from five years serving as Secretary of State in France, the slaves unhitched his wagon and pulled him up his steep hill and into his home. When Thomas Jefferson went about building his first rendition of what Monticello would be, he had his slaves help him. He taught them how to be carpenters and build frames. Jefferson also started a brick kelm and showed some of his servants how to make and cook bricks. Other than that he also taught his slaves exactly how to mill wood into a finished product. He did all of this because he was always riding the line between survival and death in the financial state. His many ideas proved expensive. Thomas Jefferson at the time was one of the only people known to actually use his slaves as the builders of his home. Most whites of the time used other whites because they believed blacks and other slaves to be inadequate. However Jefferson was a not one to discriminate at all. In fact he once said that if not for society that he would not own slaves or have anything to do with them. So Jefferson acted as his own general contractor and designer. Jefferson would not have been able to do any of the renovations to his home if not for the use of his slaves because he was always in such financial turmoil. It is amazing that Jefferson took such diligence to teach all of his slaves how to be trained workers when in reality Jefferson himself had little if any first hand knowledge of the skills. He was definitely a great man to be able to grasp so many skills in his life. When Jefferson came back from his five-year tour as Secretary of State in France, he brought back new plans for Monticello and the area. He decided that what was Monticello was out of date and old. So he once again designed in depth plans for his mansion and got to work. After two years of teaching his slaves how to do some of the tasks and ordering the correct materials he started on the grand expansion. Again Jefferson was the general contract...
