Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A 
Brief
Account
The claim that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, a slave at Monticello, entered the public arena during Jefferson's first term as president, and it has remained a subject of discussion and disagreement for nearly two centuries.
In
September 1802, political journalist James T. Callender, a disappointed
office-seeker who had once been an ally of Jefferson, wrote in
a Richmond newspaper that Jefferson had for many years "kept,
as his concubine, one of his own slaves." "Her name is Sally,"
Callender continued, adding that Jefferson had "several children"
by her.
Although there had been rumors of a sexual relationship between Jefferson and a slave before 1802, Callender's article spread the story widely. It was taken up by Jefferson's Federalist opponents and was published in many newspapers during the remainder of Jefferson's presidency.
Jefferson's policy was to offer no public response to personal attacks, and he apparently made no explicit public or private comment on this question (although a private letter of 1805 has been interpreted by some individuals as a denial of the story). Sally Hemings left no known accounts.
Jefferson's daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph privately denied the published reports. Two of her children, Ellen Randolph Coolidge and Thomas Jefferson Randolph, maintained many years later that such a liaison was not possible, on both moral and practical grounds. They also stated that Jefferson's nephews Peter and Samuel Carr were the fathers of the light-skinned Monticello slaves some thought to be Jefferson's children because of their resemblance to him.
The Jefferson-Hemings story was sustained through the 19th century by Northern abolitionists, British critics of American democracy, and others. Its vitality among the American population at large was recorded by European travelers of the time. Through the 20th century, some historians accepted the possibility of a Jefferson-Hemings connection and a few gave it credence, but most Jefferson scholars found the case for such a relationship unpersuasive.
Over the years, however, belief in a Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings relationship was perpetuated in private. Two of her children - Madison and Eston - indicated that Jefferson was their father, and this belief has been relayed through generations of their descendants as an important family truth.
That a Jefferson-Hemings relationship could be neither refuted nor substantiated was challenged in 1998 by the results of DNA tests conducted by Dr. Eugene Foster and a team of geneticists. The study - which tested Y-chromosomal DNA samples from male-line descendants of Field Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson's uncle), John Carr (grandfather of Jefferson's Carr nephews), Eston Hemings, and Thomas C. Woodson - indicated a genetic link between the Jefferson and Hemings descendants. The results of the study established that an individual carrying the male Jefferson Y chromosome fathered Eston Hemings (born 1808), the last known child born to Sally Hemings. There were approximately 25 adult male Jeffersons who carried this chromosome living in Virginia at that time, and a few of them are known to have visited Monticello. The study's authors, however, said "the simplest and most probable" conclusion was that Thomas Jefferson had fathered Eston Hemings.
The DNA study found no link between the descendants of Field Jefferson and Thomas C. Woodson (1790-1879), whose family members have long held that he was the first son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Madison Hemings, Sally's second-youngest son, said in 1873 that his mother had been pregnant with Jefferson's child (who, he said, lived "but a short time") when she returned from France in 1789. But there is no indication in Jefferson's records of a child born to Hemings before 1795, and there are no known documents to support that Thomas Woodson was Hemings' first child.
The DNA testing also found no genetic link between the Hemings
and Carr descendants.
Shortly after the DNA test results were released in November 1998, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation formed a research committee consisting of nine members of the foundation staff, including four with Ph.D.s. In January 2000, the committee reported its finding that the weight of all known evidence - from the DNA study, original documents, written and oral historical accounts, and statistical data - indicated a high probability that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings, and that he was perhaps the father of all six of Sally Hemings' children listed in Monticello records - Harriet (born 1795; died in infancy); Beverly (born 1798); an unnamed daughter (born 1799; died in infancy); Harriet (born 1801); Madison (born 1805); and Eston (born 1808).
Since then, a committee commissioned by the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, after reviewing essentially the same material, reached different conclusions, namely that Sally Hemings was only a minor figure in Thomas Jefferson's life and that it is very unlikely he fathered any of her children. This committee also suggested in its report, issued in April 2001, that Jefferson's younger brother Randolph (1755-1815) was more likely the father of at least some of Sally Hemings' children.
While Thomas Jefferson's paternity of one or more of Sally Hemings' children cannot be established with absolute certainty, and there are noticeable gaps in the historical record, many elements are widely accepted. Among these are:
- Sally Hemings (1773-1835) was a slave at Monticello; she lived
in Paris with Jefferson and two of his daughters from 1787 to
1789; and she had at least six children.
- Sally Hemings' duties included being a nursemaid-companion
to Thomas Jefferson's daughter Maria (c. 1784-1787), lady's
maid to daughters Martha and Maria (1787-1797), and chambermaid
and seamstress (1790s-1827).
- There are no known images of Sally Hemings and only four known
descriptions of her appearance or demeanor.
- Sally Hemings left no known written accounts. It is not known
if she was literate.
- In the few scattered references to Sally Hemings in Thomas
Jefferson's records and correspondence, there is nothing to
distinguish her from other members of her family.
- Thomas Jefferson was at Monticello at the likely conception
times of Sally Hemings' six known children. There are no records
suggesting that she was elsewhere at these times, or records
of any births at times that would exclude Jefferson paternity.
- There are no indications in contemporary accounts by people
familiar with Monticello that Sally Hemings' children had different
fathers.
- Sally Hemings' children were light-skinned, and three of them
(daughter Harriet and sons Beverly and Eston) lived as members
of white society as adults.
- According to contemporary accounts, some of Sally Hemings'
children strongly resembled Thomas Jefferson.
- Thomas Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings' children: Beverly
and Harriet were allowed to leave Monticello in 1822; Madison
and Eston were released in Jefferson's 1826 will. Jefferson
gave freedom to no other nuclear slave family.
- Thomas Jefferson did not free Sally Hemings. She was permitted
to leave Monticello by his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph
not long after Jefferson's death in 1826, and went to live with
her sons Madison and Eston in Charlottesville.
- Several people close to Thomas Jefferson or the Monticello
community believed that he was the father of Sally Hemings'
children.
- Eston Hemings changed his name to Eston Hemings Jefferson
in 1852.
- Madison Hemings stated in 1873 that he and his siblings Beverly,
Harriet, and Eston were Thomas Jefferson's children.
- The descendants of Madison Hemings who have lived as African-Americans
have passed a family history of descent from Thomas Jefferson
and Sally Hemings down through the generations.
- Eston Hemings' descendants, who have lived as whites, have
passed down a family history of being related to Thomas Jefferson.
In the 1940s, family members changed this history to state that
an uncle of Jefferson's, rather than Jefferson himself, was
their ancestor.
Among the unresolved matters is the genealogy of Sally Hemings. According to Madison Hemings, Sally's mother, Elizabeth Hemings (1735-1807), was the daughter of an African woman and an English sea captain. By Madison's and other accounts, Sally Hemings and some of her siblings were the children of John Wayles, Thomas Jefferson's father-in-law. If so, Sally Hemings would have been the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson (1748-1782). Elizabeth Hemings and her children lived at John Wayles' plantation during his lifetime, but there are no documentary records relating to Wayles' possible paternity of any Hemings children.
Also unknown are the precise nature of the relationship that existed between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings; whether a child was born at Monticello shortly after they returned from France in 1789; and whether there is anything to connect Jefferson, Hemings, and Thomas C. Woodson.
Although the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings has been for many years, and will surely continue to be, a subject of intense interest to historians and the public, the evidence is not definitive, and the complete story may never be known. The Foundation encourages its visitors and patrons, based on what evidence does exist, to make up their own minds as to the true nature of the relationship.
RELATED RESOURCES
- The Report of the Monticello Research Committee on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
- A brief biography of Sally Hemings.
Pictured: portion of Jefferson's Farm Book, in which he recorded the distribution of slave rations by family. Courtesy Massachusetts Historical Society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Accounts:
1847. Jefferson, Isaac. "Memoirs of a Monticello Slave." In Jefferson at Monticello, edited by James A. Bear, Jr., 1-24. Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1967. See p. 4.
1858. Coolidge, Ellen Randolph. Ellen Randolph Coolidge to Joseph Coolidge, 24 October 1858. In Malone, Dumas. "Mr. Jefferson's Private Life." Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 84 (1974): 1-8.
1862. Bacon, Edmund. "Jefferson at Monticello" In Jefferson at Monticello, edited by James A. Bear, Jr., 25-117. Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1967. See pp. 99-100, 102.
1868. Randall, Henry S. Henry S. Randall to James Parton, 1 June 1868. In Flower, Milton E. James Parton: the Father of Modern Biography. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1951. See pp. 236-9.
1873. Hemings, Madison. "Life Among the Lowly, No. 1." Pike County Republican, March 13, 1873. In Reed, Annette-Gordon. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1997.
1873. Jefferson, Israel. "Life Among the Lowly, No. 3." Pike County Republican, December 25, 1873. In Reed, Annette-Gordon. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1997.
Secondary Accounts:
Adair, Douglass. "The Jefferson Scandals." In Fame and the Founding Fathers, edited by Trevor Colbourn, 160-91. New York: Norton, 1974.
Bear, James A., Jr. "The Hemings Family of Monticello." Virginia Cavalcade 29, no. 2 (1979): 78-87.
Bennett, Lerone. "Thomas Jefferson's Negro Grandchildren." Ebony, November 1954, 78-80.
Brodie, Fawn M. "The Great Jefferson Taboo." American Heritage 23, no. 4 (1979): 48-57, 97-100.
---. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. New York: Norton, 1974.
---. "Thomas Jefferson's Unknown Grandchildren: A Study in Historical Silence." American Heritage 27, no. 6 (1976): 23-33, 94-99.
Onuf, Peter S., and Jan E. Lewis, eds. Sally Hemings & Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture. Charlottesville, Va.:University Press of Virginia, 1999.
Burstein, Andrew. Jefferson’s Secrets: Death and Desire at Monticello. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Burton, Cynthia H. Jefferson Vindicated: Fallacies, Omissions, and Contradictions in the Hemings Genealogical Search. Keswick, Va.: Cynthia H. Burton, 2005.
Dabney, Virginius. The Jefferson Scandals: A Rebuttal. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1981.
---. "The Monticello Scandals: History and Fiction." Virginia Cavalcade 29, no. 2 (1979): 52-61.
Ellis, Joseph J. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson. New York: Knopf, 1997. See pp. 303-307.
French, Scot A. and Edward L. Ayers. "The Strange Career of Thomas Jefferson: Race and Slavery in American Memory, 1943-1993." In Jeffersonian Legacies, edited by Peter S. Onuf, 418-56. Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1993.
Gordon-Reed, Annette. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. New York: Norton, 2008.
---. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1997.
Graham, Pearl M. "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings." Journal of Negro History 46, no. 2 (1961): 89-103.
Hyland, William G., Jr. In Defense of Thomas Jefferson: The Sally Hemings Sex Scandal. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2009.
Justus, Judith. Down From the Mountain: An Oral History of the Hemings Family. Perrysburg, Ohio: Jeskurtara, 1990.
Leary, Helen F. M. "Sally Hemings's Children: A Genealogical Analysis of the Evidence." National Genealogical Society Quarterly 89, no. 3 (2001): 165-207. There are other relevant articles in this issue.
Malone, Dumas. Jefferson the President: First Term, 1801-1805. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970. See Appendix II, pp. 494-8.
Malone, Dumas, and Steven Hochman. "A Note on Evidence: The Personal History of Madison Hemings." Journal of Southern History 41 (1975): 523-8.
McMurry, Rebecca L., and James F. McMurry, Jr. Anatomy of a Scandal: Thomas Jefferson & the SALLY Story. Shippensburg, Pa.: White Mane, 2002.
Moss, Sidney P., and Carolyn Moss. "The Jefferson Miscegenation Legend in British Travel Books." Journal of the Early Republic 7, no. 3 (1987): 253-74.
Neiman, Fraser D. "Coincidence or Causal Connection? The Relationship between Thomas Jefferson's Visits to Monticello and Sally Hemings's Conceptions." William and Mary Quarterly 57, no. 1 (2000): 198-210.
Randolph, Laura B. "Thomas Jefferson's Black and White Descendants Debate His Lineage and Legacy." Ebony, July 1993, 25-29.
Turner, Robert F., ed. Jefferson-Hemings Scholars Commission Report on the Jefferson-Hemings Matter. Charlottesville, Va.: Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, 2001. (New edition to be published in fall 2009.)
Wilson, Douglas L. "Thomas Jefferson and the Character Issue." Atlantic Monthly, November 1992, 57-74.
Woodson, Byron W. A President in the Family: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Woodson. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001.
Woodson, Minnie Shumate. The Sable Curtain. Washington, D.C.: Stafford Lowery, 1987. See appendix.