Thomas Jefferson hoped that his family would be able to live on at Monticello after his death. He left the property to his daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, and her children. Jefferson's enormous debt load, however, as well as the expenses of maintaining the building and lands proved too much to handle. Although there were several belated plans to save Monticello for the family, nothing came of them, and Mrs. Randolph put Monticello and its furnishings up for sale. Much of Jefferson's furniture, plate, and farm equipment, as well as 140 slaves, were bought at a public auction in 1827. The idiosyncratic mansion proved harder to sell. Finally, four years after the auction, the house and property went to an eccentric Charlottesville druggist, James Barclay, for $7,500.
James Barclay despised Jefferson's political ideals, and had very little interest in the great house itself. He wanted the land for a scheme that would turn Monticello into a silkworm farm. In order to plant mulberry trees, Barclay tore out many of the trees Jefferson had planted and uprooted the extensive gardens. Within three years, the project predictably failed, and Barclay now looked around for a buyer. In 1834, he sold the house and surrounding land for $2,500 to Uriah Phillips Levy, an officer in the United States Navy.
Uriah Phillips Levy really believed in TJ's freedom of religion, thus bought and preserved his home out of respect till the U.S. bought it back. If it wan't for Mr. Levy, it would be gone.
TJ was broke at the end of his life. The war of 1812 broke out and Washington lost it's library in that war as it was burned down to the ground by the British. TJ (being broke and needed the $$ sold his book collection to the U.S. which is the Library of Congress today.
Uriah Phillips Lev really was a facinating man and should be remembered.
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