In the Course of Human Events

Years after her death, Thomas Jefferson described his marriage to his wife, Martha, as ten years spent "in unchequered happiness. And w hile the historical evidence draws a portrait of strong mutual affection, Martha Jefferson's life had its share of tribulation and tragedy. In this episode of "In the Course of Human Events, we look at Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, a woman long viewed almost entirely through the lens of her husband, but was in reality a remarkable person in her own right.

He captured the imagination of the Virginia elite on the eve of the American Revolution with a tale of education in Constantinople, capture by pirates, sale into slavery in New Orleans, escape into the Virginia wilderness, and conversion from Islam to Christianity. Listen as Martin Clagett, author of "Scientific Jefferson: Revealed," presents the oft-repeated—but sometimes hard to verify—story of Selim the Algerian and his difficult journeys back and forth between two continents. Co-hosts David Thorson and Jacqueline Langholtz join in and discuss themes of survival, culture, and identity highlighted through the lens of Selim's remarkable life.

It was meant to be a spectacle. And it was. But not in the way intended. In this episode, author and historian Eliga Gould tells the incredible story of Charles Willson Peale's Triumphal Arch, built to celebrate the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the American Revolution and established international recognition of the United States as a new nation. Monticello's Gaye Wilson and Hannah Zimmerman join our look into this pivotal yet often forgotten moment in American history, where art, celebration, and tragedy intertwined.

Who was Benjamin Banneker? Scientist, clockmaker, Assistant to the Surveyor of Washington, DC, creator of bestselling almanacs, and possibly the first African American to publicly challenge Jefferson on the topics of slavery, race, and equality. In this episode of In the Course of Human Events, we look letters at Banneker and Jefferson exchanged in 1791 and consider how the problem of slavery prevented these individuals with so much in common from forming a friendship.

It's a crossover episode! This time on "In the Course of Human Events" we highlight the work of an another remarkable podcast series, "Your Most Obedient and Humble Servant,” which showcases women’s letters from the 18th and early 19th-century that don’t always make it into the history books. In this installment former Monticello guide Kathryn Gehred is joined by long-time Monticello guide Danna Kelley for an entertaining look at Jefferson’s granddaughter Ellen Wayles Randolph. Their conversation centers on a letter she wrote to her mother, Martha Jefferson Randolph, while visiting Richmond, Virginia in 1819. In the letter, Ellen, then 23, describes herself as a person whose tongue “runs faster than is quite compatible with the comfort of my friends” and then proves the point with language that is often as withering as it is engaging.

In this episode of our In the Course of Human Events podcast, we look at the fascinating story of Edward Coles and his effort to persuade one of America's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, to free his slaves. Rebuffed by the former president, Coles acted on his beliefs, taking 19 enslaved men, women, and children with him from Virginia to freedom and self-sufficiency in Illinois. Former Monticello Teacher Institute participant Robbie Marsden shares Coles’s remarkable journey, which spanned nearly 50 years and featured a surprise encounter with another giant of American history. Joining him for the trip are Monticello’s Justin Bates and Melanie Holland.

Was it a relaxing retreat? A working vacation? Or a merely intriguing story that it is really more about how we like to view U.S. history than what actually happened? In this episode of In the Course of Human Events, Frank Cogliano, a professor of American history at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, shares an oft-repeated story about a fishing trip taken by George Washington the summer of 1790, possibly with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Helping him break it down are Kate Brown, assistant professor of American history at Western Kentucky University, and Jim Ambuske, of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

He challenged President Washington’s authority. He lied to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. He outfitted privateer ships in American ports and sent them to attack British shipping. He was a diplomat who was almost anything but diplomatic. Meet Edmound Charles Genet, the French envoy who nearly brought the young United States back into a war with Great Britain. In this episode of "In the Course of Human Events," Lindsay Chervinsky, presidential historian and author of "The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution," tells the story of the Genet Affair, from Genet's triumphant arrival in South Carolina to his ignominious recall, with help from Gary Sandling of Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello guide David Thorson

Late in life, on either side of his 80th birthday, Thomas Jefferson had two bad falls. Both were serious, and one was life-threatening. And both provide glimpses into Jefferson’s character and into the many roles his family, his friends, and his enslaved domestic servants played in his life. In this episode of our In the Course of Human Events podcast, Jeff Looney, the Daniel P. Jordan Editor of the "Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series at Monticello," tells the story of when Jefferson broke his arm and later nearly drowned while riding with a still-healing fracture. Papers editor Lisa Francavilla and Monticello archaeologist Derek Wheeler listen in and add details and background.

At the very outset of his presidency, Thomas Jefferson faced a long-standing problem that was only getting worse. For nearly two decades, privateers supported by the Barbary States of the North African coast had preyed on American ships, seizing merchant vessels and cargo, holding crews for ransom and demanding tribute in exchange for ending their attacks. Following Jefferson's inauguration, the leader of one these states, Tripoli, stepped up these attacks and demanded more money. Long opposed to paying such tribute, President Jefferson acted quickly, deploying a squadron of U.S. Navy warships to the Mediterranean to protect American shipping. This seemingly out-of-character move by Jefferson set the stage for a bold act that would grab the world’s attention and established a precedent for executive authority that reaches to the present day. In this episode of our In the Course of Human Events podcast, former U.S. Navy Captain and Monticello Guide David Thorson connects a sword hanging at the foot of Jefferson’s bed to events almost 220 years ago and nearly 5,000 miles away. Joining him for this episode are Monticello’s Director of Education and Visitor Programs, Steve Light, and its Web Content Developer, Beth Sawyer.

Beer featured in most meals at Monticello, possibly served in small silver vessels known today as "Jefferson Cups." But where did the beer come from? What was it like? And who made it? In this episode of In the Course of Human Events, Andrew Davenport, Monticello Public Historian and Manager of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project, shares how an English brewer's fraught sea voyage led to Peter Hemings—an enslaved Monticello cook of "great intelligence and diligence"—becoming an accomplished brewer whose beer was the envy of the neighborhood. Joining him in this episode are Holly Haliniewski, a tour guide at Monticello, and Dr. J. Jackson-Beckham, Principal of Crafted for All, LLC, a professional development platform that helps craft beverage organizations become more inclusive, equitable, and just.

Enslaved people did not simply accept the confines of their bondage, and resistance took many forms. An example is found in the story of York, a young man enslaved at Monticello who attempted to escape in 1798. It was only after York fled that Thomas Jefferson learned from his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, that the teenager successfully accessed Jefferson’s bedchamber and took several personal items including books, clothing, and a firearm. If written documents—in this instance, letters between Jefferson and Randolph—are the only sources considered, a narrow picture of this event emerges: enslaved person steals from their master. But there is far more to this story. Learn more in the latest episode of our new podcast series, “In the Course of Human Events,” featuring Monticello’s own Steve Light, Brandon Dillard, and Holly Halliniewski.

In 1783, Philadelphian Elizabeth House Trist left for Pittsburgh, beginning a journey that would take her down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers hoping -- after seven years of separation during the Revolutionary War -- to reunite with her husband in Natchez. Trist's travel diary, created at the request of Thomas Jefferson, is the earliest known record of a Mississippi River expedition by woman. A full 20 years before Lewis and Clark recorded their journey through the same waters, Trist filled her journal with natural history observations not only of the landscape, geography, weather, plants, and animals she encountered but with vivid descriptions of the people she met along the way. Trist's eventful journey was full of hardships and adventures -- including waist-high snow, muddy and icy roads, cramped living conditions, treacherous waters, a whirlpool, mosquitos, and a possible encounter with an alligator. In this episode of In the Course of Human Events, Monticello Guides Lou Hatch, David Thorson, and Holly Haliniewski recount Trist's travels, why Jefferson considered her “amongst my best friends,” and share details of her adventures and the series of tragic deaths that led her to life as one of Monticello's long-term guests.

On October 3, 1825, in what he later described as a "most painful event," Thomas Jefferson appeared before a gathering of students, professors, and trustees at the University of Virginia inside its now-famed Rotunda. Recent unruly student behavior had culminated in an attack on two professors with bricks and canes and threats by faculty to resign. Open less than a year, the university Jefferson had conceived, designed, and championed through Virginia’s legislature — the institution he called “the hobby of my old age” — was suddenly in jeopardy. In this latest episode of our “In the Course of Human Events” podcast, Andrew O’Shaughnessy, the Saunders Director at Monticello’s Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies and author of ""'The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind:' Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University" — narrates the story with help from colleagues Ann Lucas and Aaron Ojalvo.

Diplomatic protocol. These days it’s all written down and governed by rules and long-standing conventions. But in 1801, when he became President, Jefferson wondered whether the new Republican system of government didn't call for a new more democratic model of diplomatic behavior. Monticello's Gaye Wilson -- with help from Monticello guide Dianne Pierce and Monticello Teacher Institute participant Kristi Robinson -- relates how Jefferson once tested the limits of protocol and describes some of the straining effects it had on diplomatic relations at home and abroad.

In late May 1806, three of Richmond’s best doctors rushed to the home of George Wythe—a prominent judge, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Thomas Jefferson’s long-time mentor and dear friend. The physicians discovered Wythe bedridden, in agonizing pain. The cause? Poison. The likely culprit? Wythe’s own nephew. In this latest episode of our “In the Course of Human Events” podcast, Monticello Guide David Thorson—with help from colleagues Melanie Bowyer and Carrie Soubra—shares this harrowing tale of debt, greed, racism, and death.

Before photography, when portrait painting remained expensive but technology was changing how people saw the world, silhouettes – the shadow-like images created from projections and paper – were having a moment. A craze, in fact. Affordable, reproducible, and surprisingly faithful, silhouettes served as valued reminders of friends, family, and loved ones, and Jefferson displayed several at Monticello. Hoping to take advantage of a growing market, renowned portraitist, Charles Willson Peale, used a newly-invented device to simplify their production. Peale hoped his silhouette-making service would attract visitors to his private museum in Philadelphia, PA, driving revenue from both sales and admission. But it was perhaps his young enslaved servant Moses Williams, who learned to operate the new machine and took a cut (so to speak) from each sale, that profited most, using his income to buy his freedom and build a livelihood and a home.

In 1924 Monticello’s new owners began the process of restoring the gardens Jefferson had designed for his mountaintop home. But after a century of differing uses—and sometimes outright neglect—by various owners and caretakers, very little evidence remained of Jefferson’s original plans and plantings. It was a daunting task, and it could have ended quite differently were it not for the perseverance, personalities, and ingenuity of several individuals committed to restoring Jefferson’s vision. In this episode of our “In the Course of Human Events” podcast, Monticello’s Curator of Plants, Peggy Cornett—with help from colleagues Monticello Senior Historian Ann Lucas and guide Elizabeth Lukas—tells the story of how two relatively young organizations, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation and the Garden Club of Virginia, worked together to restore Jefferson’s unique vision for his flower gardens and laid the groundwork for future historic landscape restoration projects at Monticello and elsewhere across the United States.

Trailblazer. Newspaper publisher. Civil rights titan.Meet William Monroe Trotter, one of the most influential descendants of Monticello’s enslaved community—and someone who too many people have never heard of. In this episode we discuss Trotter’s life, legacy, and determined (but ultimately unsuccessful) effort to stop the release of the notoriously racist 1915 film “Birth of a Nation.”

History has remembered the Election of 1800, pitting John Adams against Thomas Jefferson, as a bitterly contested—some might say nasty—affair. Historian Edward Larson shares the story of this unprecedented campaign, the surprising results that nearly tore our young nation apart, and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that ultimately led to the first peaceful transfer of power in American history.