University of Virginia Library

Monticello Home Life.

Life in Albemarle has flowed so smoothly that we have no
wonderful deeds of heroism to record amongst her daughters.
The earnest army of men which has gone forth from her
alone testify to the faithfulness and wise rule among the mothers!
who have developed and strengthened minds and characters,
which have marched forth to shape the destinies of a
nation! This work, done so quietly and effectively, has developed
no heroines, no great authoresses amongst us. Two
of Albemarle's daughters have been called on to represent
the United States at foreign courts. Mrs. Wm. C. Rives represented
us so gracefully and acceptably at the Court of Versailles,
that the good queen Amélie bestowed her name on,
and "stood sponsor for the Democrat's daughter."

Of Mrs. Andrew Stevenson it was said that "no foreigner
was ever received as much in the family circle while resident
at the Court of St. James." Her mental endowments and cultivation
caused her society to be sought, but the gentle, cordial
sympathy of her manners opened to her all hearts. For
the mothers of the present day we would draw a lesson from
an example of the past, an example showing what a mother
busy with many cares and varied duties may yet achieve for
the advancement of her children.

In the family of Mr. Jefferson's oldest daughter, we have
such an example. Martha Jefferson was born in 1773, losing
her mother in 1782; she was taken to Paris by her father in
'83, and her education completed in the school of the Penthemont,
under the charge of Catholic sisters. The last year of
her school life her education was presided over by the good
Abbé Edgeworth, who accompanied Louis XVI to the scaffold,
and strove to console the royal family in the sad days of
their imprisonment. Judging from the school girl letters and
from the braids of hair and other mementos which lie before

me, school girls in 1788 were very much like those of 1888.
Returning to America in 1788, Martha Jefferson was married
in 1790 to Thomas Mann Randolph. Mr. Randolph had just
finished his education at Edinburgh. Life now begun for
these young people in the retirement of the country and
amidst the ceaseless round of duties devolving on owners of
large land and slave property—no idle life, as all Southerners
can testify. Added to these were the cares of hostess and
mother of a growing family. The early days of Mrs. Randolph's
married life, she employed all her spare time in keeping
up her education. The hours when the nurses' meals
threw the children on her charge, were utilized in studying
Italian verbs. Constant reading and the careful improvement
of the little moments, enabled her even amidst the seclusion
of Edge Hill to keep abreast with the literature of the day,
and to fit herself to carry on, unaided by governesses or masters,
the education of her six daughters—only one of these
daughters, and she the youngest, ever went from home to
school.

Whether at Edge Hill or in Washington, or in the constant
coming and going of guests at Monticello, the education went
on uninterruptedly. The cultivated father and mother raised
around their family an atmosphere of mental activity, which
inspired each one to improve "the shining hours." Books
did not engross the household, although the dome room was
fitted up as a study and school room; the hall was often
called in requisition for the dance. Mrs. Randolph's household
duties were shared by her daughters, each taking her
turn to carry the keys. Needles were not allowed to remain
idle, and each did her own work, even to making dresses.
And there were no bolder horsewomen in the country than
were these five sisters of Monticello. Nor did their education
ever cease. Exiled from the home at Monticello, in society
in Washington, Boston or Paris; in the burning heats of
Cuba, or following a husband's fortunes to China, still the
education went on. Such unceasing perseverance resulting in
more varied attainment than is often met with.

Mrs. N. P. Trist (the fourth daughter) congratulated herself
at the age of eighty that she could at last read Don Quixote
in the original, a feat rarely attempted even by a Spaniard.
Nor was this influence confined to the daughters. The oldest
son's (Col. Thos. Jefferson Randolph) only educational advantages
(beyond those of the home circle) consisted in what he
acquired at an "old field school," one year under the highly
educated but eccentric Englishman, Ogilvie, in Milton, and a
six months' course of anatomical lectures in Philadelphia.
Yet dying at eighty-three, he left few men behind him with
the same amount of general knowledge. Dr. Benjamin
Franklin Randolph, another brother, who successfully practiced
medicine in this county for fifty years, showed this thirst
for knowledge. His varied reading made him a constant
referee in mooted points. The youngest son, Gen. George
Wythe Randolph, entered the United States Navy at thirteen;
this to most boys would have meant the close of his education.
With only two years at the University of Virginia, one
of which was devoted to the study of his profession, he never
flagged in his efforts for scholastic attainment; he died at
fifty-one a learned lawyer and a ripening scholar, attributing
his success in life to the love for books acquired at his mother's
knee. No one can adequately appreciate the value of
this home culture, save those who have themselves been
teachers.

The weary hopelessness of arousing a mind allowed to lie
dormant! To cultivate ground, which has never known plow,
or even rain or dew, is an easy task compared with this. And
in view of the much that can be done, and all that is so often
left undone, we would urge the young mothers of the present
day to earnest work at self-culture. Let them not weary
themselves over sewing machines, and lay more stress on the
adornment of the minds than the bodies of their children; so
may they live in the memory of a grateful country, and after
ages rise up and call them blessed.