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Understanding 9/11tv James Monroes Highland CSPAN April 16, 2017 3:43pm-4:01pm EDT
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african-americans are being educated at uva and students from all around the world are being educated at uva, and yet there is still a great deal about his original vision that has survived. i think that is probably as astonishing as anything. >> archaeologists are trying to cover a presidential mystery here at james monroe's highland. , we will introduce you to the woman who is trying to figure out what his house once looked like and what happened to it. >> i call it a presidential cold case. there were always questions about this house.
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architects look at the little house and say that does not really look like a wing of a president house. there are formal similarities to other dependency buildings from other plantations. the questions were lingering. when i got here, there were answers to questions i did not quite fully understand. maybe it is just a willingness to say that i don't understand that. because maybe it is perfectly clear but i just don't understand. let's look further. there standing now in center of the spot where james monroe's original main house stood. this is where we discovered the well preserved foundations just below ground surface. we have covered cap while we are not excavating. that is how we preserve an archaeological site.
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we laid these down on the ground service to get a sense of the footprint of the house. specifically over the places that we have excavated and have identified the walls. it is also speculated a bit in between those spots. this is the outline of the 1799 monro house. we see some of the houses indicated by these surface flagstones so you can really get a sense of the relationship of this house to the smaller 1818 guesthouse that is behind the 1870's house. it was excavated a couple dozen squares around here. exterior around here last fall. the grass has not quite grown back yet. eventually, our research will uncover this area and also the yard. our work on the yard will be
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able to tell us a lot of the activities that were happening here and we will get the house orientation. we don't know whether the main entrance was on this face for the southern race. we will be able to determine that. there is a smaller wing to the west that is probably more service oriented. it held a kitchen seller. the seller itself we have not excavated. that. eager to get into we will have great discoveries there. we have really good evidence of burning. we think the house was destroyed sometime between the mid 1830's and early 1850's. we have not yet found contemporary newspaper accounts of the destruction, which is surprising. to day someone will come up me and have discovered the missing newspaper account. that will happen, i am sure.
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we found a chimney base. we found burned planks, the archaeological small fines are numerous. there is good documentary of evidence cooperating -- corroborating that. day beforeer of the plastic bottles, glass, wine type bottles were used over and over again for all types of liquid storage and transport. some ceramics, which is interesting. that will tell us what the monroe's were eating off of, the dishes they used. the house continues behind me theprobably goes under
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1870's house that belongs to the massey family. it continues 20 feet or so behind the house. that was really impacted by the construction in the 1870's. otherwise the part of the house that is not covered by that is really well preserved. pressurearchaeological that i'm eager to get into. james monroe is an interesting character. he is maybe the most popular president of his time, and one that is least known today. we have a great challenge and opportunity to share his story. james monroe purchased the property in 1793. when he was away, he was minister to france during the 1790's. his good friend and mentor thomas jefferson and james madison were both involved in
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setting up the plantation prior to his moving here in 1799. late in the year in 1799 buried james monroe, unlike the other local presidents, did not grow up in this area. monroe himself is from west moreland county out east. he was born in 1758 and moved here from fredericksburg where he settled with his young wife just after their marriage. the property is now on the grounds of the university of virginia. they call it monro hill. this property became available and he saw it as being closer to jefferson, being a larger tract of land and hopefully more productive. inpurchased the property 1790 three and moved in in 1799. by the late 18 teens, he had his property oak hill in loudoun
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county. was closer to washington. he wants down more frequently. he veryis presidency, likely traveled with his wife. sometimes his elder daughter also accompanied them. was an important person to monro. a confidant and secretary sometimes. his family would come. enslavede certainly people during monroe's lifetime. he claimed ownership of about 250 souls. that is cumulative, not at one time. that was based on what was happening with the properties. that is important to recognize is that monroe's latency is physically fairly diffuse. this is the one that is open to the public. he spent time in fredericksburg and new york city.
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of course he was born in the eastern part of the state. during the main portion of his public career, highland was his home. this represents his ministries abroad where he was twice minister to france and england and briefly to spain. it also represents his time as secretary of state. he was prior to that a ft. worth -- a four term governor back when that was allowed. that was before individual one-year terms. andas secretary of state eventually a wildly popular two-term president. -- james monroe seems to be an easy man. men say he was able to put and women at ease in social situations. i think he enjoyed dinner table conversation. he really was kind.
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people say he had a great sense of humor. we see that in accounts of him. he seems to poke fun at himself and others. he wants to campbelltown academy, which was a good school. it really prepared colonial young men for a real professional life. john marshall was at least briefly one of his classmates. after both of his parents died by the time he was 16, his maternal uncle, joseph jones, who was his first real mentor and role model, sent james monroe to william and mary, where he studied for about two years. i like in particular a story about monroe's start there. he should have been well regardedand well school. he got there and found he was really deficient in one of more of the subjects and was not
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white ready and was kind of disappointed. he wrote about this later that he went home and studied really hard over the summer and really worked hard to get where he thought he should be. when he came back, his professors were impressed. he really then made the cut and was where he should have been. i think that is a central piece to understanding james monroe. at highland it was always understood that the standing house is not the entire monro main house. we thought it was a part of the main house, or a remnant wing. a rectangle structure. we know that from documentary sources in particular. there were three of them that show sketches of two wings but together. when i started here in 2012, i sought to understand the history
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of the property itself. longer here, is no we should be able to find traces of it underground and i was not really satisfied with the sense that it is there and we have not found. we kept looking and eventually excavated all the way around the main house. it was in the front of the in as house that we found deposit of archaeological debris. largered to open up excavations. we were very lucky to find well preserved archaeological foundations there. the structures on the property today come from the different phases of occupation. the james monroe period buildings behind me, the presidential gas house -- guesthouse was built for him
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when he was president. in 1818 and he was coming here as president, he needed more space. when you travel as president, you have more people visiting you, you need more accommodation for people to come with you or to you when you are president. the 1818 guesthouse is one part. room whitesmall one piece added to the eastern part, and then that collects to this large building, this taller yellow building that was from the 1870's. this little white piece is from the 1850's. hugh c circular saw marks all through the frame and that gives us a good date. that is corroborated by archery dating. we have an overseer's house as well. and a smokehouse. otherwise we have later monroe
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buildings and reproduction buildings or reconstructions of buildings that were here historically. we do know the names and occupations of cumulatively 250 people that were enslaved as part of monroe's lifetime owning. there was a variety. one of the things that we really appreciate is getting to know people's names and their specific occupations. for example in september 6, 1818 letter that james monroe wrote to george hay, he talks about building this house, building the presidential guesthouse. and theoned one by name occupation of two enslavement that does enslaved men that did work. we think that man was peter mallory. you see his name in other places. he also mentioned a man named
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george who may have been another carpenter or another craftsman. knowing that these two were the of building the house we still have standing really brings a richness to our understanding of the property and its history. we see people and the roles they play, the connections or not the monro family who ultimately saw them as labor, but in certain instances there are also people with whom they did share. it is a complex story and we do know some. not enough. we're still working. the discoveries we have made are not only an opportunity to re-examine the site, which is essential and very exciting, but also an example to study james monroe himself. we are excited to look back at
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what we that what we understood about james monroe. we continue to do archaeology. art to project our the larger landscape, including the slave quarters that we may have discovered in the field, and what we want to do now is really raise the funds for the excavation that will take place over the course of a year or , open for a month or two at a time so we can really look in and see the whole house open and really that into those sellers. that would be crucial archaeologically to open those up and see who's stuff was in the cellar when house was destroyed. we think the house was destroyed after james monroe left.
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there's every indication it would've been in the 1830's to 1850's. james munro was gone by them. the sellers will be able to tell us in closer detail when the house was destroyed. tell with thee to finishes of the house, the plaster, maybe types of woodwork and hardware. we have a long season of archaeological excavation ahead of us. we are in the development phase for being able to open that and keep it open for a good period of time. our best days are still ahead of us. we look forward to the time when archaeology is a daily occurrence here.
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>> you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. of 1950 comeing almost one year into world war i, an american journalist and photographer left chicago bound for berlin, germany. they traveled with the berlin army on the front lines in german and pressure. they shot about 5.5 hours of film. summer ofned in the 1915 and
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