M onticello was Thomas Jefferson’s home in retirement, after decades of public service, including as the nation’s third president. It was also, on any given day, crowded with women and young people—Jefferson’s daughters by his wife, Martha; their 12 surviving children (six of them girls); his sister. Female visitors, including First Lady Dolley Madison, often popped by. Among the plantation’s large enslaved workforce, women and children outnumbered men by roughly two to one. Some of those