The problem with the masking is whether one can prove cause and effect. Were dumbwaiters used where there were only or nearly all white servants? The hidden staircase issue: those show up in second half 19th century houses that appear to have had white servants. The Upstairs/Downstairs mentality at work. And the landscaping was intended to provide the owner with a bucolic landscape uncluttered with work buildings. Servants were in that mindset meant to be invisible. I have read that servants in Buckingham Palace are still required to hide beneath and behind furniture whenever any member of the royal family entered the room. The masking business seems to be more class based than race based, at least to an initial glance.

You have the "in your face" Palladian Shirley Plantation wherein the massive Queen Anne forecourt contains now four but formerly six work buildings ranged in a compound, but built in the style of the main house and built to show power and position but still eminently visible. Shirley also had a dumbwaiter. The Georgian Westover had the worker buildings off to both sides but still quite visible. Of course, given that the land was flat, there were no elevation changes to hide them behind. Fittingly for TJ, it was a clever use of landform and space creating illusional unpeopled space.

Lyle Browning


> 
> 
> Henry,
> Thanks for this insightful post.
> As part of this discussion of Jeferson's problem with slavery I would also add the efforts that he made to mask the role and place of slavery at Monticello.   Indeed, these efforts became part of the very design of the house: the hidden staircases, the little elevator from the wine cellar, the dumbwaiters in the dining room.  The "cleverness" of these innovations is a highlight of Monticello tours: Jefferson the tinkerer.   But these innovations lessened the need to witness the roles of the slave staff going about their business.   And I would add to that the location of functional spaces, like the kitchen, below the line of sight from the house and lawn accomplished much the same.  There's the aestheitics of not cluttering the grounds with the various outbuildings, but it also hid the works.   The Mulberry Row is even farther below the line of sight, on the terrace, just over the side of the hill.   If Jefferson was dependent on slavery (and I don't doubt that he was), he certainly strove not to appear so.
> 
> David Kiracofe
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Henry Wiencek [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 4:18 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Hemings-TJ, Charlottesville newspaper
> 
> Kevin --
> I think that the core problem of understanding Jefferson's utterances
> on slavery and race is that they are completely at odds with reality.
> He said that the black people could not be freed because of the danger
> of their mixing blood with whites. But that had already occurred.
> Jefferson said that slaves were incompetent, "like children," but the
> Monticello household and plantation were run by an extremely competent
> "staff" of cooks, servants, mechanics, smiths, farmers, enslaved
> managers, etc etc. When Jefferson (and Washington, and many other
> Chesapeake planters) made a rather rapid transition from tobacco to
> wheat--a completely different and much more complex agricultural
> endeavor--the supposedly incompetent slaves adapted rapidly, acquiring
> new technical skills. Granted limited autonomy, slaves displayed
> loyalty and diligence. At Monticello several generations of whites and
> blacks lived together and formed emotional bonds (and blood ties). He
> insisted that his slaves were a heavy financial burden on him, when he
> lived in luxury. In his own domain, he never did anything to restrict
> slavery because slavery was working very, very well. He never urged
> his family to relinquish slavery; rather, he gave slaves to his
> family, perpetuating the institution. When questioned by
> emancipationists who remembered Jefferson the Revolutionary, he said
> slavery was immoral, that it was cruel, that it conflicted with the
> core ideals of the country. But late in his life Jefferson mocked
> abolitionists for "wasting Jeremiads on the miseries of slavery" and
> more or less went over to the "positive good," position, saying that
> American slaves were better fed and clothed than England's workers,
> and "labor less." After wrestling with Jefferson's theories for a long
> time I decided that the truth could be found in William Goldman's
> axiom--follow the money. As one deep South planter declared: "owing to
> the operation of this institution [slavery] upon our unparalleled
> natural advantages, we shall be the richest people beneath the bend of
> the rainbow."
> 
> Henry Wiencek
> 
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