♪ ♪ GAYLE: How are you?

LAUREN: Hi, Gayle.

GAYLE: It's so great to you see both of you.

LAURITA: Good to see you, too.

GAYLE: Welcome to Monticello.

LAURITA: Thank you.

We're happy to be here.

GAYLE: Yeah, yeah, we're happy to have you.

Of course, behind us is the main house.

But my connection and where I feel most in touch with my ancestors is along Mulberry Row.

And that's where we're going to walk today because that's where my ancestors lived and worked.

Mulberry Row in Jefferson's time was always active.

So when you walk around Mulberry Row, I ask people to put themselves back into the 19th century... LAURITA: Yeah.

GAYLE: And the 18th century and hear the animals, hear the hammering of all the work going on.

And guess what?

I ask them to hear the children playing.

LAURITA: Ahh.

GAYLE: I ask them to hear the laughter, because what's most important for me as a descendant is to recognize these people as human beings.

They still found hope and joy because if they hadn't, we wouldn't be here today.

LAUREN: Right.

LAURITA: That's right.

GAYLE: This of course, is where the enslaved lived and worked.

LAUREN: Mm-hmm.

LAURITA: Okay.

GAYLE: Along this end of the home, which is a wing that's connected to the main house.

LAURITA: Okay.

LAUREN: Okay.

GAYLE: I would like to talk a little bit about Sally Hemings and who she was.

LAURITA: Okay.

GAYLE: Because people make assumptions about her and don't really know the history.

LAUREN: Mm-hmm.

GAYLE: Sally Hemings was the daughter of a woman named Elizabeth.

An enslaved woman, African and European...

BOTH: Mm-hmm.

GAYLE: And the daughter of a man named John Wayles.

John Wayles was Thomas Jefferson's father-in-law.

BOTH: Oh.

GAYLE: Which means that Sally Hemings and Jefferson's wife, Martha, were half siblings.

LAURITA: Yes.

GAYLE: Half-sisters.

So this exhibition, the Life of Sally Hemings, opened in 2018.

Not only does it acknowledge that Jefferson had children within an enslaved woman, but it acknowledges her personhood.

It gives a woman who is marginalized in her life, the attention and the credit she deserves.

LAURITA: Yes.

LAUREN: Mm-hmm.

GAYLE: For being strong, brave, intelligent, and very, very clever.

I'm so proud of this exhibition and the work that we put into it, and I'm really proud that this woman is my four times great aunt.

♪ ♪ The paradox of our history, that we were founded are principles of freedom, when Jefferson wrote the Declaration, he was accompanied by an enslaved man, Robert Hemings.

LAURITA: Mm-hmm.

GAYLE: So there's that tension... LAURITA: Right.

GAYLE: That we hold, not just here in Monticello, but in America.

LAUREN: Yeah.

LAURITA: Mm-hmm.

GAYLE: And it's the freedom that we keep fighting for.

There's something about this place that is painful, but yet embracing.

LAURITA: Yes.

GAYLE: It calls us to the truth.

LAURITA: Well, the joy of the experience for me is knowing the history and then meeting you.

GAYLE: Thank you.

I appreciate that.

LAURITA: So this is like a full circle moment.

GAYLE: It is.

LAUREN: It is.

GAYLE: Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

Thank you for being here with me.

LAUREN: Thank you for having us.

We really appreciate it.

GAYLE: Yeah.

Sharing story, sharing this history.

(trotting) (brays) LAURITA: This was a perfect first stop of our trip.

LAUREN: I have never been to Monticello, so being here and actually seeing this grand building, it was, there were a lot of different like emotions.

Like, I felt proud to be here as a Black American, but also just like thinking of all the things that happened here at Monticello.

♪ ♪