Virtual Field Trips with Monticello
Would you like to talk to Monticello educators in person about Thomas Jefferson and Monticello? Now you can with our virtual field trips!
We offer FREE virtual field trips to your students, grades K-12. The virtual field trip lasts about 45 minutes, during which time a Monticello educator will talk to your class about Monticello using images, props, and an online virtual tour. Your students can ask the educator questions, and you can prepare your students with pre- and post-visit resources. We can connect with your class via Zoom or Google Meets. Check out the program descriptions below to sign up, or email us at digital.learning@monticello.org!
Jefferson’s Monticello:
- Learn about Thomas Jefferson’s ideas that helped shaped a nation
- Learn about Monticello as an architectural icon
- Find out about Monticello as a plantation that was fueled by enslaved labor
Monticello was the home of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd president of the United States of America. The revolutionary ideas of this man of the Enlightenment were instrumental in the creation of the United States. His home in Charlottesville, Virginia, is an architectural icon, with its neoclassical design drafted by Jefferson himself. But Monticello was also a working plantation, and the home to hundreds of enslaved people. The Founding Father who wrote “all men are created equal” was also a lifelong slave owner.
Using images, props, and Google Streetview, a Monticello educator will introduce students to Thomas Jefferson’s world.
Jefferson’s Monticello on the Center for Interactive Learning
Slavery at Monticello:
- Delve into the paradox of Thomas Jefferson as a champion of liberty and freedom, yet a lifelong slave owner
- Find out about specific enslaved people who lived and worked at Monticello, and how they retained their family ties and humanity in a dehumanizing system of oppression
- Talk about how the institution of slavery has ramifications in the United States throughout its history to the present day – manifesting in racist policies that deny equal rights for African-Americans
How could the author of the Declaration of the Independence own slaves? How could twenty percent of the population of the new United States, founded on the principles of liberty and equality, live in bondage? What was life like for enslaved people in the early republic?
This virtual field trip uses Monticello as a lens through which to examine these questions.
Your students will learn about the enslaved men, women, and children who lived at Monticello, and the impact that slavery had on the early American republic and beyond.
Slavery at Monticello on the Center for Interactive Learning
