Presidential plantation shifts telling of history to let all voices rise
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Noah Robertson Staff writer
| Orange, Va.
The forest around Montpelier, James Madison鈥檚 former home and tobacco plantation, has miles of paved trails. But Larry Walker isn鈥檛 using them. Instead, he has strapped on a rucksack, laced up boots, and tucked his pants into his socks. No asphalt today 鈥� he鈥檚 ready for a walk in the woods.
For miles, he and a group of colleagues travel what feels like the opening scene in 鈥淩aiders of the Lost Ark,鈥� adapted to Virginia history. They walk in a line, carrying sticks at eye level to catch cobwebs. Out front, Matthew Reeves, Montpelier鈥檚 director of archaeology and landscape restoration, clears a path with a machete. He even wears a fedora.
Mr. Walker and James French, another foundation board member on the mid-August hike, are descendants of the more than 300 people once enslaved at Montpelier. The two men are scouting a permanent trail in the east woods, leading past former irrigation ditches, tobacco fields, and slave quarters. It鈥檚 part of a museumwide reimagining of Montpelier鈥檚 mandate, led by the nation鈥檚 first museum of its kind governed by descendants.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onHow do you tell history responsibly? Montpelier, the plantation owned by President James Madison, is expanding its focus to give more equal voice to the experience of workers once enslaved there 鈥� and to their descendants.
This odyssey, over decades, has at times deeply tested relationships. Earlier this year, Montpelier鈥檚 governing board fought publicly over who should tell Madison鈥檚 story 鈥� part of it as Founding Father of the United States, part as an enslaver. But that fight has ended, and the museum is trying to expand Montpelier鈥檚 narrative of history. That effort has led staff beyond the big house and toward the backwoods, where artifacts of enslaved people sit undisturbed.
鈥淔or me to center the voice of my ancestor doesn鈥檛 diminish the voice of anyone else鈥檚 ancestor,鈥� says Mr. Walker. 鈥淚f anything, it amplifies.鈥�
The rocky road toward parity
Montpelier鈥檚 staff has worked with local descendants for decades. But in 2018, the museum hosted a summit on the topic, which helped create what鈥檚 called a set of standards to help sites represent descendants of enslaved people.聽In 2021, Montpelier made national news when the board voted to create 鈥渟tructural parity鈥� with the Montpelier Descendants Committee (MDC), which was formed in 2019. For the first time at any U.S. presidential site, these descendants would equally govern the place their ancestors lived.
The agreement never took effect. Within months, members of the MDC said, the existing board was imposing conditions on their autonomy, representation, and ability to speak freely. The relationship collapsed. In March, the board voted to change its bylaws, reversing the parity decision.聽
鈥淚 felt a lot of grief,鈥� says Mr. French, attending the meeting over Zoom. 鈥淏ut I was also sitting in the house that was built by my three-times great-grandfather who was enslaved on that very property. As always, in difficult moments, I was inspired by what they went through.鈥�
Within days,聽however, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns Montpelier, . The MDC hired a lawyer and . Multiple board members told the Monitor that certain donors threatened to withhold gifts.聽
By May, several board members who had voted to revoke the MDC鈥檚 authority resigned. The Montpelier Foundation elected new members and named Mr. French chairperson. A large majority currently supports the MDC, and, going forward, the plan is for the bylaws to again guarantee parity. In the meantime, the staff鈥檚 work with descendants has resumed.
Moving beyond the manor house聽
Even before its latest work, Montpelier had already established multiple spaces that teach about slavery. In the cellar of the manor house, exhibit emphasizes enslavement鈥檚 human impact. Just west of the house, visitors can enter reconstructed slave quarters that include life-size images of descendants and recorded stories of their ancestors. Museum tours teach about slavery and include specific stories of enslaved people.聽
That effort has mattered to visitors.
Steve Hanna, a cultural geographer at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, studies how presidential sites present Black history.聽At Montpelier, according to his research, visitors reported . The data has some bias: Visitors self-select into most exhibits, and the people who visit presidential sites tend to be white, as well as older, more educated, and more affluent than the average American. Before the pandemic, Montpelier had around 125,000 visitors per year. Half of those polled by Professor Hanna spent time at an exhibit related to slavery.
鈥淚t made them feel like they learned more about enslavement and were able to empathize with people who suffered, survived, and endured being enslaved,鈥� he says.
But as is often the case at presidential sites, the visitor experience still orbits Montpelier鈥檚 big house. That鈥檚 not necessarily a problem, says Elizabeth Chew, Montpelier鈥檚 acting CEO; it鈥檚 just incomplete. Much of the site鈥檚 history is farther away and far less excavated. Unearthing it is now one of their top priorities. Parity isn鈥檛 just about equal representation for descendants, says Dr. Chew. It鈥檚 also about giving the stories of their ancestors equal weight.
Montpelier spans more than 2,600 acres and was even bigger when the Madisons were alive. Dolley Madison sold the estate in 1844, and no owner has farmed extensively there since. For the staff, that鈥檚 a powerful resource. 鈥淭he ground is pristine,鈥� says Dr. Chew. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where a lot of the evidence of the lives of the enslaved lives.鈥�
Finding the fields in the forest
Dr. Reeves and other staff members are now trying to make that evidence more accessible. It鈥檚 just hard to blaze a trail when the important sites are now covered in trees.聽
To discover what鈥檚 there, the staff has to search for whatever time can鈥檛 erase. Slave quarters, sheds, kitchens 鈥� none of the original structures in the fields were built to last. Still, certain pieces of them are just beneath the surface.聽
So the staff has mapped the entire east woods into a giant grid and is surveying each square with metal detectors. They look for nails, coins, bullets, and other artifacts, recording what they find and where they found it. The more finds in an area, the more likely that area once contained something important.
鈥淎rchaeology is in large part the study of trash,鈥� says Dr. Chew.
A tobacco drying house would only need nails to support the wood and hooks to hang the leaves. So a plot of land filled with nails and hooks would probably be one of those. A home would have other items 鈥� like ceramics, animal bones, buttons, and bricks.聽
Meanwhile, all of this work can connect to Montpelier鈥檚 two fundamental missions: telling the history of Madison and the history of the enslaved people there. 鈥淢adison in essence lived in an African American community,鈥� says Mr. French. 鈥淗e was influenced as much by them as they were by him.鈥�
鈥淎 uniting force鈥�
In August, Susan Lange, from Annapolis, Maryland, stopped by Montpelier with her husband while in town for a wedding. Standing in the sun, wearing a hat and bright sundress decorated with palm trees, she wished her tour had lasted longer and included places like the nearby slave quarters. 鈥淚t just really stood out 鈥� showing that each person was more than their enslavement, that they were a fiddle player or a mother,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hose feel like obvious statements, but [it emphasized] the humanity.鈥�
Mr. French hopes more visitors leave with an experience like hers. There鈥檚 already been a backlash to the new board, evident in recent and describing the tour as 鈥渨oke,鈥� imbalanced, and having an 鈥渙bsession about slavery.鈥� Each of the four board members interviewed by the Monitor mentioned it. They also noted that none of the exhibits have changed; only the board has.聽
Standing by the decaying witness tree, sweating in his ball cap, his pants tucked into his socks, Mr. French says he hopes the site can matter to others the way it does to him. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a thirst to know what is my past,鈥� he says.聽
This is the place he can quench it, and to Mr. French, Madison鈥檚 home is exactly the kind of place America needs today.聽Montpelier nurtured James Madison, the champion of American Federalism and the Bill of Rights. He helped guarantee Americans鈥� individual liberties; he and his family also enslaved hundreds of people, a third of whom were children, over more than a century.
鈥淚f you tell a wider, more inclusive, and more accurate story, you invite more people to identify themselves with this important history,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a uniting force.鈥�
