Archaeologists found Sally Hemings' quarters at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

An 1810 engraving of Jefferson's Monticello
(Image credit: Hulton Archive/Stringer/Getty Images)

Excavations at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation property in Virginia have uncovered the quarters of Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman who is believed to have borne six of Jefferson's children.

The room was located next to Jefferson's bedroom. Measuring about 14 feet by 13 feet, it was converted into a men's restroom in 1941 to accommodate growing crowds of tourists. A bathroom renovation in the 1960s maintained that use, but in recent years, historians reviewed a description of Monticello penned by one of Jefferson's grandsons. The document identified the location of Hemings' quarters, and investigations began.

Since ripping out the later construction, archaeologists have found the room's original floors, remnants of a stove and fireplace, and other valuable artifacts. The space will be restored to focus exclusively on Hemings' life and legacy, part of a broader restoration project at Monticello that takes a more honest look at the experiences of the property's enslaved residents than past iterations of the museum have done.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"This discovery gives us a sense of how enslaved people were living. Some of Sally's children may have been born in this room," said Gardiner Hallock, Monticello's director of restoration. "It's important because it shows Sally as a human being — a mother, daughter, and sister — and brings out the relationships in her life."

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.