Jefferson's Dining Room

In the Montecello dining room, there are a number of contraptions and conveniences that would limit the number of enslaved people that would be required to be present for the dinners. One of his goals was not to have loose lips reporting on the conversations that were going on in these dining rooms. He understood that breaking bread together was an opportunity for people to talk outside of the normal political channels. And he didn't want anyone else listening in and misconstruing what was being said or leaking what was being saying because it was so sensitive and private.