March 5, 2026

Cinder Stanton, who was spoiled by years of research in the huge Jefferson-Monticello archive, will talk about learning the ropes in a new research landscape, highlighting the challenges of recovering the human stories of enslaved people on a plantation whose wealthy owners left virtually no personal papers. Sunnyside, just outside Lexington, was a 600-acre mixed grain and livestock plantation–called one of the finest in the county–supported until 1865 by the labor of up to thirty enslaved people. Wills and inventories survive, but how do we find out more than just the names of those who lived and worked there.

March 5 at 4:00 on Zoom