Archaeologists found Sally Hemings' quarters at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

An 1810 engraving of Jefferson's Monticello
(Image credit: Hulton Archive/Stringer/Getty Images)

Excavations at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation property in Virginia have uncovered the quarters of Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman who is believed to have borne six of Jefferson's children.

The room was located next to Jefferson's bedroom. Measuring about 14 feet by 13 feet, it was converted into a men's restroom in 1941 to accommodate growing crowds of tourists. A bathroom renovation in the 1960s maintained that use, but in recent years, historians reviewed a description of Monticello penned by one of Jefferson's grandsons. The document identified the location of Hemings' quarters, and investigations began.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.