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Celebrate President's Day and honor Black History Month both at Montpelier

Neala Schwartzberg's photo
Offbeat Places Examiner

While travel isn't supposed to be efficient - whisking tourists to sites that do double duty - Montpelier in Virginia does offer the opportunity to explore the home of James and Dolley Madison, and to learn more about Black history as well.

James Madison's Montpelier Montpelier was the lifelong home of James Madison, sometimes called the Father of the Constitution and the architect of the Bill of Rights. Madison was also, of course, president of the United States.
 
Celebrate President's Day and learn about James and Dolley Madison through the daily guided tours.
 

President's Day Weekend and Black History  Montpelier will offer several special tours throughout Presidents' Day Weekend.

The new Journey from Slavery to Freedom tour presents a broad arc of African-American history, beginning in the 1720s when the first slaves arrived at Montpelier to carve a plantation out of the wilderness. From there, it will take visitors through the newly erected ghosted structures representing the homes and workspaces of the domestic slaves in the "South Yard," and into the mansion where they worked.

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Visitors will also tour the Gilmore Farm: A Freedman's Home to understand the lives of African Americans in the years following the Civil War. The tour will end at the 1910 train depot to learn about life in a segregated society during the Jim Crow era. The new tour will be offered on Sunday, February 19 at 1 p.m., and then will be offered throughout the summer season. Visitors will meet their guide at the Montpelier Visitor Center.

The Enslaved Community Tour (February 18 and 20 at 1 p.m.) will help visitors explore plantation life at Montpelier, and examine James Madison's attitudes toward the institution of slavery. Visitors will learn about the lives of some of the enslaved individuals who labored at Montpelier, and visit the sites where they worked. The Enslaved Community tours will begin at the Montpelier Visitor Center.
 
Finally, the Gilmore Farm and Civil War Camp Site Tour will be held on February 18 at 2:30 p.m. Former Montpelier slave George Gilmore built the cabin for his family in the early 1870s. The cabin and 16-acre farm offer a glimpse of African-American life in the years following the Civil War. At the end of the tour, visitors will see the 1863–64 winter encampment of General Samuel McGowan's South Carolina Brigade. The Gilmore Farm and Civil War Camp Site Tour will begin at the Gilmore Farm on Route 20.  The Gilmore Farm: A Freedman's Home will also be open for visitors on February 18 and 19 from 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
 
Nestled in the rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Montpelier is located in the heart of Virginia's wine country on Route 20, four miles south of Orange, Va., and 25 miles north of Charlottesville, Va.
Gilmore Cabin at Montpelier
Gilmore Cabin at Montpelier
Photo credit: 
Photo by Kenneth M. Wyner, courtesy of The Montpelier Foundation.

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Neala seeks the offbeat everywhere she travels and delights in sharing her discoveries through her www.OffbeatTravel.com Web site and now here at Examiner.com. E-mail her at Neala@OffbeatTravel.com.

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