Monticello, Virginia is a historic estate custom designed and built by one of America’s most famous Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson. In addition to being the third president of the United States, a young nation on a land that he had helped wrestle away from tyranny, Jefferson’s life is extraordinary and one that can and should be explored and learned from, debated, but most of all cherished. As one of the main authors of America’s Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a thought-leader who expressed with grace and wisdom the idea of the American experiment. His role as one of the many great men in the history of the world has always been accepted. But today, the Monticello estate and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation that operates it, are now shamefully changing history and displaying the third American president in such a way that the visitor comes away with a feeling of disgust and contempt.
Over the last few years, towns and cities across America have been taken over by the radical woke mob and allowed “cancel culture” to take over. Attempts to remove statues, rename schools, and essentially erase American history, even the bad parts, have continued for years. Among the early targets was Thomas Jefferson, when in 2005, San Francisco, CA parents and educators debated changing Berkeley’s Thomas Jefferson Elementary School and it continues to this day. In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning, the Falls Church City Public Schools board in Virginia voted unanimously to rename Thomas Jefferson Elementary School and George Mason High School, after a six-month evaluation process that included a community survey where 56% said they were against renaming the school. In 2021, a statue of Thomas Jefferson was removed from the New York City Hall, where it had stood for 187 years. In 2022, community members in the South Orange-Maplewood School District voted to change the name of their Thomas Jefferson elementary school, referring to the third President as an “enslaver.”
Today, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation is welcoming visitors to Monticello to tell them a story that is more about the horrors of slavery than it is about the one of our country’s greatest founding fathers. A scathing investigation by the New York Post published this summer revealed that the “hilltop mansion designed by Jefferson himself, once preserved as a tribute to the author of the Declaration of Independence, now offers visitors a harangue on the horrors of slavery.”
“The whole thing has the feel of propaganda and manipulation,” Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the libertarian Brownstone Institute and a recent visitor, told The Post. “People on my tour seemed sad and demoralized.” Visitors young and old, from around the world, are being introduced to the Monticello estate and president Thomas Jefferson in an incredibly misleading way.
An advertisement by the Mountaintop Project asks visitors to download the “Slavery at Monticello” smartphone app. Guests this summer were startled to see a portrait of a faceless Jefferson, where a black tar like substance makes up his figure.
A review of the people serving on the Board of Directors of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation unsurprisingly reveals a list of big-money Democratic donors and former Democrat Party officials over the last thirty years. The funding to restore the “landscape of slavery” as it now reads on a sign at Monticello, has been funded by “left-leaning philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who donated $20 million toward that effort in 2015,” the Post found.
There is always a way to honestly and respectfully tell the story of slavery and the great injustice that it was. It is true that free speech, open and honest debate, are intrinsically unique to the American spirit. But that is not the story that is being told.
That is why it is so shameful to see the Thomas Jefferson Foundation leadership engage in propagating a revisionist history of Monticello that smears one of the great inventors, thinkers, architects, and statesmen of all time. Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence paved the way for the eventual abolition of slavery in the US. Mainstream Democrats used to revere the founding fathers and the great experiment of freedom. JFK was fond of quoting Jefferson at length and even chose a font for Air Force One from an early version of the Declaration of Independence. The far-left of today’s Democratic Party would be wise to learn their history and instead be grateful for the immense sacrifice made by our country’s founding fathers and patriots.
Bob Carlstrom is President of AMAC Action
so totally agree and so very well said. Yes, there were slave owners at the beginning of our country but that changed over time and a very bloody and sad revolution. But it did get handled. Jefferson was a brilliant mind and dedicated founder of our wonderful country and it saddens me to see such “woke” degradation of his memory and contributions.
Circa 2014 I visited the grounds at Monticello, I’ve been there many times. I left feeling inspired and hopeful for the future of the United States of America. It appears that the presentation there may have darkened somewhat. As the 1776 report notes, we should not ignore the “…imperfections and stains upon American History…” but we should also not ignore the unparalleled successes of our great nation, a nation that is not only a child of God, but also the progeny of geniuses like Thomas Jefferson, a nation that should perpetually exist in a process of constant improvement; on a path to a more perfect union. Let us revel in the positive, let us remember and revere our history, let us learn from the good, and the bad, and be grateful for the blessings of liberty.
What can we say if we truly love our country. Really the only thing we can do is stand. I am 73, vote, republican, election denierand one other thing I am white. That makes me a semi faciast. What ever that is. But there is one other thing I know, I love the Lord and he is still on the throne. Oh there is one other thing if a democrats lips are moving they are lying. Things like the borders are secured, the election was the most secure ever, every vote counts whither it is legal or not, mandating killer vaccines,. Oh did I say that. January 6 people still locked up and wanting to be moved to club Gitmo because of the conditions where they are being jailed, not to mention the mock trial that was put on by Liz Warren. I hope they don’t come to knock my door in and haul me away. But they will sooner or later.. then they will be at your door. Surely you know how this works out don’t you. Not sure what the magic button is to make it all go away, but I am praying for our great nation and our real President Trump and the election results to be honestly looked at. Even the election in Germany is being recalled with much less proof than we have here. True the vote is awesome.next show will be 10,thousand mules, maybe they will get a chance to make it . Because that is what it will take for them to win the midterms. One thing is for sure they will do whatever it takes to save their democracy whatever that is. But we live in republic but their democracy is whatever they say that it is because their lips are moving again. So pray for our leadership to be real leadership in all the branches of our government to stand and love our freedoms and stand for them . United we stand divided we fall. Give me liberty or give me death. Because life without liberty is a slow death. Pray!
I still believe that Thomas Jefferson was a great man of his times. A great leader..statesman..inventor..and caring man for this country and its citizens.
The left likes to pretend that they don’t embrace, foster, promote, and profit from racism. But leftist is a euphemism for collectivist. To be racist, you first have to sort people into collectives based upon how much melanin is in someone’s skin or which tribe someone is born into. The left rejects seeing people as unique individuals who are personally responsible and personally accountable for their own words and deeds. Jefferson helped lay the foundation that helped bring about an end to slavery. Jeffersonian democracy is based upon the principle that the smallest level of governance that can handle an issue is the level that should, be it individual, family, precinct, township, county, state, or nation. He was ahead of the curve for his time even if by today’s standards he falls short. When future generations judge us, there is little doubt we will have fallen from any pedestals we may have been perched upon. If the leftists were actually concerned about slavery, they would take steps to free the 30 million slaves being exploited today instead of virtue signaling about things that ended several generations ago.
Maybe All Sharpton should move in to right everything up It could become his shrine since he is working tirelessly on behalf of oppressed and exploited
This is not about erasing history. To portray Thomas Jefferson as a hero is to leave out an important aspect of how this nation started and what must be addressed: white supremacy and slavery. Thomas Jefferson fought to preserve the idea that only white men should vote. He was not some incredibly moral hero of his time, he was a slave owner and a racist. He did contribute importantly to American history, but it must be remembered what he truly believed and the problems of the time. Neither aspect should be forgotten, and that is the true goal of these changes.