Virginians played an outsize role in securing American independence, and several of their historic homes are open to visitors. We spent time in Charlottesville and Montpelier Station touring the homes of three Founding Fathers. Standing before Thomas Jefferson’s iconic mansion, which is on the back of the nickel, or in the very room where James Madison conceived of the framework of the Constitution, can be unexpectedly thrilling. After all, what happened in these houses reverberated around the world and deeply affects our lives to this day.

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

At Monticello, just outside Charlottesville, Jefferson — principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third United States president — refined his ideas of liberty and imagined the American experiment. Each year, the former plantation welcomes almost half a million people to his house, extensive gardens and Mulberry Row, the center of economic and slave life on the property.

I recommend taking the 90-minute Behind the Scenes tour, which gives access to Jefferson’s private quarters upstairs. While we stood amid his possessions, our docent, Lisa, illuminated just how forward-thinking Jefferson was as a lawyer, a scientist and an architect. I particularly enjoyed learning about his weighted seven-day clock and the letter-copying machine he couldn’t live without. But the architectural novelties of Monticello were even more interesting. The innovative home includes 13 “roof windows” (or skylights, as we’d call them today), myriad alcove beds and his beloved octagonal rooms and third-floor dome.

The highlight of our visit was something wholly unexpected, though. Exiting the house, we stopped to listen to a Jefferson “interpreter.” Not one for living-history tours, I nevertheless found Bill Barker’s embodiment of Jefferson to be riveting. He gives “Meet Thomas Jefferson” talks four times a day, Tuesday through Saturday, and they’re highly rewarding, especially when he takes questions from the audience. His 30 years of experience playing this role shows in his breadth of historical knowledge and command of the political facts. Through July 31, he leads a special theatrical experience, “Jefferson Remembers the Declaration.”

As we departed the property, I couldn’t stop thinking about Jefferson’s words: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free … it expects what never was and never will be.”

Monticello
1050 Monticello Loop, Charlottesville

James Monroe’s Highland

Adjacent to Monticello is Highland, a former tobacco plantation that was James Monroe’s home from 1799 to 1823. He purchased the property at Jefferson’s urging but sold it in 1826 to pay off debts. The main house burned down a few years later. The site, now owned by the College of William & Mary, consists of the 1818 guesthouse, for years erroneously thought to have been the original home; two additions built decades later; and the Smokehouse, the oldest structure on the property.

A visit here focuses more on the archaeology of the site than on Monroe’s career as Virginia governor, fifth U.S. president and chief negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase. But Highland does contain a few of Monroe’s original furnishings, which reflect his Francophile taste — no doubt influenced by his stints as U.S. minister to France. For those interested in gardens or archaeology, or who want a glimpse into Monroe’s life, Highland is worth a quick visit. Just don’t shorten your time at Monticello to make it happen.

Highland
2050 James Monroe Parkway, Charlottesville

James Madison’s Montpelier

Less than an hour’s drive northeast of Monticello and Charlottesville, Montpelier was the childhood home of James Madison, whose family was part of the wealthy Virginia planter class. Madison was the fourth U.S. president, the author of the Bill of Rights and husband to Dolley. As we gathered in the dining room around a table that belonged to the couple, we learned that they often gave dinner parties in their 12,260-square-foot mansion, with Dolley using her considerable hosting skills to help her husband form advantageous friendships and political alliances.

While the tour focused on the house and Madison’s political life, our docent didn’t shy away from the topic of slavery. She reflected on the influence of French military commander and statesman Marquis de Lafayette, who engaged with Montpelier’s slave community and tried to convince Madison to grant them freedom. And she touched on Madison’s prominent role in developing the Three-Fifths Compromise, a “necessary evil” that denied full personhood to those enslaved so the Constitution would be ratified.

Perspectives of the enslaved people themselves enrich this home tour, with guides reading from butler Paul Jennings’ memoir, “A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison” and a newspaper interview attributed to cook Ailsey Payne. The Mere Distinction of Color exhibit, in the House Cellars and South Yard, goes further to illuminate the day-to-day life of the more than 300 individuals held in bondage here. As I viewed pictures of enslaved individuals, my heart broke as I read the words that accompanied them: “I was a son. I was kidnapped. I was a fiddle player. I was clever. I was literate. I was a runaway. I was property.”

Montpelier
11350 Constitution Highway, Montpelier Station

(Editor’s note: The home of George Washington, Mount Vernon, is also in Virginia, but it’s easier to visit as a day trip from Washington, D.C.)