We were fortunate enough this weekend to take a visit to Montpelier, home of James Madison, on September 17, Constitution Day. We’ve been to Montpelier on Constitution Day several times in the past. But we haven’t been back since news reports emerged claiming that Montpelier had “gone woke.” So Christina and I decided to check the place out ourselves.
Now, Montpelier has had a couple rough years. Not long ago, it adopted a so-called “power sharing” agreement with the Montpelier Descendants Committee, which is made up of living descendants of both blacks and whites who lived at the plantation, and its participation in governing Montpelier was the subject of some ugly controversy, during which Montpelier’s CEO Roy Young fired the Vice President, Elizabeth Chew, and several others who accused Young of having reneged on a promise to allow the Descendants Committee more power over what happens at Montpelier. Shortly after that, Young was himself fired and Chew and others reinstated. That was followed by reports that presentations at the site (and also at nearby Monticello) focus exclusively on slavery, to the exclusion of Madison’s or Jefferson’s historical legacies. Yet these reports were short on details, and came from partisan sources, so we went to see what the fuss was about.
Now, on a special day like Constitution Day, one would expect Montpelier folks to be on their best behavior; one’s experience that day might not give a fair view of what their typical daily presentations are like. But that said, the bottom line is that we saw and heard nothing that a fair person could possibly object to. On the contrary, the experience celebrated Madison as—in the words of one tour guide—the most important figure in world history as far as constitutions are concerned. This was presented in a manner that made appropriate mention of the fact that many people were enslaved on the plantation in Madison’s lifetime, and that some of these people, such as Paul Jennings, played crucial roles in both the family’s history and the nation’s history. There simply were no signs of “wokeness.”
Some of the reports to the contrary in recent months claimed said there were no tours at Montpelier or Monticello highlighting the accomplishments of Madison and Jefferson, but only tours about slavery. This was certainly not our experience; we took the Constitution Tour and the Bill of Rights Tour, and could also have taken the House Tour if we wanted—but chose not to, because the Constitution Tour also went inside the house. The tours we took were educational, exciting experiences that did not merely gloss over slavery—but certainly did not promote the “Constitution is an evil pro-slavery white supremacist document” narrative. They were enthusiastically pro-Madison, while being reflective and serious.
I also think some of those raising alarms about wokeness may have been misled by one factor relating to the pandemic: remember that tours highlighting the founders typically take place inside the mansions, while tours specifically addressing slavery tend to be outdoors. This is because the slave quarters and workhouses are outside. During the pandemic, Monticello replaced the tours inside the mansion with self-guided tours, as a safety measure—whatever one thinks of the viability of such “safety” measures, this change has apparently proven quite popular—but kept docent-led tours outside the mansion, which, again, are the ones focusing on slavery. This may have given casual guests the false impression that there were “no tours” about the founders, but only about slavery.
In any event, the Bill of Rights Tour and the Constitution Tour at Montpelier both highlighted Madison’s accomplishments in accessible, enjoyable, and exciting ways. They included frank references to slavery—but, of course, that’s as it should be. And they certainly did not denigrate either him, or the Constitution, or claim that the Constitution or America are about “white supremacy.”
That’s not to say there’s no cause for concern. In past years, Montpelier’s Constitution Day events were much more in the tone of a celebration. They included evening fireworks, craft booths, food from local restaurants, and even hot-air balloon rides, as well as “meet Mr. Madison,” with Madison portrayed by John Douglas Hall (whom I’ve mentioned before as one of the finest history teachers in this country). This year’s event included the “meet Mr. Madison” element and a few craft booths, but there was only one food truck (which broke down), and no balloon rides or fireworks. I asked if this scaling back was due to financial problems or to management’s decision not to hold the event in a celebratory tone. The reply was: “we focused our efforts on providing enriching, educational programs…. Our primary objective…was to provide members of the public with the opportunity to more deeply explore Madisonian principles and the importance of upholding the ideals outlined in the Constitution. We aimed to engage visitors in the history and significance of Montpelier as the birthplace of the Constitution through tours, panels, and in-person interpretation.” It’s certainly a legitimate management decision whether to host Constitution Day with a celebratory, country-fair atmosphere with fireworks, or to hold it in this manner instead. I would personally have chosen the former, but of course that must also be quite expensive, and Montpelier has been having budget shortfalls recently. Be that as it may, the choice not to have fireworks and such is still not proof that Montpelier’s been taken over by “wokeness.”
Also, some of the “educational programs” Montpelier hosted that day were panel discussions. One was on “is the Constitution at risk?” and it included the very woke New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. The other was about the “power sharing” arrangement. We attended neither. I have no doubt that the first was, as the Washington Examiner says, “skewed.” We chose not to go precisely because Mr. Bouie was speaking, and we have had plenty of his tripe. But there’s nothing inherently wrong with Montpelier inviting him to speak. Montpelier should certainly host a variety of viewpoints about the Constitution—including even presentations by those who despise it—but these presentations are separate from the historical portions of the experience. (They are held in the visitor center, not in the mansion.) Whatever one thinks about the decision to host leftist speakers, these panel discussions do not show that Montpelier has “downgraded the attention given to Madison himself” in the historical portions of the presentation. In fact, our experience at Constitution Day was entirely to the contrary: the day was a fun, informative, and enjoyable celebration of Madison and his achievements.
I first visited Montpelier in 1993, when I was 16. That was before it had been restored; the house was still covered in pink stucco, and they had on display then only a single item of Madison’s: his chair, which they didn’t own—it was on loan from the James Madison Museum (an independent entity located in Orange, Virginia). I’ve loved seeing the place grown and improve over the years, and I strongly encourage anyone who is able to visit Montpelier—which, among other things, has the most beautiful view from its front porch of any home in America. Obviously it would be a shame if Montpelier were to fall into the hands of people devoted to traducing the Constitution. But we saw no evidence of that on our visit. Disagreements about management, or how events are organized, or about how facts are presented, are not proof of “wokeness”—and an accurate and objective presentation of the past is part of what we owe both to ourselves and to the memory of our forefathers.
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