For a Colonial and Revolutionary Williamsburg course in the History department, I was provided with Thomas Jefferson's memorandum books that discussed his day to day expenditures. Rifling through this 400+ page historical document, I was instructed to look for clues on his enslaved man, Jupiter. The goal was to figure out what Jupiter might have seen in early Williamsburg. Through this paper and outside through discussions with my peers and mentors, I helped discover a new historical discovery on Thomas Jefferson's time in Williamsburg and gave insight on his interesting 'Goose Night' tradition. (2019)
From looking at Thomas Jefferson’s memorandum books and tracking where he had to
travel around Williamsburg, it is clear that his enslaved man, Jupiter, journeyed all over the
colonial streets and land that we do today. With no handy Colonial Williamsburg mobile app in hand, Jupiter would have walked down Duke of Gloucester Street and missed the Starbucks cups, the selfie sticks, and the green awning of the William & Mary bookstore, but perhaps he would have still seen the same amount of horse poop. In this way, it is harder to imagine what Jupiter actually experienced and saw than what he most certainly did not. Although Thomas Jefferson’s records and accounts tell historians what Jupiter did occasionally for his enslaver, it leaves out a lot of his day-to-day whereabouts. But this is a world where African American history is so hard to track because we only get a glimpse of who these enslaved people were “when their names appear in wills, letters, diaries, estate appraisals, and newspapers.” Therefore, even getting brief looks at what Jupiter was doing is better than most of the documentation out there. From looking at Thomas Jefferson’s ledger, it can be inferred that Jupiter saw Williamsburg as a place of opportunity, a place where he could witness the range of the African American experience, and a place where he could see revolution growing before his own eyes.
Comments