InfoBeat News - Morning Coffee Edition - 4/11/2001 Slave cemetery near Jefferson home CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - For the first time, archaeologists have unearthed what they believe to be a cemetery of slaves owned by Thomas Jefferson and buried outside the home of the third president. The burial plots were found on the grounds of Monticello, said Daniel Jordan, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and manages the 5,000-acre estate. "It's been a long-standing goal ... to determine where slaves were buried, and we believe we have now found one such location," Jordan said Tuesday. From 1783 to Jefferson's death on July 4, 1826, between 90 and 140 slaves lived at Monticello at any one time, half of them children. After his death, 126 slaves were sold at auction. Archaeologists believe the cemetery, located on a relatively flat tract of wooded land about 2,000 feet from the main house, holds between 40 and 110 graves. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought this interesting ... hope you do too!? Shelia C. BACHELDER webachel@wolf.co.net