The Many Lives of Eliza Schuyler

"It was also, on any given day, crowded with women and young people-Jefferson's daughters by his wife, Martha; their 12 surviving children (six of them girls); his sister. Female visitors, including First Lady Dolley Madison, often popped by. Among the plantation's large enslaved workforce, women and children outnumbered men by roughly two to one. Some of those enslaved children were Jefferson's own, by Sally Hemings, who was also the half sister of his dead wife."

"And so the site, where I serve as president, debuted a tour called "Women at Monticello" in 2024. Our guides prepared with customary rigor, reading widely in the ever-growing scholarship on women in the early republic. They devised a premise as sound as it was simple: The extraordinary stories of ordinary women, free and enslaved, would take center stage. And areas where women mostly spent their time, which guests are moved through quickly on regular tours, would claim pride of place."

"The fate of "Women at Monticello" hinged, in large part, on men. We built it; they didn't come. Barely one in five people who took the tour was male, though roughly 40 percent of our visitors are, which illustrates a long-standing problem: The general public doesn't much care about women's history. In the world of nonfiction best sellers-those wide-spined histories and biographies sold at airports-the wielding of public power remains the big story."

Monticello functioned as a domestic hub populated daily by Jefferson's wife’s daughters, his extended family, numerous female visitors, and an enslaved workforce dominated by women and children. Enslaved children included some fathered by Jefferson and Sally Hemings, who was the half sister of his deceased wife. A new tour, 'Women at Monticello,' debuted in 2024 to foreground the extraordinary stories of ordinary women, free and enslaved, and to focus on spaces where women spent time. Guides prepared rigorously and visitor reviews were glowing. Nevertheless ticket sales lagged, attendance skewed heavily female, and the tour was largely concentrated in Women's History Month. Public interest in women's history remains limited compared with narratives of public power.

Read at The Atlantic