Шадвелл: Томас Джефферсонның туған жері және тарихы

Shadwell is a census designated place (CDP) in Albemarle County, Virginia. It is located by the Rivanna River near Charlottesville. The site today is marked by a Virginia Historical Marker to mark the birthplace of President Thomas Jefferson. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with Clifton. Before early colonists moved into the Shadwell area, Monacan people had trails that traversed what became Shadwell. Peter Jefferson, the father of President Thomas Jefferson established and named the Shadwell plantation in the mid 18th century. Four generations of the Jefferson family lived at Shadwell. Initially, it was a plantation worked by enslaved and free people and grew tobacco, grain, and clover. Then, a grist mill, sawmill, and carding factory expanded the Shadwell economy. Canals and locks were constructed in the Rivanna River to transport goods, including lumber, flour, grain, and cotton yard. After the carding factory burned down in the 1850s and the Louisa Railroad was completed, Shadwell began to decline economically. After that, the Shadwell estate became a farm, operated by Downing Smith. In 1991, an archaeological study found remnants of foundations and cellars of two houses, one of which is believed to be the original Jefferson house. Located within the Shadwell, Virginia area are the Clifton and Edge Hill historic homes.

Monacan Native American people had trails that crossed through what is now Shadwell. There were three or four early colonial Virginia people who owned Shadwell before it was purchased by Peter Jefferson, the father of Thomas Jefferson. Shadwell began as a crossroads settlement, located at the intersection of Three Notch'd and Old Mountain Roads, which may also be called Turkey Sag.

It was named for the Shadwell parish in London by Peter Jefferson, a colonist and planter in central Virginia. Shadwell is the parish in England where his wife Jane Randolph had been christened. Peter Jefferson purchased 1,200 acres in 1736 and had 1,400 acres for his main plantation through a May 16, 1741 purchase. Peter married his wife in 1739 and completed the one and a half story house at Shadwell by about 1741. The house was described as a "plain, weather boarded house one and a half stories high, having four spacious rooms and hall on the ground floor, with garret, chambers, and dormer windows above The house sat very near the highway, which then ran along the north bank of the river." In 1770, the Jeffersons' house at Shadwell was destroyed in a fire, Jane had a smaller house built as a replacement. Thomas lived at Shadwell until the fire, at which time he removed to Monticello. During the fire, Thomas lost almost all of his books and all of his papers.

Shadwell became a manufacturing town, with timber, tobacco, cotton yard and flour being transported on the Rivanna River. A dam, mill, and half mile mill race were built on the Rivanna River by Peter Jefferson about 1757. Canals and locks were used at Shadwell for transportation of goods on the Rivanna River from 1789 until the 1860s. Jefferson operated a grist mill, saw mill, and carding factory until 1826 (year of his death). By 1835, Shadwell was home to a large carding factory employing 100 workers, a large merchant mill, and a sawmill. It also had several general stores at Shadwell, shops, and private dwellings. The town prospered until 1850, when the factory burned and was shut down permanently. The town was a minor railroad center, but Shadwell also began to decline after Louisa Railroad, which paralleled Three Notch'd Road, came to the area in the 1840s. After World War I, Shadwell grew as people began taking vacations by traveling by automobile. The railroad depot at Shadwell was closed in 1932. In 1991, an archaeological study began at the site of the Jefferson's Shadwell plantation. Two cellar foundations were found, one of which is believed to be that of the first Jefferson house.