Homes of slaves who served President James Madison at his Montpelier estate in Virginia will be rebuilt for the first time over the next five years, along with other refurbishments to the home of one of the nation's Founding Fathers, thanks to a $10 million gift announced Saturday.
David
Rubenstein, a leading Washington philanthropist and history buff,
pledged the $3.5 million needed to rebuild the slave quarters next to
the mansion in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Another $6.5
million will be devoted to refurnishing parts of the home where Madison
drafted ideas that would become the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of
Rights.
After widow Dolley
Madison sold the estate in 1844, many family belongings were dispersed
or sold, leaving some rooms mostly empty of period furnishings after the
estate opened to visitors in 1987.
Now, curators hope to recover or
borrow artifacts from the fourth president's family life to bring the
estate back to life, said Montpelier Foundation President and CEO Kat
Imhoff.
More @ Yahoo
pledged the $3.5 million needed to rebuild the slave quarters next to the mansion
ReplyDeleteI am always suspicious of things like this in the current 'cultural' climate. Somehow, I suspect that these 'rebuilt slave quarters' will be nothing but an exploitive exhibit of haunted house sideshow proportions; festooned with shackles, torture devices that never existed and historically 'revised' to pander to certain groups and their ideology.
Note that the operative word chosen was 'rebuilt' and not 'restored'.
Me also. PC will be dripping from the walls.
Delete