ABSTRACT
The homes of Madison and Jefferson, Montpelier and Monticello, are both within the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area, twenty-five miles apart from each other. Since the Journey focuses extensively on civic engagement, one approach to your students work on Madison and Jefferson could be the examination of how the two men shaped both the idea of civic engagement and the foundation of our national identity. It is important for young Americans to understand how our government works and what role the founders, particularly Madison, played in defining the direction the new government would take. Several times during the course of his life he lamented this fact, calling it at one point, "sad blot on our free country". During his lifetime Madison owned more than three hundred slaves, and as was the case at Jefferson's Monticello, black people outnumbered white people at Montpelier.
