Elizabeth Hemings
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Elizabeth Hemings ( 1735 – 1807) was an enslaved
mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...
woman in colonial Virginia. With her master, planter John Wayles, she had six children, including
Sally Hemings Sarah "Sally" Hemings ( 1773 – 1835) was an enslaved woman with one-quarter African ancestry owned by president of the United States Thomas Jefferson, one of many he inherited from his father-in-law, John Wayles. Hemings's mother Elizabet ...
. These children were three-quarters white, and, following the condition of their mother, they were enslaved from birth; they were half-siblings to Wayles's daughter,
Martha Jefferson Martha Skelton Jefferson ( ''née'' Wayles; October 30, 1748 – September 6, 1782) was the wife of Thomas Jefferson. She served as First Lady of Virginia during Jefferson's term as governor from 1779 to 1781. She died in 1782, 19 years before ...
. After Wayles died, the Hemings family and some 120 other enslaved people were inherited, along with 11,000 acres and £4,000 debt, as part of his estate by his daughter
Martha Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא‎) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness ...
and her husband
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
. More than 75 of Betty's mixed-race children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were enslaved from birth. They were forced to work on Jefferson's
plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
of
Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...
. Many had higher status positions as chefs, butlers, seamstresses, weavers, carpenters, blacksmiths, gardeners, and musicians in the household. Jefferson gave some of Betty's enslaved descendants to his sister and daughters as wedding presents, and they lived on other Virginia plantations. Betty's oldest daughter Mary Hemings became the common-law wife of wealthy merchant Thomas Bell, who purchased her and their two children from Jefferson in 1792 and granted them greater freedoms than other enslaved people were typically permitted. Mary was the first of several Hemingses to gain freedom before the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. Betty's daughter
Sally Hemings Sarah "Sally" Hemings ( 1773 – 1835) was an enslaved woman with one-quarter African ancestry owned by president of the United States Thomas Jefferson, one of many he inherited from his father-in-law, John Wayles. Hemings's mother Elizabet ...
had six children, all of whom were fathered by
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
, between 1795 and 1808. Jefferson freed all four of her surviving children when they came of age, two of them by his will. His daughter Martha Randolph gave Sally "her time," an informal freedom allowing her to live with her sons during her last decade.


Biography

According to the oral history of her descendants, Betty was the daughter of a "captain of an English trading vessel" and "a fullblooded African" woman. Madison Hemings in his memoir said the surname of the captain was Hemings; the family tradition was that he had tried to buy Betty when he discovered his daughter had been born."1873: Madison Hemings' Memoir"
''Jefferson's Blood: Chronology'', February 2000
Annette Gordon-Reed speculated that Elizabeth's mother's name was Parthenia, based on the wills of Francis Eppes IV and John Wayles. The place of her birth is uncertain (Hemings said it was Williamsburg), but by 1746 Betty was recorded as the property of Francis Eppes IV of the Bermuda Hundred plantation. Betty's grandson
Madison Hemings James Madison Hemings (January 19, 1805 – November 28, 1877) was the son of the mixed-race enslaved woman Sally Hemings and her enslaver, President Thomas Jefferson. He was the third of her four children to survive to adulthood. Born into s ...
related the family tradition that Betty was born into slavery as the property of "John Wales" (meaning he owned her mother. The family said Captain Hemings plotted to kidnap his daughter, but Wayles took measures against this.) Wayles may have sold Betty to Francis Eppes and later regained ownership of her when he married Eppes' daughter Martha as his first wife, or else Betty's grandson Madison may have confused some of the chronology. After John Wayles married Martha Eppes in 1746, her father Francis Eppes IV gave the couple Betty and her mother as part of his daughter's wedding settlement. He stipulated that Betty would always belong to Martha and her heirs (rather than being part of her husband's property). Betty was trained as a domestic servant at one of Wayles' plantations. In the 1750s, Betty Hemings gave birth to the first four of her twelve children, whose father was a slave. The children were: *
Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
(1753 – after 1834), recognized as a seamstress;Lucia C. Stanton, ''Free Some Day: The African American Families of Monticello''
University of North Carolina Press, 2000, pp. 103-104, accessed 13 August 2011
she was hired out to Thomas Bell and later purchased by him in 1792; she became his common-law wife and they had two children together. He informally freed her and their two children, and willed them his estate in Charlottesville. Jefferson kept her older children at Monticello as slaves (see her page); Mary Hemmings' daughter Betty Hemmings had a common-law relationship with
John Wayles Eppes John Wayles Eppes (April 1772September 13, 1823) was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1803 to 1811 and again from 1813 to 1815. He also served in the U.S. Senate (1817–1819). ...
after his first wife
Mary Jefferson Eppes Mary Jefferson Eppes (August 1, 1778 – April 17, 1804), known as Polly in childhood and Maria as an adult, was the younger of Thomas Jefferson's two daughters with his wife who survived beyond the age of 3. She married a first cousin, John Wayle ...
died as a result of childbirth. * Martin Hemings (1755 - after 1795), who became the butler at Monticello; * Betty Brown (1759 – after 1831). Already serving as the personal servant of Martha Wayles Skelton, Betty accompanied her to Monticello after Skelton's marriage to
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
. She was among the domestic slaves taken by the Jeffersons to Williamsburg and Richmond when the planter served as governor. During the British invasion of Richmond in 1781, Betty and her sister Mary Hemings were taken as prisoners of war. Betty's two sons were Wormley Hughes (1781–1858) and Burwell Colbert (1783 – c. 1862), who both served Jefferson as adults. Colbert served for decades as the butler and personal valet to Jefferson, who freed him by his will of 1826.) * Nance Hemings (1761 – after 1827), in 1785 Jefferson gave her to his sister as a wedding gift.Bear, James A, ''The Hemings Family of Monticello'', Ivy Press, Virginia, 1980, pp. 3-6 Ten years later he bought her back, as she was a skilled weaver and he had started a cotton factory at Monticello. Betty's master John Wayles was widowed three times. In 1761, after the death of his third wife, Wayles and Betty began a relationship that produced six children."John Wayles"
''Jefferson's Community: Relatives'', Monticello. Footnote to Wayles' paternity: Isaac Jefferson, Memoirs, 4; Madison Hemings, "Life Among the Lowly," ''Pike County Republican,'' March 13, 1873. A December 20, 1802 letter from Thomas Gibbons, a Federalist planter of Georgia, to Jonathan Dayton states that Sally Hemings "is half sister to his first wife." Similarly, a letter from Thomas Turner in the May 31, 1805 ''Boston Repertory'' states, "an opinion has existed . . . that this very Sally is the natural daughter of Mr. Wales, who was the father of the actual Mrs. Jefferson."
If that is true, they were half-siblings to his eldest daughter Martha Wayles, who married
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
. As the historians Philip D. Morgan and Joshua D. Rothman have written, there were numerous such interracial relationships in the Wayles-Hemings-Jefferson families, and Albemarle County and Virginia, often with multiple generations repeating the pattern. Her children by Wayles were: * Robert Hemings (1762–1819), who purchased his freedom from Thomas Jefferson in 1794; *
James Hemings James Hemings (17651801) was the first American to train as a chef in France. He was African American and born in Virginia in 1765. At 8 years old, he was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson . He was an older brother of Sally Hemings and a half-sibl ...
(1765–1801), freed by Jefferson in 1796 after training his brother Peter for three years to replace him as a chef; * Thenia Hemings (1767–1796), who was sold to
James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...
in 1794. * Critta Hemings Bowles (1769–1850), who married Zachariah Bowles, a free man of color. Sometimes called Critty, she was an enslaved domestic worker at Monticello from 1775 until 1827, when most of Jefferson's slaves were sold following his death. Critta was purchased and freed by Francis W. Eppes, whom she had cared for as a nurse when he was young, starting in 1802. (His parents were
John Wayles Eppes John Wayles Eppes (April 1772September 13, 1823) was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1803 to 1811 and again from 1813 to 1815. He also served in the U.S. Senate (1817–1819). ...
and
Mary Jefferson Eppes Mary Jefferson Eppes (August 1, 1778 – April 17, 1804), known as Polly in childhood and Maria as an adult, was the younger of Thomas Jefferson's two daughters with his wife who survived beyond the age of 3. She married a first cousin, John Wayle ...
, Jefferson's second daughter, who had died young). She then lived with her husband at his 96-acre farm north of Charlottesville in Albemarle County. She had a son, James, who was a carpenter at Monticello. After cruel treatment by a white overseer, Gabriel Lilly, he ran away about 1804. * Peter Hemings (1770 – after 1834), served as chef to Jefferson after being trained by his brother James; and *
Sally Hemings Sarah "Sally" Hemings ( 1773 – 1835) was an enslaved woman with one-quarter African ancestry owned by president of the United States Thomas Jefferson, one of many he inherited from his father-in-law, John Wayles. Hemings's mother Elizabet ...
(c. 1773 – 1835), who seems to have had a relationship with Jefferson from about 1789. She had six children, four of whom survived and whom Jefferson freed.''Jefferson's Blood''
PBS Frontline, 2000, accessed 10 March 2012
Sally was with him to his death in 1826, after which she was "given her time" (informal freedom) by his surviving daughter Martha Randolph. After Wayles died in 1773, all eleven members of the Hemings family and 124 other slaves were inherited by his daughter Martha Wayles and her husband Thomas Jefferson. The Jeffersons had the Hemings mixed-race children trained as skilled artisans and domestic servants, giving them privileged positions at the plantation. No member of the Hemings family worked in the fields. While resident at Monticello, Betty Hemings had two more children: * John Hemings (1776–1833), whose father was Irish workman Joseph Neilson; John was freed in Jefferson's will after decades of service as a skilled ironworker; and * Lucy Hemings (1777–1786), whose father was believed to have been a slave. In the last decade of her life, Betty Hemings had her own cabin at Monticello, from 1795 to 1807. She raised produce and sold it to the Jefferson household: items such as cabbages, strawberries, and chickens. Her former cabin site is being investigated as an archeological site. It is expected to yield new information about the daily lives of the enslaved African Americans at Monticello.


John Wayles

Historians have tended to accept the account that Betty Hemings and John Wayles had children together. Her last six children were multiracial, with three-quarters white ancestry. As is the case of many relationships between slaveholders and slaves, documentary evidence is slight. Betty was mentioned in John Wayles' will, which some take as an indication of a relationship. However, the marriage contract between John Wayles and Martha Eppes stipulated that Betty, her mother, and their descendants, should go to Martha Wayles and her heirs forever. According to contemporary accounts, some of Betty's children (including Sally) were nearly white in appearance. Other support is found in private letters from the first decade of the 19th century, which later became public. The slave community at Monticello was well aware of the relationship. In 1873 Betty's grandson
Madison Hemings James Madison Hemings (January 19, 1805 – November 28, 1877) was the son of the mixed-race enslaved woman Sally Hemings and her enslaver, President Thomas Jefferson. He was the third of her four children to survive to adulthood. Born into s ...
and Israel Jefferson, both former slaves at Monticello, published newspaper interviews which said Wayles was the father of Sally Hemings and several other of Betty's children.


Descendants

Betty Hemings has numerous descendants. Some of note are: ;From the family line of daughter Sally Hemings :
Madison Hemings James Madison Hemings (January 19, 1805 – November 28, 1877) was the son of the mixed-race enslaved woman Sally Hemings and her enslaver, President Thomas Jefferson. He was the third of her four children to survive to adulthood. Born into s ...
- 2x great-grandson Frederick Madison Roberts, first African-American state politician in California; : Eston Hemings Jefferson - great-grandson John Wayles Jefferson, accepted as white and served as colonel in the regular Army in the Civil War and wealthy cotton broker; 2xgreat-grandson Walter Beverly Pearson, white industrialist; John Weeks Jefferson, white descendant whose DNA matched that of the Jefferson male line in 1998 test. ;From the family line of daughter Mary Hemings : James Monroe Trotter : William Monroe Trotter, activist for civil rights and abolition in Boston Fountain Hughes was a descendant of Wormley Hughes, one of Betty's grandsons who worked for Jefferson at Monticello."Hughes (Hemings)"
''Getting Word'', Monticello Foundation, accessed 26 May 2013
At the age of 101, when living in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
in 1949, Fountain Hughes gave what is the last surviving recorded interview of a former slave. It is available online through the
World Digital Library The World Digital Library (WDL) is an international digital library operated by UNESCO and the United States Library of Congress. The WDL has stated that its mission is to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume ...
and the
American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a repo ...
of the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
."Interview with Fountain Hughes, Baltimore, Maryland, June 11, 1949"
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, World Digital Library, accessed 26 May 2013


Footnotes and citations


Further reading

* Lucia Stanton, Preface by
David Brion Davis David Brion Davis (February 16, 1927 – April 14, 2019) was an American intellectual and cultural historian, and a leading authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, ...
, ''Free Some Day: The African-American Families of Monticello'', Monticello Monograph Series, Charlottesville, Virginia: Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2000


External links


Monticello Explorer: Elizabeth Hemings

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
Digital Archeological Archive of Comparative Slavery

''Roll of the slaves of John Wayles which were allotted to T. J. in right of his wife on a division or the estate''
Farm Book, 1774–1824, page 11, by Thomas Jefferson lectronic edition Thomas Jefferson Papers: An Electronic Archive. Boston, Mass.: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2003
Eppington Plantation Heritage Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemings, Betty 1730s births 1807 deaths 18th-century American slaves People from Monticello Hemings family 19th-century African-American women Virginia colonial people 18th-century African-American women American people of English descent