Existing comment:
Sally Hemings's Children
In the Hemings family, the story of descent from Jefferson has been passed from generation to generation. Because of their mixed-race heritage, Hemings descendants have had to deal constantly with the issues of ambiguous racial identity.
All four of Sally Hemings's known surviving children became free. Beverly Hemings (born 1798) and her sister Harriet (born 1801) were allowed to leave Monticello in 1822 and passed into white society. Their descendants have not been located.
Younger brothers Madison (1805-77) and Eston Hemings (1808-56) remained at Monticello until Jefferson's death; both were freed in his will. Both married free women of color and moved west. Madison Hemings remained in the black community, while his brother Eston chose to cross the color line and live as white.
Madison Hemings (1805-77) worked as a carpenter. He married a free woman of color, Mary Hughes McCoy. In the late 1830s, he and his wife moved to southern Ohio, where they raised their family and eventually owned a 66-acre farm in a community of free people of color from Virginia.
While most of their children remained in Ohio, their youngest daughter, Ellen Wayles Hemings (1856-1940), moved with her husband, Alfred Jackson Roberts, to southern California in 1884. Their son Frederick Madison Roberts (1879-1952) -- an educator, business leader, and editor of the Los Angeles New Age -- became the first black member of the California legislature.
Eston Hemings (1808-56) married Julia Ann Isaacs, a free woman of color, and moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in the late 1830s. He led a successful dance band there and was also a carpenter. In 1852, the family made a momentous decision, moving to Madison, Wisconsin, where they used the surname Jefferson and lived as white. Eston's grandsons had successful careers as lawyer, physician, and engineer.
In the 1940s, Eston Jefferson's descendants altered the family story to hide their connection to slavery. Descendants interviewed for the Getting Word project grew up without knowing of their African American ancestry. |