some dude's house on the nickel.

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house. ok i was going to do a brief intro on jeffo, but im kinda tired so i am just cutting and pasting from the monticello website:

Thomas Jefferson -- author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, third president of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia -- voiced the aspirations of a new America as no other individual of his era. As public official, historian, philosopher, and plantation owner, he served his country for over five decades.

-Jefferson inherited slaves from both his father and father-in-law. In a typical year, he owned about 200, almost half of them under the age of sixteen. About eighty of these lived at Monticello; the others lived on adjacent Albemarle County plantations, and on his Poplar Forest estate in Bedford County, Virginia. Jefferson freed two slaves in his lifetime and five in his will and chose not to pursue two others who ran away. All were members of the Hemings family; the seven he eventually freed were skilled tradesmen.-
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-- ok me again, it is said religous ideals haven't really progressed since old J.C, and that democratic political thought hasn't moved much since old Jeffo, he was the one who wrote about all men being created equal in the declaration of independance. Does anyone else find it funny that he then had 200 freaking slaves?

-I think making a visit to the home of one of the founding fathers of this glorious nation, fitted in perfectly to the mid term elections going on, for the senate and house of representatives. The whole political process over here is quite funny. Because voting isn't compulsory, like it is down under, they spend vast, vast sums of money just trying to 'get the vote out.' -it seems a bit of a waste. And the TV ads are hilarious, much crazier than Australian political ads. One of the virginian candidates Jim Webb, wrote some vietnam war novels a while back, and the attack ads completely take it out of context. They say stuff like, 'you thought jim webb was too good to be true, well you're right. He wrote novels, and in these novels women had sex, and were objectified and so forth...' I'm sure in the context of the history and the character's point of view it was justified. It was probably from a soldiers perspective in saigon, just did a tour of duty and was walking through the streets lined with hookers.


This is the view from the back of Monticello, it is about a ten minute drive from C-ville, so i imagine it would be an hour or something by horse and cart. He spent the last years of his life, in this beautiful three storey abode.









Monticello is of course on the five cent piece/nickel.












The man had his priororities right!!! he has these tunnels, full of cellars. Wine and beer- you can click on the image to enlarge.














He brewed his own beer!!!!
















more from monticello.org
Jefferson was succeeded as president in 1809 by his friend James Madison, and during the last seventeen years of his life, he remained at Monticello. During this period, he sold his collection of books to the government to form the nucleus of the Library of Congress. Jefferson embarked on his last great public service at the age of seventy-six, with the founding of the University of Virginia. He spearheaded the legislative campaign for its charter, secured its location, designed its buildings, planned its curriculum, and served as the first rector.

Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, just hours before his close friend John Adams,(the second president) on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.(spooky) He was eighty-three years old, the holder of large debts, but according to all evidence a very optimistic man.