Charlottesville Confidential

Jefferson's Monticello--one of America's most beautiful and fascinating presidential estates.
(Click image to enlarge.)

This road trip started with a visit to Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Monticello--Italian for little mountain--is situated in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley and constitutes 5,000 acres of lush Virginia countryside. It was here that one of the most brilliant minds in American history lived and worked as a farmer, statesman, and patriot.

To learn more about Jefferson and Monticello, go here, here, and here.

Three of my favorites quotes by or about Jefferson:

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." - Thomas Jefferson, 1800 in a private letter discussing party conflict

"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." – John F. Kennedy, Remarks at dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners of the Western Hemisphere, April 29, 1962

And, finally, on his gravesite, the epitaph Jefferson wrote for himself:

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of American Independence
Of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom
And Father of the University of Virginia

Jefferson died on July 4, 1826--the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. His fellow patriot and co-signer, John Adams, died four hours later in Quincy, Massachusetts. Jefferson was 83. Adams was 90.

Just a few more pictures from Monticello.



Tomorrow: One of America's castles...

Photo copyright: Janet Kincaid, 04/09