and i'm beginning to think all right what would it have been like for someone like jupiter who had been attending jefferson um for the majority of his life and then the person who owns him has is literally uh seen as the the leader for independence the the voice of american independence and he is still here at this household uh where he is in bondage and you know there is this idea of people you have people running to the british and he's jupiter is still here and he remains and it stays and so what was he thinking what was going on in his head and how do you really how do you uh process that and so a lot of times you have to uh you have to begin to just use it as a springboard to kind of go off of okay we know certain things that you have to infer like what what would have been it how would he react you know um you know you think about him as a family man you know anybody losing a child that i'm certainly sure that would do something to you jupiter lost two children right along with jefferson jupiter was married to a woman who lost two children they both still had to maintain their work even in the midst of loss that would impact him that will impact me so that that is that's a lot of times that's those are entry points for me into telling their stories and to try to flesh out um a whole experience you know so that people can say i i met a man who has a life um beyond the idea of who he serves so can you tell us a little bit more about some of the challenges of representing these two historic figures together given the imbalance of power inherent in the relationship well so i i started portraying jupiter um a few years ago and um you know it was interesting i i've i've had a lot of overwhelmingly positive uh positive reactions but also some people don't liked it that's just that's just the point of the blanket the period of it um you know i have literally someone said why are you talking about this slavery is not a part of the founding of our nation and or you know the people don't want to see these things and you know the truth is um i believe it could be jarring for some people when you you you are raised or you have a very specific image of people who are considered to be founders or people who have a large amount of history behind them and when you really you know take just see them as the individual and see them for the people that were around them that can that is johnny so the challenge you know sometimes is uh well i i suppose sometimes you know it's not always received it doesn't want to be built please because i can i i'm going for stories it's right i take my hat off you know all the time yeah to interpreting uh enslaved americans and and of our past and uh to bring us into this and and help it uh be received with more profound insight as to what this meant that an individual uh just does not have the the reins of their destiny and uh it's so difficult to understand that the real challenge isn't it is in this modern world to understand that and to bring that into a more clear focus of what it was like and and what we still need to do particularly with respect to systemic racism in order to heal this my challenge has always been to try to bring a clarity to it but in a time where mr jefferson is an icon of the american slave owner an icon of the contradiction of the american credo all men are created equal and yet he owns slaves so there's the challenge to be able to help us understand yes the past was not less intelligent than we are today they were beholden to to habits and customs and proprieties and social mores that uh that we are beholden to those somewhat differently in our day but there is a strain there is a strain that continues on through that yeah absolutely and you know one thing that i often tell guests and or if people who we encounter when we tell stories like this this should make you uncomfortable it is uncomfortable but it's also the truth right um and so imagine you know it's uncomfortable to talk about it's uncomfortable to portray it certainly and to bear these clothes and to bear these personas but you know and men take that step back and imagine what it was like during the period and things happening right and so you know oftentimes i tell people because you know sometimes it has been put forth to me that someone has asked me that why am i attempting to demonize the legacy of someone and and i tell people i said i don't know if i can answer that question for you if you perceive it that way that might be something that you really have to deal with in you but this is just presenting the story as it is and presenting the people who were there at the time and that is the main uh that is the main hope and the idea so the challenge is to i would say just staying the course and making sure that you're unwavering because and just know that you know people are curious about this but also you know um i think people are in a period i think america is digesting right is that what we say you know you have you digesting it but sometimes you know it might be a little the truth might be a little rough getting down but once it gets down you will be nourished but that's our challenge as americans yeah yeah i mean there's our job there's there's what we work at with every successive generation uh i love what you're saying tomorrow about that's the truth that's the history and that history is the truth yeah absolutely and uh what did jefferson say follow truth wherever it shall lead us jupiter certainly had hope as so many had hope and uh and i continue to see mr jefferson as someone of great hope and that's what i think we as a nation offer the rest of the world don't we we we offer a credo of hope by showing how we can still work with our problems and with the hope to work them out more successfully yeah indeed very resilient um people you know very resilient well gentlemen um thank you for your time today this has been a really interesting conversation and we appreciate your thoughts on interpreting difficult history so thank you all for joining us on our monticello live stream today and have a great day thank you thank all of you and jamar thank you thank you thank you sir it was thanks for having me my pleasure

Channel: Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

Views: 4,639

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Id: oWjo-BurIoI

Length: 47min 18sec (2838 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 02 2021