Freedom and Slavery: Monticello's Tangled Legacy

  A new exhibit at the Atlanta History Center looks at life at Thomas Jefferson’s estate, Monticello, through the eyes of the more than 600 enslaved people who lived there, and their descendants. 

The exhibit has appeared at just one other place before traveling to Atlanta: the Smithsonian in D.C. We paid a visit to the History Center to talk with two of the people instrumental in its design: Elizabeth Chew, curator at Monticello in Virginia, and Rex Ellis, Associate Director with the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

  Part one explores Thomas Jefferson’s difficult twinned legacy—of slavery, and of freedom.

In part two, we hear some of the voices of Jefferson’s descendants who are featured in the exhibit.