Thomas Jefferson's vision of democracy has endured in one of the defining documents of U.S. history. But the 607 slaves who toiled in his Monticello estate have left few traces to remember them by.
"To understand Thomas Jefferson, you have to understand the history of slavery at Monticello as well," said Stephen Light, the manager of house tours at the site of Jefferson's former Virginia home. But "the buildings that were meant to house enslaved individuals were made quickly and cheaply and they were not meant to survive," Light added.
In order to bring to life a once-bustling enclave of skilled slaves called Mulberry Row, the museum has launched a mobile app ā called Slavery at Monticello ā that helps visitors visualize the space, stretching along a 1,000-foot path to the south side of the presidential villa in Charlottesville, Va.
[For more of this story, written by Lalita Clozel, go to http://www.npr.org/sections/al...icellos-mulberry-row]
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