July 2021

 

Volume XVIII, Number 7                                   July 1, 2021

“The study of the past is a constantly evolving, never-ending journey of discovery.” – Eric Foner 

 

THE 1827 AND 1829 AUCTIONS: Last week, on June 29, I watched an excellent livestream on the Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s website—a Q&A with two top-notch Monticello staff members: Senior Fellow of African American History Niya Bates and Andrew Davenport, Monticello’s Public Historian and Manager of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project. The topic was what happened to the enslaved people at Monticello after Thomas Jefferson’s death on July 4, 1826.

During the discussion Niya and Andrew covered the January 1827 auction that Thomas Jefferson’s heirs—his daughter Martha and grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph—held on the mountaintop to try to raise money to pay off the enormous $107,000 debt they had inherited. As I wrote in Saving Monticello, to market the auction, Jeff Randolph in November of 1826 had placed a notice that appeared in the Richmond Enquirer under the headline “Executor’s Sale.” 

Published on January 15, the ad (above) said, “the whole of the residue of the personal property of Thomas Jefferson” would be auctioned at Monticello. That included “130 valuable negroes, stock, crops &c., household and kitchen furniture.” The “negroes” were described as “believed to be the most valuable for their number ever offered at one time in the State of Virginia.” 

The sale began on January 15, and lasted five days, during which about 100 enslaved people were sold—along with a fair amount of Thomas Jefferson’s furniture and furnishings. It’s not clear how much money the auction netted, but we do know that it didn’t put a large dent in that enormous debt—and that Jeff Randolph worked till his dying day to pay the rest of it off. 

Pre-printed Bill of Sale for January 1827 Auction

I only recently learned that as part of that effort the family held a second slave auction two years later. That auction took place at the Eagle Tavern, a hotel (in early 19th century parlance, a “public house”) owned by John G. Wright in downtown Charlottesville at Court Square on January 4, 1829. The tavern often was used as a venue for buying and selling enslaved men, women, and children. 

It appears that 33 people were auctioned off that day, mainly members of the enslaved Granger, Hern, Gillette, and Hubbard families. The purchasers, according to the “The Business of Slavery at Monticello” page on the Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s website, included “University of Virginia professors, local merchants, former Monticello overseers and artisans, and Randolph family members.”

A handwritten accounting (below) lists the sale of thirty “farm negroes” to twenty buyers for a total of $8,390. The buyers included Thomas Jefferson Randolph, who purchased seven people for $935. George Blatterman, a University of Virginia professor, bought Ben and Lilly, presumably a married couple, for $385. He had purchased six enslaved people—including a boy named Marshall—at the 1827 auction for $820.

Dr. Robley Dunglison, the British-born physician who was a member of the original 1819 faculty at the University of Virginia who was Thomas Jefferson’s physician, purchased a man identified as “Wagonier David” for $270. Dr. Dunglison had moved up to Monticello to attend Thomas Jefferson during the last week of his life, and was at his bedside when Jefferson died on July 4, 1826. The Randolphs invited him, his wife Hariette, and their two-year-old daughter to stay at Monticello after Jefferson’s death. They remained there until early in September 1827.          

                         

Only a few of Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved people stayed in Albemarle County. The rest were shipped off to slave owners in other states, primarily in Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, and Alabama.

To delve further into the fate of Jefferson’s enslaved people after his death, check out the June 29 livestream, which is archived on Monticello’s website at https://bit.ly/LivestreamMont and the “Business of Slavery" page on Monticello’s website at  https://bit.ly/SlaveryBizMont

EVENTS: I will be appearing on a Voice of America’s Urdu website, https://www.urduvoa.com, on Sunday, July 4, talking about the history of the American flag—in English. 

If other events get scheduled late in July, they’ll be listed, along with future talks, on the Author Events page on my website, https://marcleepson.com 

GIFT IDEA:  Want a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me. I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of new copies of my other books.