John Hemings' Monticello and Poplar Forest
| Publication year | 2021 |
John Hemings' Monticello and Poplar Forest
J. Wesley Giglio
University of Georgia School of Law
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JOHN HEMINGS' MONTICELLO AND POPLAR FOREST
J. Wesley Giglio*
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I. Introduction..............................................................................................177
II. Background................................................................................................181
A. Moral Rights.....................................................................................181
B. The Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act..........................................................................................................182
III. Analysis.........................................................................................................184
A. Can Enslaved Persons hold Moral Rights, or Copyrights, on Creations made at the Behest of Their Masters?.............................................................................184
B. John Hemings and the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act.........................................................185
IV. Conclusion..................................................................................................186
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". . .[T]hankfully, they were not masters and mistresses across all space and time, and there is more to the world than law."
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, former Governor, father of the University of Virginia, the first U.S. Secretary of State, and the third President of the United States, died on July 4th, 1826, at Monticello, his magnificent plantation home in central Virginia.1 He died on the fiftieth Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the authorship of which was his crowning achievement and the guarantee of his historical immortality.2 Jefferson's death on the Fourth of July (within hours of the death of John Adams, whose friendship and rivalry with Jefferson informed the first fifty years of American democracy to a remarkable extent3 ) was understood nationally as a kind of divine coda to the revolutionary generation he represented.4 President Adams fils wrote that the two deaths were "visible and palpable remarks of Divine Favor, for which i would humble myself in grateful and silent adoration before the Ruler of the Universe."5
However, at Monticello, the "little mountain"6 where Jefferson made his home for most of his eighty-three years, Jefferson's death was nothing less than a profound and rending tragedy.7 This was true for his legitimated white family, who would now face the reality of Jefferson's profligate spending and enormous debt (which Jefferson himself evaded), including the threat of losing their home and genuine poverty.8 it was true for his unacknowledged black family, including the four children he bore with the enslaved woman Sally Hemings, two of whom were surreptitiously freed prior to his death, and two of whom were freed in his will, but whose mother remained the property of Jefferson's official heirs.9 But it was most true for the more than 130 enslaved people who lived and worked at
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Monticello.10 A majority of these enslaved people would have their families, memories, and connections to their lifelong home sundered on the auction block to settle the staggering debts of their deceased master.11
Aside from the two youngest of Jefferson's unacknowledged black children (who were, unlike their older siblings, still enslaved at Monticello at the time of Jefferson's death), only three other enslaved people were granted their freedom in Jefferson's final will.12 Each of these men had done Jefferson a great service. Joseph Fossett was a very talented blacksmith who had profitably run Jefferson's on-site nail factory.13 Burwell Colbert was a great favorite of Jefferson and was essentially running the plantation by the time of the President's death;14 even after Jefferson's death, Colbert kept the keys to the house and continued to clean it.15 Finally, Jefferson freed John Hemings.16
The story of John Hemings at Monticello is among the most remarkable and well-documented of any enslaved person in the 18th and 19th centuries. John Hemings was a gifted carpenter who ran the joinery at Monticello.17 Under his direction, the joinery produced every kind of furniture, particularly desks, chairs, and tables (Jefferson was fond of French and of his own designs); farm implements, a landau, dozens of Jefferson's mechanical inventions, and, eventually, Jefferson's coffin.18 Hemings was also chiefly responsible for "realiz[ing] [Jefferson's] vision for the look of Monticello"19 and for the carpentry work on Jefferson's octagonal second home, Poplar Forest, built between 1806 and 1809.20 According to Edmund Bacon, Jefferson's overseer at Monticello, Hemings was "a first-rate workman—a very extra workman. He could make anything that was wanted in woodwork."21
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At Monticello, artisans who could bring Jefferson's architectural and mechanical ideas to life were prized above all other workers and enslaved people.22 Jefferson's chief pleasure, rivaled only by reading, was in "putting up and pulling down" with "his mechanics."23 The first version of Monticello had already been built when John Hemings was born in 177624 (leveling of the site began in 1768, the first bricks were made and construction started in 1769, and Jefferson was living there by 1770),25 but John, working under the direction of a gifted carpenter named James Dinsmore, bore much of the responsibility for expanding and remodeling the house into what it is today;26 the remodeling process began in 1796 and continued with vigor until 1809, slowly petering out in Jefferson's retirement.27 Hemings's contributions to Poplar Forest, Jefferson's second home, construction of which began in 1806 and continued until 1809, were enormous.28 After the completion of the basic final structure of Monticello (Jefferson never stopped remodeling and improving, but the main building, less certain architectural details, was essentially completed by 1809),29 John Hemings was largely, and some Hemings family historians say solely, responsible for filling the great house with fine furniture.30 Prior to working on either building, Hemings honed his craft building slave dwellings along and around Monticello's infamous Mulberry Row.31
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the relationship between architects and master craftsmen was not the same as it is today.32 While there can be no doubt that Jefferson was the sole architect of both Monticello and Poplar Forest, in terms of their schematic design, building was a far more collaborative and artistic process in that age than it is today.33 in an age without uniform tools and materials, without prefabricated structures, and without blueprints that went beyond hand-drawn designs, a truly talented master builder was absolutely essential.34 The secrets of the twin crafts of carpentry and joining were jealously protected by their practitioners, forcing would-be architects to rely on their
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judgment and skill to an enormous degree.35 in Jefferson's case, his near-constant absence from both Monticello and Poplar Forest between 1779 (the beginning of his governorship) and 1809 (the end of his presidency) forced him to rely on his builders to an even greater extent than was typical. During this period, Jefferson was living variously in Richmond, Paris, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., with only brief returns to the little mountain.36
Jefferson's long absences from the mountain, and the difficulty in getting white master builders to stay on-site for long periods of time (Jefferson also had problems keeping them sober), made Hemings even more essential.37 From the day of his birth in 1776 to the day the home was sold in 1831, five years after Jefferson's death, Hemings never left Monticello except to work at Poplar Forest.38 He was the living memory of all the various stages of construction, and the rarest of all things in antebellum Virginia: an enslaved black man who could both read and write.39 This skill allowed Hemings to communicate effectively with suppliers and other craftsmen, to make and keep inventories, and to communicate with Jefferson himself, which he regularly did.40
The goal of this Note is to show the significant and vital contributions John Hemings made to the completed buildings of Monticello, Mulberry Row, and Poplar Forest. In other words, Hemings can justly be seen as the co-author of those buildings, along with Jefferson (and possibly other enslaved people, tragically lost to history). In so doing, this Note hopes to make the case for Hemings, and his descendants, that Hemings is entitled to droits moral (moral rights) vis-a-vis these structures. Mulberry Row has not survived, but is now being re-created; Poplar Forest is undergoing a meticulous restoration; and Monticello can be seen today in pristine, fully-restored condition.41 Jefferson, who was both a lawyer and an inventor, as well as the American ambassador to France, would have been very aware of the concept of moral rights.
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A. MORAL RIGHTS
The concept of moral rights, a European idea, predates the founding of the United States.42 Moral rights embody the concept that authorial rights go beyond simple economic protection and enfold something more fundamental.43 Copyrightable works, under the concept of moral rights, are "not merely a...
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