Madison Hemings
Encyclopedia
Madison Hemings, born James Madison Hemings (18 January 1805 – 28 November 1877), was born into slavery
as the son of the mixed-race slave Sally Hemings
; he was freed after the death of his master Thomas Jefferson
. Based on historical evidence, most historians believe that Jefferson, United States president, was his father. Hemings claimed the connection in his memoir published in 1873. 1998 DNA
tests demonstrate a match between the Y-chromosome of his brother Eston Hemings
and that of the male Jefferson line, though no DNA evidence exists regarding Madison. Hemings' memoir attracted national and international attention when first published. Historians now commonly believe that Jefferson had a 38-year relationship with Sally Hemings and fathered her six children, four of whom survived to adulthood.
Madison and his younger brother Eston Hemings
were freed in Jefferson's will; they each married and lived with their families and mother Sally in Charlottesville, Virginia
until her death in 1835. Both brothers moved with their young families to Chillicothe, Ohio
to live in a free state
. Madison and his wife lived there the remainder of their lives; he worked as a farmer and highly skilled carpenter
. Among their ten children were two sons who served the Union
in the Civil War
: one in the United States Colored Troops
and one who enlisted as a white man in the regular army.
Among Madison and Mary Hemings' grandchildren was Frederick Madison Roberts
, the first African American elected to office on the West Coast
, who served in the California
legislature for nearly two decades. In 2010 their descendant Shay Banks-Young, who identifies as African American, together with two Wayles
' and Hemings' descendants who identify as European American, received the international "Search for Common Ground" award for work among the Jefferson descendants to bridge gaps and heal "the legacy of slavery." They have founded "The Monticello Community" for descendants of all the people who lived and worked there in Jefferson's lifetime.
, where his mother Sally Hemings
was a mixed-race slave inherited by Martha Wayles Skelton, the wife of Thomas Jefferson
. (Sally and Martha were reported half sisters, both fathered by the planter John Wayles
. He was said to have a "shadow family": six children with his slave, Betty Hemings
.) As the historians Philip D. Morgan
and Joshua D. Rothman have written, there were numerous interracial relationships in the Wayles-Hemings-Jefferson families, Albemarle County and Virginia, often with multiple generations repeating the pattern. Sally Hemings told Madison that his father was Thomas Jefferson
, and that their relationship had started in Paris in the late 1780s, where he was serving as a diplomat.
Madison grew up at Monticello
. His surviving mixed-race siblings were an older brother Beverly and sister Harriet
, and a younger brother Eston. According to his 1873 memoir, Madison was named for Jefferson's close friend and future president James Madison
at the request of Madison's wife Dolley
. Madison lived as a child with his siblings and mother, who were all spared from hard labor. He described Jefferson as kind but showing little or no paternal interest in the Hemings' children.
Like his older brother Beverley, at 14 years of age, Madison was apprenticed to his uncle, Sally's brother John Hemings
, the most skilled artisan at Monticello, to learn carpentry
and fine woodworking; his younger brother Eston
joined him two years later. This gave each of them a valuable trade. All three of the Hemings brothers studied and learned to play the violin
, the instrument associated with Jefferson. Beverley, the oldest, was good enough to be invited to play at dances held by the Jeffersons at Monticello. As an adult, Eston Hemings made a living as a musician and entertainer in Ohio.
Knowing that his estate was in debt and that freed slaves could not legally remain in Virginia
for more than one year, Jefferson by his will requested the legislature of Virginia to guarantee the manumission of the five slaves, and to grant the men special "permission to remain in this State, where their families and connections are." Both requests were evidently granted.
According to Madison's 1873 memoir, his older brother Beverley and his older sister Harriet
had moved to Washington D.C. in 1822 when they "ran away" from Monticello. Jefferson ensured that Harriet was given money for her journey. Because of their light skin and appearance (they were 7/8 European or octoroon), both identified with the white community after their moves and likely changed their names. Hemings said they had married white spouses of good circumstances, and moved into white society. They apparently kept their paternity a secret, as it would have revealed their origins as slaves, and disappeared into history.
In September 1831, in his mid-twenties, Madison Hemings was described in a special census of the State of Virginia as being "5:7 3/8 Inches high light complexion no scars or marks perceivable". Forty-two years later, a journalist described him as "five feet ten inches in height, sparely made, with sandy complexion and a mild gray eye."
In 1834 Madison wed Mary Hughes McCoy, a free woman of mixed-race ancestry (at least one grandfather was white, the planter Samuel Hughes who freed her grandmother Chana from slavery and had children with her.) They had two children born in Virginia.
In 1836 Madison, Mary and their infant daughter Sarah left Charlottesville for Pike County, Ohio
, probably to join his brother Eston, who had already moved there with his own family. They lived in Chillicothe
, which had a thriving free black community, abolitionists among both races, and a station of the Underground Railroad
. Surviving records in Pike County state that Hemings purchased 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) for $150 on July 22, 1856, sold the same area for $250 on December 30, 1859, and purchased 66 acres (267,092.8 m²) for $10 per acre on September 25, 1865.
In 1852 Eston Hemings relocated with his family from Ohio to Madison, Wisconsin
, to get further from possible danger due to passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Slave catchers had been known to take free blacks into captivity. In Wisconsin the family all took the surname Jefferson and lived according to their white appearance and mostly white ancestry. Their oldest son John Wayles Jefferson
served as a Union officer in the War Between the States, and was promoted to colonel. Their son Beverly also served in the Union Army and married a white woman. Their daughter Anna married a white man.
Their three Ohio-born sons were:
His six younger daughters were
In his memoir Hemings said their son Thomas Eston Hemings died in Andersonville
prison during the American Civil War
, after having fought on the Union side with the United States Colored Troops
. Their son William Beverly also served in Union ranks, where he was with the 73rd Ohio Infantry
, having been accepted as white at enlistment.
, other than to family and intimate friends. Neighbors in Chillicothe later said the Hemings brothers' parentage had been commonly known and talked about in the 1840s. In the 1870 Census, the census taker, William Weaver, wrote next to Hemings' name, "This man is the son of Thomas Jefferson." The census listed Hemings as living with his wife; his 14-year-old youngest daughter; his 35-year old eldest daughter Sarah, a widow; and Sarah's two children. Under "race", each of the family was classified as mulatto
.
In 1873 Hemings granted an interview to journalist Samuel F. Wetmore, who was writing a series entitled Life Among the Lowly (the subtitle of the 1852 anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin
). His memoir appeared March 13, in The Pike County (Ohio) Republican. The "Memoirs of Madison Hemings", met with immediate widespread interest and was reprinted across the nation, also gaining international attention. It is the most detailed primary source of information about the Hemings-Jefferson relationship and children.
Some critics condemned the article as politically motivated. Certain commentators tried to deny its authenticity. Historians have since demonstrated that the Hemings account is supported by considerable evidence, although he had some inaccuracies., In the same year Wetmore published his interview with Isaac Jefferson
, another former slave from Monticello. He confirmed that he and the slave community at Monticello all knew of Jefferson's relationship with Hemings and his several children by her. These memoirs were read widely for the first time in 1974 when published in Fawn McKay Brodie's book, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. Before that, historians appeared to want to keep them buried.
In 1874, James Parton published his biography of Jefferson, in which he recounted Jefferson grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph
's claim that Sally Hemings' children were fathered by Jefferson's nephew, Peter Carr. Succeeding historians accepted Parton's claim and Dumas Malone
added Randolph's sister's identification of Samuel Carr; so for 180 years, the Carrs were offered as the father(s) of Hemings' children. A 1998 DNA study (see below) showed no connection between Peter Carr and Eston Hemings' descendants.
Madison Hemings did not profit financially from his memoirs. Following the death of his wife in 1876 and his own death from tuberculosis
on November 28, 1877, Hemings' debts were totalled at $963.93. His real estate and personal goods brought only $906.59 when auctioned to satisfy the debts.
of a male-line descendant of Eston Hemings showed a match between his Y-chromosome and the male Jefferson line. There was no connection between descendants of Samuel and Peter Carr and the Eston Hemings line. The results of DNA testing, when added to the body of historic evidence, has led most historians to believe that Thomas Jefferson's paternity of Eston was highly likely. They also have concluded that Jefferson likely fathered all of Sally Hemings' children and had a 38-year relationship with her.
This view is now supported by numerous prominent Jefferson biographers and scholars; the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF), which administers Monticello; and the National Genealogical Society
Legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed's second book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (2008), traces the Hemings generations in detail, beginning with James and Sally Hemings with their master Thomas Jefferson in Paris
in the 1780s.
. They moved from Ohio to Los Angeles, California
in the late 19th century with their first son Frederick, age six. Roberts founded the first black-owned mortuary there and became a civic leader in the community. Their son, Frederick Madison Roberts
, named for his maternal grandfather, was first elected to the California legislature in 1918. He was re-elected and served for 16 years, becoming known as "dean of the assembly". He is believed to have been the first person of African-American ancestry elected to office west of the Mississippi River
. Both he and his brother William Giles Roberts graduated from college. The Roberts descendants for generations have had a strong tradition of college education and public service.
--Adapted from Lucia Stanton and Dianne Swann-Wright, "Bonds of Memory: Identity and the Hemings Family," in Jan Ellen Lewis and Peter S. Onuf, eds., Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture (Charlottesville, 1999), 161-83
Many of the Hemings' descendants who remained in Ohio were interviewed in the late twentieth century by two Monticello
researchers as part of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation's "Getting Word" project. It was to collect oral histories from among the descendants of slave families at Monticello; material has been added to the Monticello website. The researchers found that Hemings' descendants had married within the mixed-race community for generations, choosing light-skinned spouses of an educated class and identifying as people of color within the black community.
In 2010 Shay Banks-Young and Julie Jefferson Westerinen, black and white descendants of Sally Hemings, respectively, were honored together with David Works, a descendant of Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
, with the Search for Common Ground award for "their work to bridge the divide within their family and heal the legacy of slavery." They have been featured on NPR
and in other interviews across the country.
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
as the son of the mixed-race slave Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...
; he was freed after the death of his master Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
. Based on historical evidence, most historians believe that Jefferson, United States president, was his father. Hemings claimed the connection in his memoir published in 1873. 1998 DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
tests demonstrate a match between the Y-chromosome of his brother Eston Hemings
Eston Hemings
Eston Hemings Jefferson was born a slave at Monticello, the youngest son of Sally Hemings, a mixed-race slave. Most historians believe that his father was Thomas Jefferson, the United States president. Evidence from a 1998 DNA test showed that Eston's descendants matched those of the male...
and that of the male Jefferson line, though no DNA evidence exists regarding Madison. Hemings' memoir attracted national and international attention when first published. Historians now commonly believe that Jefferson had a 38-year relationship with Sally Hemings and fathered her six children, four of whom survived to adulthood.
Madison and his younger brother Eston Hemings
Eston Hemings
Eston Hemings Jefferson was born a slave at Monticello, the youngest son of Sally Hemings, a mixed-race slave. Most historians believe that his father was Thomas Jefferson, the United States president. Evidence from a 1998 DNA test showed that Eston's descendants matched those of the male...
were freed in Jefferson's will; they each married and lived with their families and mother Sally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
until her death in 1835. Both brothers moved with their young families to Chillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States.Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio and is located in southern Ohio along the Scioto River. The name comes from the Shawnee name Chalahgawtha, meaning "principal town", as it was a major settlement of...
to live in a free state
Free state
Free state may refer to:* Free state , a loosely defined term used by various states at different times and places to describe themselves...
. Madison and his wife lived there the remainder of their lives; he worked as a farmer and highly skilled carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
. Among their ten children were two sons who served the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
in the Civil War
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
: one in the United States Colored Troops
United States Colored Troops
The United States Colored Troops were regiments of the United States Army during the American Civil War that were composed of African American soldiers. First recruited in 1863, by the end of the Civil War, the men of the 175 regiments of the USCT constituted approximately one-tenth of the Union...
and one who enlisted as a white man in the regular army.
Among Madison and Mary Hemings' grandchildren was Frederick Madison Roberts
Frederick Madison Roberts
Frederick Madison Roberts was an American newspaper owner and editor, educator and business owner who was the first known man of African American descent elected to the California State Assembly...
, the first African American elected to office on the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, who served in the California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
legislature for nearly two decades. In 2010 their descendant Shay Banks-Young, who identifies as African American, together with two Wayles
Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, born Martha Wayles was the wife of Thomas Jefferson, who was the third President of the United States. It was her second marriage, as her first husband had died young...
' and Hemings' descendants who identify as European American, received the international "Search for Common Ground" award for work among the Jefferson descendants to bridge gaps and heal "the legacy of slavery." They have founded "The Monticello Community" for descendants of all the people who lived and worked there in Jefferson's lifetime.
Childhood
Madison was born into slavery at MonticelloMonticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
, where his mother Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...
was a mixed-race slave inherited by Martha Wayles Skelton, the wife of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
. (Sally and Martha were reported half sisters, both fathered by the planter John Wayles
John Wayles
John Wayles was a planter, slave trader and lawyer in the Virginia Colony. He is historically best known as the father-in-law of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States....
. He was said to have a "shadow family": six children with his slave, Betty Hemings
Betty Hemings
Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings was an American enslaved woman of mixed race, who in 1761 became the concubine of the planter John Wayles of Virginia. He had become a widower for the third time. He had six children with her over a 12-year period...
.) As the historians Philip D. Morgan
Philip D. Morgan
Philip D. Morgan is a British-American historian. He has specialized in Early Modern colonial British America, and slavery in the Americas...
and Joshua D. Rothman have written, there were numerous interracial relationships in the Wayles-Hemings-Jefferson families, Albemarle County and Virginia, often with multiple generations repeating the pattern. Sally Hemings told Madison that his father was Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, and that their relationship had started in Paris in the late 1780s, where he was serving as a diplomat.
Madison grew up at Monticello
Monticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
. His surviving mixed-race siblings were an older brother Beverly and sister Harriet
Harriet Hemings
Harriet Hemings was born into slavery at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, in the first year of his Presidency. Most historians believe her father is Jefferson, who is believed by many historians to have had a relationship with his mixed-race slave...
, and a younger brother Eston. According to his 1873 memoir, Madison was named for Jefferson's close friend and future president James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
at the request of Madison's wife Dolley
Dolley Madison
Dolley Payne Todd Madison was the spouse of the fourth President of the United States, James Madison, and was First Lady of the United States from 1809 to 1817...
. Madison lived as a child with his siblings and mother, who were all spared from hard labor. He described Jefferson as kind but showing little or no paternal interest in the Hemings' children.
Like his older brother Beverley, at 14 years of age, Madison was apprenticed to his uncle, Sally's brother John Hemings
John Hemings
John Hemings was born into slavery at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello as part of the large mixed-race Hemings family...
, the most skilled artisan at Monticello, to learn carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
and fine woodworking; his younger brother Eston
Eston Hemings
Eston Hemings Jefferson was born a slave at Monticello, the youngest son of Sally Hemings, a mixed-race slave. Most historians believe that his father was Thomas Jefferson, the United States president. Evidence from a 1998 DNA test showed that Eston's descendants matched those of the male...
joined him two years later. This gave each of them a valuable trade. All three of the Hemings brothers studied and learned to play the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, the instrument associated with Jefferson. Beverley, the oldest, was good enough to be invited to play at dances held by the Jeffersons at Monticello. As an adult, Eston Hemings made a living as a musician and entertainer in Ohio.
Freed in Jefferson's will
In his will, Jefferson gave immediate freedom to three slaves: John Hemings, a brother of Sally, to whom he also bequeathed "the service of his two apprentices Madison and Eston Hemings", with instruction that the brothers each be freed at his respective 21st birthday. Jefferson freed two of Sally's nephews: Joseph Fossett and Burwell Colbert. (John Hemings was a widower and evidently childless by 1826, but Fossett and Colbert were married and the fathers of large families. As Jefferson did not free their wives and children, all were sold along with Monticello's nearly 130 other slaves at auctions held on the plantation to settle the heavy debts against his estate. The men and their friends worked to buy the freedom of their families.) Although the three older men had served Jefferson for decades, Madison and Eston were distinguished by being freed as they "came of age" at 21. Madison was nearly 21 at the time of Jefferson's death; Eston was given his time and freed before age 21.Knowing that his estate was in debt and that freed slaves could not legally remain in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
for more than one year, Jefferson by his will requested the legislature of Virginia to guarantee the manumission of the five slaves, and to grant the men special "permission to remain in this State, where their families and connections are." Both requests were evidently granted.
Adulthood
Twenty-one-year-old Madison Hemings was emancipated almost immediately after Jefferson died; Eston soon after. The brothers rented a house in nearby Charlottesville, where their mother Sally joined them for the rest of her life. (She was not formally freed but appears to have been "given her time"- an informal emancipation probably arranged by Jefferson's surviving daughter Martha Randolph). In the 1830 Albemarle County census, Madison, Eston and Sally Hemings were all classified as free whites.According to Madison's 1873 memoir, his older brother Beverley and his older sister Harriet
Harriet
Harriet was a Galápagos tortoise who had an estimated age of 175 years at the time of her death in Australia...
had moved to Washington D.C. in 1822 when they "ran away" from Monticello. Jefferson ensured that Harriet was given money for her journey. Because of their light skin and appearance (they were 7/8 European or octoroon), both identified with the white community after their moves and likely changed their names. Hemings said they had married white spouses of good circumstances, and moved into white society. They apparently kept their paternity a secret, as it would have revealed their origins as slaves, and disappeared into history.
In September 1831, in his mid-twenties, Madison Hemings was described in a special census of the State of Virginia as being "5:7 3/8 Inches high light complexion no scars or marks perceivable". Forty-two years later, a journalist described him as "five feet ten inches in height, sparely made, with sandy complexion and a mild gray eye."
In 1834 Madison wed Mary Hughes McCoy, a free woman of mixed-race ancestry (at least one grandfather was white, the planter Samuel Hughes who freed her grandmother Chana from slavery and had children with her.) They had two children born in Virginia.
In 1836 Madison, Mary and their infant daughter Sarah left Charlottesville for Pike County, Ohio
Pike County, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 27,695 people, 10,444 households, and 7,665 families residing in the county. The population density was 63 people per square mile . There were 11,602 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile...
, probably to join his brother Eston, who had already moved there with his own family. They lived in Chillicothe
Chillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States.Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio and is located in southern Ohio along the Scioto River. The name comes from the Shawnee name Chalahgawtha, meaning "principal town", as it was a major settlement of...
, which had a thriving free black community, abolitionists among both races, and a station of the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. Surviving records in Pike County state that Hemings purchased 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) for $150 on July 22, 1856, sold the same area for $250 on December 30, 1859, and purchased 66 acres (267,092.8 m²) for $10 per acre on September 25, 1865.
In 1852 Eston Hemings relocated with his family from Ohio to Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, to get further from possible danger due to passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Slave catchers had been known to take free blacks into captivity. In Wisconsin the family all took the surname Jefferson and lived according to their white appearance and mostly white ancestry. Their oldest son John Wayles Jefferson
John Wayles Jefferson
John Wayles Jefferson, born John Wayles Hemings , was the son of a former slave who served as a colonel in the Union Army and was a businessman, becoming a wealthy cotton broker in Memphis, Tennessee...
served as a Union officer in the War Between the States, and was promoted to colonel. Their son Beverly also served in the Union Army and married a white woman. Their daughter Anna married a white man.
Children
Madison and Mary Hemings were the parents of 10 surviving children. According to his memoir, their daughter Sarah (named for his mother) and an unnamed son who died in infancy were born in Virginia; nine more children were born in Ohio. He had a quiet life as a modestly successful free black farmer and carpenter.- Sarah, married Mr. Byrd. (Her descendants later reported on some family members' identifying as white and families being fragmented, even when living in southern Ohio.
Their three Ohio-born sons were:
- Thomas Eston (named for Madison's father and his brother Eston), died in the Civil War.
- William Beverly (named for brother Beverley), died unmarried in a veterans' hospital in 1910.
- James Madison (named after him), was said to have moved to Colorado.
His six younger daughters were
- Julia (who died before 1870),
- Harriet (named for his sisterHarriet HemingsHarriet Hemings was born into slavery at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, in the first year of his Presidency. Most historians believe her father is Jefferson, who is believed by many historians to have had a relationship with his mixed-race slave...
), - Mary Ann (named after Mary's mother),
- Catherine,
- Jane, and
- Ellen Wayles (named for Madison's maternal white great-grandmother)
In his memoir Hemings said their son Thomas Eston Hemings died in Andersonville
Andersonville
-United States:* Andersonville, Georgia, a city in Sumter County, Georgia, USA and the site of American Civil War POW camp** Andersonville National Historic Site, Confederate POW prison camp in Georgia holding Union POWs...
prison during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, after having fought on the Union side with the United States Colored Troops
United States Colored Troops
The United States Colored Troops were regiments of the United States Army during the American Civil War that were composed of African American soldiers. First recruited in 1863, by the end of the Civil War, the men of the 175 regiments of the USCT constituted approximately one-tenth of the Union...
. Their son William Beverly also served in Union ranks, where he was with the 73rd Ohio Infantry
73rd Ohio Infantry
The 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Service:The 73rd Ohio Infantry was organized in Chillicothe, Ohio and mustered in for three years service on December 30, 1861 under the command of Colonel Orland Smith.The regiment was...
, having been accepted as white at enlistment.
Jefferson paternity
Hemings did not talk about his father having been Jefferson until after the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, other than to family and intimate friends. Neighbors in Chillicothe later said the Hemings brothers' parentage had been commonly known and talked about in the 1840s. In the 1870 Census, the census taker, William Weaver, wrote next to Hemings' name, "This man is the son of Thomas Jefferson." The census listed Hemings as living with his wife; his 14-year-old youngest daughter; his 35-year old eldest daughter Sarah, a widow; and Sarah's two children. Under "race", each of the family was classified as mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
.
In 1873 Hemings granted an interview to journalist Samuel F. Wetmore, who was writing a series entitled Life Among the Lowly (the subtitle of the 1852 anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
). His memoir appeared March 13, in The Pike County (Ohio) Republican. The "Memoirs of Madison Hemings", met with immediate widespread interest and was reprinted across the nation, also gaining international attention. It is the most detailed primary source of information about the Hemings-Jefferson relationship and children.
Some critics condemned the article as politically motivated. Certain commentators tried to deny its authenticity. Historians have since demonstrated that the Hemings account is supported by considerable evidence, although he had some inaccuracies., In the same year Wetmore published his interview with Isaac Jefferson
Isaac Jefferson
Isaac Jefferson, also likely known as Isaac Granger was a valued, enslaved artisan of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson; he crafted and repaired products as a tinsmith, blacksmith, and nailer at Monticello....
, another former slave from Monticello. He confirmed that he and the slave community at Monticello all knew of Jefferson's relationship with Hemings and his several children by her. These memoirs were read widely for the first time in 1974 when published in Fawn McKay Brodie's book, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. Before that, historians appeared to want to keep them buried.
In 1874, James Parton published his biography of Jefferson, in which he recounted Jefferson grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph
Thomas Jefferson Randolph
Thomas Jefferson Randolph of Albemarle County was a planter and politician who served in the Virginia House of Delegates, was rector of the University of Virginia, and was a colonel in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War...
's claim that Sally Hemings' children were fathered by Jefferson's nephew, Peter Carr. Succeeding historians accepted Parton's claim and Dumas Malone
Dumas Malone
Dumas Malone was an American historian, biographer, and editor noted for his six-volume biography on Thomas Jefferson, for which he received the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for history...
added Randolph's sister's identification of Samuel Carr; so for 180 years, the Carrs were offered as the father(s) of Hemings' children. A 1998 DNA study (see below) showed no connection between Peter Carr and Eston Hemings' descendants.
Madison Hemings did not profit financially from his memoirs. Following the death of his wife in 1876 and his own death from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
on November 28, 1877, Hemings' debts were totalled at $963.93. His real estate and personal goods brought only $906.59 when auctioned to satisfy the debts.
DNA testing
In 1998 the genetic testingJefferson DNA Data
The Jefferson-Hemings controversy concerns the question of whether there was an intimate relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his mixed-race slave, Sally Hemings. The controversy started as early as the 1790s...
of a male-line descendant of Eston Hemings showed a match between his Y-chromosome and the male Jefferson line. There was no connection between descendants of Samuel and Peter Carr and the Eston Hemings line. The results of DNA testing, when added to the body of historic evidence, has led most historians to believe that Thomas Jefferson's paternity of Eston was highly likely. They also have concluded that Jefferson likely fathered all of Sally Hemings' children and had a 38-year relationship with her.
This view is now supported by numerous prominent Jefferson biographers and scholars; the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF), which administers Monticello; and the National Genealogical Society
National Genealogical Society
The National Genealogical Society is a genealogical interest group founded in 1903 in Washington, D.C.. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia....
Legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed's second book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (2008), traces the Hemings generations in detail, beginning with James and Sally Hemings with their master Thomas Jefferson in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the 1780s.
Critics of Jefferson paternity theory
There has been no genetic connection established between the Jefferson male line and any of Sally Hemings' children other than Eston. DNA evidence related to Eston does not specifically indicate Thomas Jefferson. Carr paternity is not ruled out for Hemings' children other than Eston. Critics of the paternity conclusion point out that other men, such as Jefferson's younger brother Randolph, could have fathered one or more of Sally Hemings' children. Genealogists have noted there were at least 25 adult male Jeffersons in Virginia, eight of whom lived within 20 miles of Monticello.Descendants
The Hemingses' daughter Ellen Wayles Hemings married Andrew Jackson Roberts, a graduate of Oberlin CollegeOberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
. They moved from Ohio to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
in the late 19th century with their first son Frederick, age six. Roberts founded the first black-owned mortuary there and became a civic leader in the community. Their son, Frederick Madison Roberts
Frederick Madison Roberts
Frederick Madison Roberts was an American newspaper owner and editor, educator and business owner who was the first known man of African American descent elected to the California State Assembly...
, named for his maternal grandfather, was first elected to the California legislature in 1918. He was re-elected and served for 16 years, becoming known as "dean of the assembly". He is believed to have been the first person of African-American ancestry elected to office west of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. Both he and his brother William Giles Roberts graduated from college. The Roberts descendants for generations have had a strong tradition of college education and public service.
"The experiences of descendants of both Madison and Eston Hemings illustrate the benefits and costs of passing for white. None of Madison Hemings's sons married. William Beverly Hemings served in a white regiment--the 73rd Ohio--in the Civil War and died alone in a Kansas veterans hospital in 1910. His brother James Madison Hemings seems to have slipped back and forth across the color line, and may be the source of stories among his sisters' descendants of a mysterious and silent visitor who looked like a white man, with white beard and blue eyes. Several of Madison Hemings's grandsons also passed for white, divorcing themselves from their sisters who stayed on the other side of the line.
Passing was not always permanent. Intermittent passing became a strategy for securing anything from a job to a haircut. Their racial identities calibrated by the day or hour, light-skinned members of the Hemings family were white in the workplace and black at home, or they borrowed a white surname to make a hairdressing appointment in a neighboring town."
--Adapted from Lucia Stanton and Dianne Swann-Wright, "Bonds of Memory: Identity and the Hemings Family," in Jan Ellen Lewis and Peter S. Onuf, eds., Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture (Charlottesville, 1999), 161-83
Many of the Hemings' descendants who remained in Ohio were interviewed in the late twentieth century by two Monticello
Monticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
researchers as part of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation's "Getting Word" project. It was to collect oral histories from among the descendants of slave families at Monticello; material has been added to the Monticello website. The researchers found that Hemings' descendants had married within the mixed-race community for generations, choosing light-skinned spouses of an educated class and identifying as people of color within the black community.
In 2010 Shay Banks-Young and Julie Jefferson Westerinen, black and white descendants of Sally Hemings, respectively, were honored together with David Works, a descendant of Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, born Martha Wayles was the wife of Thomas Jefferson, who was the third President of the United States. It was her second marriage, as her first husband had died young...
, with the Search for Common Ground award for "their work to bridge the divide within their family and heal the legacy of slavery." They have been featured on NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
and in other interviews across the country.
Additional reading
- Delilah L. Beasley, Negro Trail Blazers of California, Los Angeles: 1919, pp. 137, 215-16. (An early picture of Roberts appears on p. 40.)
- Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1974
- Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008
- Shannon Lanier and Jane Feldman, Jefferson's Children: The Story of One American Family New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2000 (with photos of Jefferson descendants on both sides)
- Stanton, Lucia. Free Some Day: The African-American Families of Monticello, Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2000.
External links
- "Getting Word: African American Family Histories", Monticello Website
- François Furstenberg, "Jefferson's Other Family: His concubine was also his wife's half-sister", review of Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello, Slate, 23 September 2008
- "Sally Hemings Children: Madison Hemings", Photos - Descendants of Madison Hemings, Monticello Website
- "Report of the Research Committee on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings", Monticello
- "Scholars Commission Report", Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society
- Bibliography of Hemings - Jefferson Sources, University of Virginia Library
- "Annette Gordon-Reed", Booknotes