Historic Christ Church & Museum’s 2024 Summer Speaker Series “The First Three: From Washington to Jefferson” continues at 5 o’clock tonight, Thursday, Aug. 15, with “The Jeffersons at Shadwell,” a presentation by nationally recognized historian Susan Kern.
In this unique perspective that recasts Virginia’s “frontier” history and Thomas Jefferson’s early years, Kern uses material culture to explore the social history of Shadwell, the late colonial plantation that was home to Jane and Peter Jefferson, their eight children (including Thomas), and an enslaved workforce of about 60 African-Americans, according to HCC&M executive director Robert Teagle.
Kern’s excavations at Shadwell reveal new ways to understand how powerful families maintained social, business and family connections across Virginia, from the Virginia-North Carolina dividing line to the Northern Neck. Her work also uncovers a network of enslaved families connected among plantations across generations. “The potential...