sian architecture) of creating domestic spaces in which work could be accomplished at the least possible inconvenience to the masters of the house.
One striking example of the way in which slaves and their labor was hidden from the view of the masters of the house has been found at Monticello, where Thomas Jefferson had tunnels dug between the outbuildings used by the slaves and the main house - tunnels that created a literal underground domestic arena and also (as Jefferson himself noted) helped to shield slaves from inclement weather.
Students of the design and layout of Virginia's early plantations have long recognized the extent to which planters used architectural elements and their spatial positioning to send messages of all different kinds; messages intended for their own sort as well as for those they considered their inferiorsà.It should come as no surprise, then, that slaveholders like Jefferson may very well have employed elements of the architectural grammar at their disposal to "hide" the presence of their enslaved work force.
Emphasizing the Nature of Difference
The architecture of the main house and tha
...