WEBVTT - Part Four: Thomas Jefferson: King of Hypocrites 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.600 Also media. So so prop you listened to the Boston 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:08.600 Slide cop, Yeah. 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:11.600 I just yes, mainly because like I just feel like 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:15.760 Boston city people are the most on brand people, like 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.919 the Boston people are the most Boston ever. And it 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.479 was a joy to hear Jamie bring back her accent. Yeah, 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.120 because I'm like I missed that. I'm like, I need 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:26.279 you to have more. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:27.240 Yeah. 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:29.720 Yeah, I mean she does a nice imitation of a 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:30.720 Boston accent. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.319 I just really a lot of I. 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:35.960 Just really want a techno remix of the end of 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.640 the the side cap video where he's like a fuck, 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:41.000 I don't know, Robert, could you do it better? 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.320 Yeah? You teach us how to do it? Boy slow. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:49.320 So that was it's like East Boston, you know, I 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:52.760 think this guy was some other. 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:53.360 Part of town. 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:58.640 Yeah, I'm slid in classic Boston line what you would say. 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:01.480 I'm getting better it. I'm getting better at it. Yeah 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:01.720 you are. 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.160 Anyway, I'm very I'm very proud of that show. So 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:06.759 sixteenth Minute of Fame. 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.280 Yeah, that's a great show to open about sixteenth Minute 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:14.120 of Fame. And you know, sixteenth Minute of Fame is 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:18.480 made by our friend Jamie Loftus And when we start 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.000 part four, We're going to talk about Thomas Jefferson's friend 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:31.800 Dabney Carr, who died. Anyway, we're back. So we've talked 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.440 about Dabney a couple of times here. Prop and his 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:37.880 best childhood best friend. They go to school together, they 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.039 live at school together. Then Dabney dies at like thirty, 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.280 you know, tragically young. And as little kids they had, 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:46.840 they'd spent a lot of time hanging out, and you know, 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.800 the vast property, all these thousands of acres his dad owns. 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.240 Thomas's favorite part is this place called montes Cello. This 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.800 place he calls montes Cello, which is like this little mountain. 0:01:57.600 --> 0:01:59.920 And as a child, he and Dabney made a promise 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:01.880 that the first one of them to die would bury 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:06.360 the other under a specific oak tree atop Monticello. Jefferson 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.200 followed up on this promise by having the people he 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:11.120 owned dig it because he's not going to dig a 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.360 grave for his dead friend. And then he took notes 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:14.840 like a serial killer about it. 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.359 Weirdo, But the mountain. 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.960 Monticello, where his friend chooses to be buried, gets its 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.760 name from Jefferson, who took the Italian word for small mountain. Now, 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.440 I've always heard that Monticello was a mountain, and that's 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.799 what people always say about it. But before I sat 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:32.800 down to write these episodes, I hadn't actually looked up 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.079 the height of the fucker. And as soon as I did, 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.799 it's eight hundred feet tall. Prop that doesn't seem like 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.359 a mountain to me. That's a hill, right, That's a hill. Yeah, 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:44.040 that's a fucking hill. And like, I don't know, it's 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:47.160 one of those things. There's not actually a universally agreed 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.639 upon definition of a mountain, right, and this is this 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:52.799 is petty. We're talking about a man who does some 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:54.480 terrible things. But it annoys me. 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:56.880 Yeah, it's kind of yeah, the size of a mountains 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.560 kind of a vibe thing. But yeah, but I feel like, 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:01.840 but you know a mountain when you see it, You 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:02.799 know a mountain. 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:03.040 When you see it. 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.760 Yeah, some places, like in I think in the UK, 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:07.760 I think it's a thousand feet it has to be, 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:09.679 so it's not a mountain if we're going by like 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:11.440 British standards. 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:15.000 Right, But obviously I see you take this very seriously. 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:15.840 I do. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.400 I'm livid, Sophia. I've never been anything because it's like anger, 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:21.480 but I still find it frustrating. 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:25.360 Because it's just like, okay, like if we were anyone else, 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.480 like if it was just like a like I would 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.480 be like, oh I get it, bro like yeah yeah, 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:31.440 not it's mountain, Like. 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:32.560 You got a mountain? 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.040 Yeah, good king, you know what I'm saying, Like, I'll 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.120 be on your side, But like this fool like nah, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:38.400 fam ain't no damn mountain. 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:39.040 It is a hill. 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.040 If this, if this, if this mountain verus hill issue 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.280 is so important to you, Robert, and it makes you 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:46.119 so livid. I just want you to know I would 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:47.120 die on that hill for you. 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.480 Thank you, thank you, yes, so thank you. 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:51.520 Well. 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:53.920 I looked into it a little further, by which I 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.680 mean I read an article on adventure dot Com but 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.839 spelled without the e in the middle of adventure which 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.520 He points out that both the Oxford English Dictionary and 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:05.280 the American English, Merry and Webster Dictionary to find a 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:08.440 mountain is a land mass that projects conspicuously above the 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:13.640 surrounding area. So they do literally say it's a vibe thing, right, Does. 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.680 It look like a mountain toew? Yeah, totally. 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:20.520 The USGS, the United States Geological Survey used to have 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:22.760 a minimum height of a thousand feet for a mountain, 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.159 but they don't do that anymore. I'm sure Big Mountain 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.440 got to them, you know, all that mountain money coming 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:33.559 to the four anyway, Thomas Jefferson at least got mountain 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.320 vibes from Monticello, because that's what he always called it, 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:40.080 even though it's a hill. Jefferson inherited the property at 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.320 age twenty one. It had been owned by his father, 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.279 but he had loved the land since boyhood. The people 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:49.000 like he so basically he starts building in seventeen sixty eight. 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:50.560 I think that's just when he's finally in like a 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.520 financial situation where he feels like he can afford to 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.480 do that. And I say he starts building, he has 0:04:57.600 --> 0:04:58.719 the people that he owns built. 0:04:58.760 --> 0:04:59.400 He does not do that. 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:01.840 He which he does sometimes hire people too, Like he 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:03.560 has laborers come in to do parts of it. 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:04.080 Obviously. 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:06.280 One of the interesting things is a lot people are 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.040 fascinated with Monticello. 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:09.800 It's like it's a whole deal. 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:11.680 And one of the things people will point out is 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:16.240 that he is like he designs the whole thing himself. 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.440 Like he does He's not like a professional architect but 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.760 he like becomes one because he has like no training, 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:26.760 but he drafts blueprints for Monticello, and normally when people 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.280 are like self proclaimed architects, it's a bad thing. He 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:32.480 actually seems to have been pretty good at this, and 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:34.640 he like becomes he does like he designs a bunch 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.360 of professional buildings later in life. Because I started the 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:40.440 series by noting that he was kind of the ancient 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.800 Roman equivalent of a web like he's he's obsessed with 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.000 ancient Rome, the way that like some people are obsessed 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.800 with Japan over in the US today. So it's based 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.520 a lot on like ancient Greek and Roman sort of 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:57.800 classic designs. And he, you know, this is like, at 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.320 least in the things that he expresses through his writing, 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.840 Monticello was like the center of his being. He wrote 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.480 about the property. I am happy nowhere else and in 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.160 no other society, and all my wishes end where I 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.520 hope my days will end at Monticello. Now the reason 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.840 for his happiness that that's always portrayed romantically, he was 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.400 just so in love with this, this land and this 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.040 beautiful house that he built. I think what's actually happening 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.240 here is a little more sinister because not that he's 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:26.800 just like I really love this hill. I really love 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:27.200 this hill. 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:28.360 I really like my living room. 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:33.720 No, it's the real world constantly falls short of Jefferson's beliefs, right, 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.000 Those beliefs are kind of incoherent, but he is like 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.800 a dreamer. He expresses these kind of like constant revolutionary 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.760 fantasies that never quite come true. Right, the French Revolution. 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:46.040 We can argue if it's better or not, but like 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.840 it doesn't work out the way everyone hoped it would 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:49.159 when it. 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:50.599 Started, right exactly. 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.839 Yeah, And he has this obsession with like Cato's idea 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.200 of the idyllic free farmer is the backbone of a 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.359 mighty republic. And also all these weird beliefs about these 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.640 independent sacks and explorers who'd founded the colonies, and like 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.680 none of that's real. And he wants to kind of 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.400 make these dreams that he has from the things that 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.440 he's read. He wants to like build. He's kind of 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:15.440 the same thing a lot of cult leaders want, right, Like, 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:16.800 I just want to go out into the woods and 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:21.080 build my own society, a perfect utopia right now. Yeah, 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.880 in modern America you can do that, and people do, 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:27.040 but you have to be a cult leader, right, you 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.320 have to get a bunch of people to like follow you, 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:31.880 otherwise you're not going to be able to build your utopia. 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.680 Thomas just owns people like That's what he's doing here though, right, 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.720 he is, he is. This really is very much like 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:42.680 a cult leader motivation, but just using slaves. Yeah, I 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:44.360 hadn't thought about it that way. 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.040 Yeah. Yeah, like a place that you could pretend it's 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.320 like you know, and it becomes like you saying that now, 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:56.520 like becomes such a part of the mythos of the South, 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.760 even like the you know, like the Lost Cause thing 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:01.600 I mean that we did where it's just like you 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:06.560 want this like Whistling Dixie, you know, lazy afternoon sip 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.080 and sea tea like kind of lifestyle where we could 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.560 just hang out and talk about the new scuttle bucket. 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.920 It's just a perfect like world on our Sunday tea 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.440 on the porch while we're trying not to catch the vapis. 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.080 You know, Yes, you just want that, you know what 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:20.360 I mean? 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.680 Yeah, And that is that's what's happening here. Jefferson starts, 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.480 you know, has construction started in seventeen sixty eight, He 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.239 moves there for the first time in seventeen seventy. Because 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.640 their old home, Shadwell, had burned down. They lived at 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.320 first in an outbuilding until the main house was finished 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.199 enough to allow occupation. Jefferson occupied the house there with 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.640 his wife Martha for about ten years before she passes 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:45.040 on and he takes a break to. 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:46.200 Become French for a while. 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:50.040 The architecture that he witnessed in Paris inspired further changes 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.280 to the property when he returned in seventeen eighty nine, 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:54.680 and as we noted, he pays for that by using 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:58.400 the people that he owns as collateral. His goal when 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:00.640 he comes back is to kind of retire from public 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.520 life and live in Monticello. That only lasts like three 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.319 or four years. Like he's never actually good at, you know, 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.120 retiring and given up public life. But when it gets 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.400 home from France, he's like, I'm so tired of the 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:13.000 the weariness of the world. 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:13.640 I just want to. 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:17.440 Retreat to have a lie, Yeah, having a bullshit all 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:22.280 these French exhausting yeah. Yeah, to a lie to someone else, yeah, totally. 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.599 So part of what's going on here with Monticello is 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.200 he has built for himself or he has had built 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.599 for himself a home that includes he's almost made a 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.640 smart house, right. It is filled with ultra modern amenities 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:37.719 and a lot of things that you couldn't actually have 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.760 in a house until the age of like automation and 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:46.240 like machines and electricity, using like human beings to actually 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.680 fulfill that role. And I was unaware about this. People 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.360 always talk about, like, how what an architectural marvel it is, 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:54.960 but like the idea that he has built a slavery 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.559 powered smart house was not expressed to me. 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.079 Wow, that's phrase, that's what it is. 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.800 You're right, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna read you a quote 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:08.560 from the Smithsonian magazine article by Henry Winsack. The mansion 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.959 sits atop a long tunnel through which slaves unseen hurried 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.959 back and forth, carrying platters of food, fresh tableware, ice, beer, wine, 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.520 and linens, while above them, twenty or thirty or forty 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.079 guests sat listening to Jefferson's dinner table conversation. At one 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:23.959 end of the tunnel lay the ice house. At the 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.719 other the kitchen, a hive of ceaseless activity where the 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:29.520 enslaved cooks and their helpers produced one course after another 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.440 during dinner, Jefferson would open a panel in the side 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.560 of the fireplace, insert an empty wine bottle, and seconds 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.079 later pull out a full bottle. We can imagine he 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:40.800 would delay explaining how this magic took place until an 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.160 astonished guest put the question to him. The panel concealed 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.000 a narrow dumbwaiter that descended into the basement. When Jefferson 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.440 put an empty bottle in the compartment, a slave waiting 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.120 in the basement pulled the dumbwaiter down, moved the empty 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.480 inserted a fresh bottle, and sent it up to the 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.720 master a matter of seconds. Similarly, platters of hot food 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.560 magically appeared on a rough volving door fitted with shelves 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.319 and us and the used plates disappeared from sight. On 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.320 the same contrivance, guests could not see or hear any 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:09.920 of the activity with the leaks between the visible world 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.840 and the invisible that magically produced Jefferson's abundance. 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:15.000 He made it Disneyland. 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:21.400 He made a Disneyland. Yeah he's got Yeah, that's crazy, like, yeah, 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.000 it's Disneyland. Yeah huh, Yeah, it's a Disneyland and it's 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.480 all powered by slavery. And I I didn't like I 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.840 knew that his life, you know, relied heavily on slavery, 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.959 or I didn't realize like he built like a magical house. 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:38.240 He figured out how to hide him. 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.360 Yeah, you don't even see the people serve because that's uncomfortable, right, 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.319 It's really awkward to like have to look at slavery 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:47.720 like yeah, like, especially. 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.400 As you're discussing the tenants in the in the nuances 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.080 of liberty, right you know, so it's like we can't 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.679 just be like, oh, out in the open about it. 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:58.960 Yeah, you've just got your magical wine box that keeps 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:04.040 being filled with bottles, Yeah, Disneyland. 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:04.679 Yeah kind of. 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:05.040 Yeah. 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.600 And in learning this, it kind of brought Jefferson into 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.520 clarity for me. You know, there's this how can he 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.200 write so well about the concept of liberty while still 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:14.760 owning people? 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:15.000 Right? 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.720 Why did he ultimately fail? He used to It seems 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:19.199 like he used to when he was younger, have some 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.079 convictions about abolition, and then he failed, Like why? And 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.520 it's it's I think part of it at least is 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:30.240 because using the people he owned let him mimic aspects 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.439 of what we would call a first world lifestyle with 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.400 eighteenth century technology, right, Like it's. 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.360 Kind of rad. Yeah, Yeah, it's kind of rad to 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:41.719 stick a wine bottle into a wall and then a 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:42.559 new one comes out. 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.720 Yeah, And I think that, honestly, that makes him more 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:50.920 comprehensible because we do all see we all know that, Like, shit, 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.320 that's really convenient, you know, like have like Amazon Prime 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.400 or whatever. Right, Yes, great being able to get a 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.079 thing the next day, and you know why you're able 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:03.920 to write, Yes, access to all of these like wonderful 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.040 luxury items like comes through a lot of like not 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.079 just environmental waste that's you know, we are going to 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.800 pay for one day, but like a lot of human suffering, 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:15.960 and you're all pretty yeah. 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:18.559 Like I totally love this, and I think this is 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:20.720 the like this is the big This is a big 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:25.040 takeaway because it's like, you know again like the answer, 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.599 you know, motivations of stuff. Again, my organizing premise is 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.319 like history is just us back then, So like the 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.839 answer is actually as simple and as obvious as it's. 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:40.920 It's not a deep mystery. It's this made my life easier. Yeah, 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.800 and I know it's wrong, but god damn it, I 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:47.839 really I really could use a new pencil holder. So 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:51.560 it needs to come right now. I can't wait two days. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:52.360 It has to come right now. 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.360 I understand that this is the great evil of my era, 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.080 but I'm not walking down to the wine cellar right all. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:05.120 It makes it so petty but also so comprehensible, I think, exactly. Yeah, 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.240 Monticello has been a famous property for generations, and it's 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.040 innovative design gets sort of folded in with long standing 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.679 myths about Jefferson's genius. A classic example would be this 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.880 quote from John F. Kennedy during a dinner honoring Nobel 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.640 Prize winners at the White House. I think this is 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.680 the most extraordinary collection of talent of human knowledge that 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:26.840 has ever been gathered together at the White House, with 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.440 the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. And 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.040 you'll you run into that quote a lot because it's 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:38.200 it's that like Aaron Sorkin era, like American mythos, like 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:42.240 our great like these men were really like Titanic minds. 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.920 And yeah, it's weird both because like, yeah, I don't know, 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.440 I don't see as much evidence for genius as you do. 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.040 Like was he a really good writer? Yeah, absolutely, but 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:53.840 like I don't know genius. I don't even know if 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.960 I'd call him a genius writer, right, Like yeah, But 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.880 more to the point, that's also that's a shitty thing 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.680 for JFK to say to a bunch of Nobel Prize winners, 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:07.080 because the nineteen sixty two Nobel Prize winners list included 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.600 John Steinbeck, who was the better writer the Jefferson. 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:11.480 Oh. 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.800 It included Linus Paulin, who had attempted to end the 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.200 nuclear arms race and like done, made significant progress in 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:23.640 doing that. Included Francis Crick, James Watkins, and Maurice Wilkins, 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.480 who put out a paper describing the helical structure of 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.480 DNA for the first time. So I actually think that 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.920 crew is a lot more impressive than the guy who 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.000 had been to the wine cellar powered by enslaved people. 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.440 Yeah, definitely, like a like it's like you say that 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:41.000 line and then you stop and look at the room, 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:45.680 like when Thomas Jefferson died dined alone. Yeah, he get 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:47.480 it because he's the smartest guy ever. 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:49.080 Get it. 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.680 Yeah, you guys just figured out DNA. He figured out 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:53.640 how to get wine bottles up to his house without 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:54.400 looking at people. 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.920 Listen, he figured out how to hide evil. That's what he. 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:06.040 Man so as it happens. Obviously, the whole machine that 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.760 was Monticello was powered entirely by the work of child 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.000 slaves in particular, and by powered, I mean that's what 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:18.000 funded his lifestyle in a very specific way, Like that's 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.000 generally true in that like that was just a thing 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.680 across later, like specifically, young boys are what pay for 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.840 Jefferson's lifestyle. You get hints of this in more casual 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.680 popular coverage of Monticello when rite up i found on 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.200 history dot Com notes at a time when most brick 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:36.920 was still imported from England, Jefferson chose to mold and 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.560 bake his own bricks with clay found on the property. 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:43.119 Monticello's grounds provided most of the lumber, stone and limestone, 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.040 and even the nails used to construct the buildings were 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:50.280 manufactured on site. Now that kind of makes it sound 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.600 like Jefferson is like a shop local pioneers, an off 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.720 grid king, right, Like he's built this. Wow, they even 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.880 made their own nails. That is leaving that description. The 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.400 way they talk about the nails leaves out something important, 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.800 which is that Thomas Jefferson is horribly in debt and 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:08.560 because he is not going to work with you, and 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:10.920 I would consider a job. He needs a way to 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:13.960 cover his bills with labor performed on the property. 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:14.600 Wow. 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.720 Jefferson's image is as like a farmer, right, because he's 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.000 obsessed and he writes a lot like Cato did about 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.480 this Yaleman farmer. Right, So you might expect him to 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.800 have made his living by having slaves work his farm 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.679 men grow crops, which is what I had always assumed. Right, 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:34.240 he didn't try to do this. But he's a terrible farmer, 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:36.720 like he's dog shit at the His job is the 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:38.240 business side of this, right, and. 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:39.280 His business at farming. 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:39.800 Yeah. 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.840 Oh, so he out here saying like, I've made millions 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.399 of dollars on my online store, and I'll teach you 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:49.400 how to do it right. Where's your I've never seen 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:53.080 your store. Yeah. And if you're making millions of dollars 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.160 on the store, why are you're teaching classes? 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:57.159 Yeah? That he is. 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:58.640 He is the old time. 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.240 The equivalent of that guy sitting in is like garage 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:03.960 next to a Lamborghini in a bookshelf, being likely a 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.879 book every day. Yeah, do you yelling at you on 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:10.119 YouTube to send him money so he can tell you 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.880 how to do drop shipping or whatever the fuck. Yeah, 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:18.400 basically now, so you know, he does try to make 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.359 it as a farmer in the business of farming. The 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.760 first crop he really tries is tobacco. Now, the problem 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:25.840 with tobacco is that it's. 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:26.840 Dog shit for the soil. 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:27.199 Right. 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:28.840 If you just at growing a little bit because you 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:30.720 want to smoke, you can do okay, as long as 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:32.600 you like really know what you're doing and like, yeah, 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.400 you know you understand how to like regenerate the soil 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.920 and stuff. But like tobacco farming on an industrial level, 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.040 which is what he and everyone else is trying to 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:43.359 do because they want to make money. And that's the 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:45.440 same thing Washington does, the same thing a lot of 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:45.800 people do. 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:46.080 Right. 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.919 The climate is actually changing in Virginia during this period, 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:53.240 so like tobacco becomes something that gets done elsewhere, and 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.320 a lot of them move over to wheat. But the 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.399 other problem that Jefferson has is that Monticello is, you know, 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.760 a hill whatever, but it's like an alpine terrain, righty, 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.760 and the soil is bad in that kind of a place. 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.200 You get a hint of this, and like they made 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.520 their own bricks for Monticello out of like local clay. Well, 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:14.119