Saving Monticello: The Newsletter
The latest about the book, author
events, and more
Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson
Volume XVI, Number 11 November
1, 2019
“The study of the past is a constantly evolving,
never-ending journey of discovery.” – Eric Foner
SEQUESTRATION: As
I wrote in Saving Monticello, the
Confederate States of America seized all of Uriah Levy’s Virginia land
(including Monticello) under the sequestration terms of the CSA’s Alien Enemies
Act—the law that the Confederate Congress had passed and Jefferson Davis had
signed on August 8, 1861.
The Act called for the removal of all residents of northern
states from the Confederacy. It also authorized the CSA to take possession of
property in the South owned by ousted northerners. The clip below from the
October 11, 1861, Richmond Enquirer,
contains a list of the largest northern landowners in Virginia and their
estates. The properties—which the article calls “estates held by alien enemies”
would be confiscated—AKA “sequestered.”
According to an another article in the Richmond Examiner, which I quoted from in the book, the proceedings
to sequestrate Monticello began on October 10, 1861, while “the present owner,
Levy, [was] abroad being in charge of a United States ship of war.” The article
went on to point out that the “people of Charlottesville called the late owner
of Monticello ‘Commodore Levee.’ He is a first Captain in the United States
Navy, and of Jewish parentage.”
Frank Leslie's
Illustrated Newspaper of New York City reported the sequestration four
months later, saying that Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello had been confiscated,
along with “all its lands, negroes, cattle, farming utensils, furniture,
paintings, wines, etc., together with two other farms belonging to the same
owner, and valued at from $70,000 to $80,000.” The Union-friendly newspaper
went on to expound on Uriah Levy’s patriotism and military service, and
concluded: “Certainly no officer in the army or navy has been so victimized by
the rebels.”
Coda: Uriah Levy fought the order in the Confederate courts;
and the suit continued, as I note in the book, after he died in 1862. Finally,
in November of 1864, the CSA prevailed and Monticello was sold to Benjamin
Franklin Ficklin, a Confederate Army officer, who was forced to relinquish the
property to Levy’s heirs after the Civil War ended in March 1865. Ficklin had
paid the CSA $80,000 (in Confederate money) for the property.
NAVAL ACADEMY: It’s not every day that you get escorted
through the security gate into the U.S.
Naval Academy—much less give a talk following Friday night services at the
amazing Miller Chapel, the certerpiece of the Academy’s Commodore Uriah P. Levy
Center.
But that’s what happened on
October 11, when Benno Gerson of the Friends of the Jewish Chapel and Rabbi
Steve Ballaban, the Naval Academy’s Jewish Chaplain, graciously welcomed me to
the gleaming chapel.
Rabbi Ballaban told me he’d keep the service short—and he was true to his word.
He then gave me a terrific
introduction and I proudly stood in front of a group of midshipmen and members
of the Annapolis Jewish community to fill them in on the life of Uriah P. Levy and his family, his
distinguished naval career, as well as his—and his nephew Jefferson M.
Levy’s—stewardship of Monticello, the heart of Saving Monticello.
It was a memorable evening, made even more special when I
signed books for the Midshipmen and FOJC members at the Oneg following the
service. My thanks to everyone who made the evening possible, especially Mr. Gerson,
Rabbi Ballaban, and David Hoffberger, the facilities manager for all of the
Naval Academy’s chapels.
SOUTHERN JEWISH: I had another memorable Saving Monticello experience on Friday, October 25, when I did the Keynote Speech at the 44th annual Southern Jewish Historical Society Conference in Charlottesville. The Conference organizer, Phyllis Leffler, an emeritus professor of U.S. History at the University of Virginia, invited me to do the talk, as well as to accompany two busloads of conference goes on an 8:30 a.m. special tour of Monticello that morning.
We broke into four groups and had a great tour that ended at
the grave of Rachel Levy, Uriah Levy’s mother, who died at Monticello in 1839,
and is buried on Mulberry Row (photo below). After the tour, we drove back to Charlottesville
for lunch (featuring the famed local Bodo’s bagels) at the Brody Jewish Center,
the home of U-Va.’s Hillel, a block from the University of Virginia’s grounds.
I did the talk as the last bagels were being consumed.
I am extremely grateful to Phyllis Leffler, the current SJHS
President and the Conference Program Committee Chair and Georgia State
University History Professor Marni Davis, as well Hillel Rabbi Jake Rubin and Danielle
Buynack, the Hillel Development Director, for putting on a special event.
CORRECTION: Last
month I mentioned that the Saturday morning Lift program at Congregation Kol
Ami in White Plains, New York, was started by Harley Lewis—the Levy descendant
who has helped me immeasurably with my research of her family and Monticello—and
her late husband Dick. Harley emailed me, though, to say that they did not
start Lift. “It was the genius of [Kol Ami] Rabbi Shira [Milgrom],” she wrote.
“But we were at the first one… along with a few other congreganants and became
devoted fans” of the program. I stand corrected—and honored that I was asked to
be speak about Saving Monticello and
the Nunez/Phillips/Levy family at the September 21, 2019, Lift.
EVENTS:
I have two events in November. On Wednesday,
November 6, I will be doing a talk on Saving
Monticello and a book signing at the monthly luncheon meeting in Potomac,
Maryland, of a retiree group of a large corporation.
The following evening, Thursday,
November 7, at 7:00, I will be part of the screening of an excellent
documentary called “Just Like Me: Vietnam War Stories from All Sides” by the
filmmaker Ron Osgood at the McGowan Theater at the National Archives in
Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public. I will join Ron on
stage after the screening to discuss it and take audience questions. For more
info, go to http://bit.ly/ArchivesScreening
There’s
always the chance that I may have a last-minute talk or signing. For the latest
on that, or to check out my scheduled 2019 events, go to the Events page on my
website at http://bit.ly/Eventsandtalks
If
you’d like to arrange an event for Saving
Monticello, or for any of my other books, feel free to email me. For info
on my latest book, Ballad of the Green
Beret, go to http://bit.ly/GreenBeretBook
GIFT IDEAS: Want a
personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me at marcleepson@gmail.com I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover
copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.