美国国家公共电台 NPR Jefferson's Monticello Makes Room For Sally Hemings

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The nation's third president, Thomas Jefferson, is revered¹ as a Founding Father of the nation, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, a scholar and inventor, and he owned 607 human beings - 400 of them lived at his Virginia estate, Monticello. One of those enslaved people, Sally Hemings, was mother to six of his children. That fact, once fiercely disputed by some, is now accepted as fact. And if you visited Monticello, you might have learned something about Sally Hemings and toured the quarters where other slaves lived but their stories were in the background.

Today, Monticello unveiled new exhibits designed to amplify² Hemings' story and those of the hundreds of others whose enslavement helped create and run Jefferson's extraordinary home. Gayle Jessup White has helped launch the new exhibits. She is a descendant of Sally Hemings' brother and, through another ancestor, of Thomas Jefferson. And she's with us now from Monticello in Charlottesville, Va. Welcome. Thank you so much for being with us.

GAYLE JESSUP WHITE: Thank you for having me. It's a wonderful, important day here at Monticello, Michel.

MARTIN: Tell us about the Sally Hemings' room in the main house, and tell us about what we will learn that we might not have heard on the tour before.

WHITE: Sally Hemings' room would have been in what we call the south wing, which is an attachment³ to the main house kind of in a cellar-like area. And we have not interpreted it as a recreation of what we would have looked like then but rather as a presentation of Sally Hemings as a fully⁴ dimensioned human being - a mother, a sister, a daughter, a world traveler. She was multi-dimensional. All the people enslaved here, Michel, were multi-dimensional, and that's the story that we want the public, our guests, to understand.

MARTIN: And tell us what - is it going to be on the tour? And what are people going to hear on the tour?

WHITE: Previously⁵, we had two tours at Monticello - one of the house and one of Mulberry Row, which is where the enslaved lived and worked. Going forward, guests will have a tour that is all inclusive that tells the story not only of Thomas Jefferson and his family, but of the enslaved families as well and that will be one tour.

MARTIN: So I guess the idea is that previously people could decide or not that they were going to experience this part of the life of Monticello. And now...

WHITE: Exactly.

MARTIN: ...Monticello is saying that this is part of the total experience.

WHITE: Exactly, because that's the total story of Monticello, isn't it? It's not just about Thomas Jefferson. It's about the people who made Thomas Jefferson's life possible, and that would have been the enslaved people who kept this plantation⁶ running.

MARTIN: So today, Saturday, Monticello hosted hundreds of descendants of the people enslaved at Jefferson's home. Can you describe what this event and what these new exhibits mean for the descendants such as yourself?

WHITE: This is one of the most important moments in my life. As descendants, in my case, as an actual employee here, to breathe life into the stories of these people history wanted to forget. Americans still struggle with the legacies⁷ of slavery. Many Americans don't want to talk about slavery. It is clearly the biggest mark on our history, and we don't want to face it. But at Monticello, we are giving humanity to people long forgotten. And the people to whom we're giving humanity, are my people. They're my family.

MARTIN: Well, that's Gayle Jessup White, community engagement officer at Monticello.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTIN: She is a descendant of Sally Hemings' brother and of Thomas Jefferson through a different ancestor. And she spoke⁸ to us from Charlottesville. Gayle Jessup White, congratulations. Thank you so much for speaking with us.

WHITE: Thank you, Michel.

1 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句

2 amplify   

vt.放大，增强；详述，详加解说

参考例句：

• The new manager wants to amplify the company.新经理想要扩大公司。
• Please amplify your remarks by giving us some examples.请举例详述你的话。

3 attachment   

n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附

参考例句：

• She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
• She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。

4 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

5 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

6 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

7 legacies   

n.遗产( legacy的名词复数 )；遗留之物；遗留问题；后遗症

参考例句：

• Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind. 书是伟大的天才留给人类的精神财富。 来自辞典例句
• General legacies are subject to the same principles as demonstrative legacies. 一般的遗赠要与指定数目的遗赠遵循同样的原则。 来自辞典例句

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。