Preview – Apple Story
‘Apples for the Wealthy’
In nineteenth century America, enslaved people grew apples for wealthy landowners, and perfected fine ciders for them to drink.
On 30th January 1800, a letter was written to Thomas Jefferson, soon to be 3rd President of the United States of America. It documented the circumstances of the death of his slave Jupiter Evans. African American slaves were deeply involved in growing apples and making fine cider on Jefferson’s Monticello estate in Virginia, USA, and would have developed great skills.
This story, describing the fine eating and cider apples grown at Monticello, has been written with help from experts from Monticello and elsewhere, and advice from the Black History Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Recent years have seen a resurgence of cider in the USA, including Jupiter’s Legacy, a cider produced close to Monticello in Albemarle County, Virginia.
Illustrations come from the collections of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Albemarle CiderWorks, Massachusetts Historical Society, and the National Agricultural Library in the USA, and the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as well as from Monticello itself.
