On this week’s episode of On Your Mind With Mia Mendez, Mia sits down with National Constitution Center Exhibit Developer, Erin McLeary, to discuss the National Constitution Center’s upcoming exhibit, Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello.
On the heels of an Academy Award win for 12 Years A Slave, a historical drama film about a free man who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery, the National Constitution Center delves into a painful period of American history with its latest marquee exhibition, Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello.
Although Thomas Jefferson has been noted as a principle opponent of slavery, calling it a “moral depravity” and a “hideous blot,” he owned more than 200 people and remained a slave owner throughout his life. Thomas Jefferson’s contradictory stance on slavery has been discussed and extensively debated throughout history.
The thought-provoking exhibition, Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello, follows the stories of six slave families who lived and worked at Jefferson’s plantation— the Fossett, Granger, Gillette, Hemings, Hern, and Hubbard families—and their descendants. The exhibit features more than 280 artifacts that represent each family’s trade as well as personal items of Jefferson’s.
The exhibit will be open to the public from April 9 through Oct. 19. Click here for tickets.
