When Jefferson returned from France, word of his impending arrival at
Monticello reached his slaves, who gathered at the foot of the mountain,
unhitched the horses from the master's carriage, and pulled the carriage up
the mountain themselves.  This account is from "The Domestic Life of Thomas
Jefferson" by his great-granddaughter, Sarah Randolph (pp.152-53).  At first
Randolph doubted that the slaves had actually pulled the carriage but she
wrote, "I have had it from the lips of old family servants who were present
as children on the occasion, that the horses were actually 'unhitched,' and
the vehicle drawn by the strong black arms. . . ."

Displays of joy at the return of a master have been documented elsewhere,
but this business of actually pulling a carriage by hand struck me as
excessive and unlikely, as it did Sarah Randolph.  However, I came across an
account that describes much the same thing, but occurring in
late-19th-century England.  It's in Nigel Nicolson's "Portrait of a
Marriage," (pp. 25, 69): "Dada, Mother, and I had a triumphant return to
Knole [their castle], pulled up in the carriage by the fire brigade with
ropes, under welcoming arches." And: "The day was declared a public holiday
. . . . The horses were taken from their traces at the approaches to the
town, and the local fire brigade pulled the carriage through the streets and
park to the very door . . . "

I had thought that, if the Monticello slaves indeed pulled Jefferson's
carriage up the mountain, it was a spontaneous act, thought up on the spot.
 But knowing now that this was also done in England, I'm wondering if it was
an English tradition transplanted to Virginia.  If so, how would the slaves
have known about it?   Does anyone know of other accounts of carriages
pulled by slaves in Virginia?

Henry Wiencek

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