When the now-discredited “1619 Project” pseudo-history was published in the New York Times three years ago, there was immediate pushback from actual historians. Nikole Hannah-Jones’ main thesis (that everything American flows from the well of race and slavery) was debunked but that didn’t stop her acolytes from using the “1619 Project” as a template for revisionist history.
Hannah-Jones’ version of history has stepped off the campuses of academia and onto the campuses of national treasures. Monticello has been infected. Thomas Jefferson’s home is now infected with the woke virus.
Both the New York Post and Fox News have reported that visitors to Monticello are no longer guided through the home of our third president — rather, visitors are presented with a revisionist lecture and a less-then-subtle attack on the author of the Declaration of Independence.
Docents lead visitors through rooms reminding tour groups that Jefferson owned slaves and invented “nothing.” On one tour, when asked if Jefferson invented one of the items displayed, the tourists were told Jefferson was nothing more than a “tinkerer.” Even the most uninitiated would know that Jefferson designed and built the very building that docents are walking through while trashing the “tinkerer” who built it. And, of course, Jefferson, being the “inventor” of the Declaration of Independence might disagree with the label of “tinkerer.”
Monticello’s visitors now have to deal with modern art. Jefferson did own slaves, however, the Monticello tour is now a discrediting lecture that focuses on Jefferson’s legacy and reminds visitors of this fact.
The New York Post sent an reporter to confirm the National Park Service’s active painting of Jefferson as a bleak portrait and destroying Jefferson’s legacy.
The Post said:
[O]n a visit this week, The Post found, the grievance has become the predominant theme at Monticello, from the ticket booth in the visitors center — decorated with a contemporary painting of Jefferson’s weeping slaves — to its final gift-shop display.”
A spokesperson from Monticello said that the National Park had a long history of downplaying slavery. No doubt that calling slave quarters “servant” quarters was wrong and needed correction, but the new woke version of history is to instruct tour guides to chop the legs off Jefferson’s historical significance and to make Monticello a tour of the evils of slavery. Overcorrection can make visitors angry and depressed.
“Our goal is to present an honest, inclusive history of Monticello in all its aspects as well as Jefferson’s contributions to the founding of the country,” Jenn Lyon, a Monticello spokesperson said.
But, Jefferson’s home is the focus of this new Monticello-guided tour. Professor at Princeton and Vanderbilt, Dr. Carol Swain once said:
“We had a great nation. It is being destroyed now by people who hate America…Nothing constructive and positive will come from this effort.”
Jeffery Tucker was the founder and chief executive officer of Brownstone Institute. He took the tour, but was not pleased. He explained:
“You would think the Monticello would be something of a sacred space…I just thought that maybe Monticello would be protected from this disease of wokeism.”
Unfortunately, he was mistaken.
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