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Subject: Re: News articles on descendants of Sally Hemings & Thomas Jefferson
Date: 3 Jun 1999 03:20:26 GMT

In article <7hnbtn$jg$1@bl-1.rootsweb.com>,
wrote:

05/13/99- Updated 11:14 PM ET

Rift runs through Jefferson family reunion

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.- Under the shade of ancient oaks,
the grave of Thomas Jefferson lies immaculately
preserved, protected by a black iron fence that his
descendants erected a half-century ago. Every year,
500,000 visitors to Monticello look past padlocked gates
and a gold crest marked "TJ" to see a towering
gravestone, inscribed exactly as the great man
instructed: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of
the Declaration of American Independence, Of the Statute
of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the
University of Virginia." The grave of Sally Hemings, his
slave mistress, carries no such distinction. Sally
Hemings lies in an unmarked grave, most likely under a
new Hampton Inn and its freshly paved parking lot near
downtown Charlottesville. Her probable burial site,
previously unknown, was located by USA TODAY, with the
assistance of Monticello senior historian Cinder
Stanton, using 19th-century deeds, wills and maps. This
weekend, Sally Hemings' descendants, emboldened by DNA
tests that appear to prove Jefferson fathered at least
one of Hemings' children, will try to reclaim some of
their obliterated past. They have been invited to the
annual family reunion of Thomas Jefferson's acknowledged
descendants - an event that is shaping up as an
uncomfortable fight over a family graveyard but also
signals the Hemingses' emergence from Jefferson's shadow
as sort of the first family of slavery. On Saturday,
Jefferson's slave descendants and the offspring of their
former masters will reunite for cocktails at Monticello,
where the enslaved Hemings family once poured fine wine
into crystal glasses for their own kin. It will be the
first time the two sides of the family have come
together here since a slave auction at Monticello on a
cold January day in 1827. At that sale, Thomas
Jefferson's grandchildren sold Sally Hemings' brothers,
sisters, nieces and nephews - but not Sally or her
children, whom Jefferson freed - to pay the late
president's sizable debts. On Sunday morning, the family
will hold a memorial service at the grave of the
patriarch, beloved by both sides of the family. Then,
the family will adjourn to a hotel to discuss whether
the Hemingses have a right to join the Monticello
Association, the family group, and be buried at the
family cemetery at Monticello. Hemings' descendants will
not have a vote on their fate. The decision will be made
by the descendants of Thomas Jefferson Randolph, the
grandson who oversaw the 1827 slave auction. And the
results are expected to be unfavorable to the Hemingses.
DNA evidence The family association's leaders say the
DNA evidence linking Jefferson to Sally Hemings'
descendants is not conclusive enough to admit the
Hemingses. "What's needed is some kind of statement by
Jefferson acknowledging Sally's children as his," says
Robert Coolidge, the family's longtime historian and
keeper of its genealogical records. "That would clinch
the matter. That's what other descendants have." He says
race isn't a factor. He does not mind being buried next
to a Hemings, and the family association already has one
black member, the result of a modern interracial
relationship. The family's official position doesn't sit
well with Jefferson descendant Lucian Truscott IV, who
wants the Hemingses welcomed into the family. He says
it's ridiculous to ignore DNA evidence and expect
written proof when Jefferson and others tried to cover
up the relationship. Most scholars - even those who were
previously skeptical - have been persuaded by the DNA
evidence. In November, the science journal Nature
published an article showing that a living descendant of
Sally Hemings' youngest son, Eston, had the same
Y-chromosome markers as five acknowledged Jefferson
family descendants. "The simplest and most probable
explanation for our molecular findings are that Thomas
Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings," the authors
said. "The DNA changed everything," says Peter Onuf, a
history professor at the University of Virginia. "That
ended our habit of viewing Jefferson as an isolated man
of reason and Monticello as lofty ground not connected
to the social world. It's not that we have new evidence;
rather this tidbit about DNA has caused all the old
evidence to be reread." Historians had long known that
the Hemings family had a close and intricate
relationship with the Jeffersons. Sally and her
brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews held nearly all
important positions at Monticello, running Jefferson's
household, nursing his children and grandchildren and
managing several shops. Jefferson spent virtually every
day of his life with the Hemings family. They even built
his coffin. The DNA evidence not only confirmed a sexual
liaison that was rumored as long ago as 1802 but
certified the Hemingses as the first slaves known to be
blood kin to a president. They are a remarkably
accomplished clan on their own. Their numbers include
French chefs, professional musicians, talented
craftsmen, a lieutenant colonel in the Union Army and a
California legislator. Family history Sally was the 10th
of 12 Hemings children who lived at Monticello, and she
had six children of her own. The Hemingses were so
numerous and so much a part of the Monticello elite that
they were "a separate caste" on the estate, Stanton
says. "They were old family servants and great favorites
... I was instructed to take no control of them,"
Monticello overseer Edmund Bacon said in his memoirs.
Jefferson's grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, said
the Hemingses' status "was a source of bitter jealousy
to the other slaves, who liked to account for it with
other reasons than the true one: superior intelligence,
capacity and fidelity to trusts." The Hemings clan
dressed better than other slaves, and members were
sometimes paid for their work. The male Hemingses often
traveled alone - a sign of the trust placed in them. The
Hemings women were the only slaves spared field work
during the grueling wheat harvest. The Hemingses, of
course, were still slaves. They were sometimes sold and
separated from their families. One of Sally Heming's
grandnephews was whipped nearly to death by a Monticello
overseer. He ran away and never returned. But within the
strict boundaries of a slave society, the Jeffersons and
the Hemingses seem to have had a relationship that was
generally mutually affectionate. After Sally Hemings
died in 1835, her freed son Madison moved from Virginia
to Ohio. Madison entrusted Jefferson's family to settle
his affairs: his master's grandson sold Madison's house
in Charlottesville, paid off his debts and sent the
remaining money to Ohio. It's the type of favor one
might do for a friend or - dare it be said - family.
Prominent Hemingses Among the most notable Hemings
family members: Elizabeth Hemings. The family matriarch,
born in 1735, had at least 12 children by three men,
including Jefferson's wealthy father-in-law, John
Wayles. That made Sally, one of Betty's offspring, a
half sister to Jefferson's wife, who died in 1782 and
made him promise to never marry again. Jefferson
inherited Betty and her children from his father-in-law
in 1774. Martin Hemings. Jefferson's ornery but loyal
butler for 20 years, a brother of Sally, was the boss of
the house staff at Monticello. In 1792, he had an
argument with Jefferson and asked to be sold, which he
apparently was, never to be heard from again. Burwell
Colbert. Sally's nephew took over from Martin Hemings as
butler and accompanied Jefferson nearly everywhere.
Colbert was a man of many talents. He had been foreman
of the nailery. Even after becoming butler, he glazed
windows and did the most difficult painting jobs -
winding staircases and fancy carriages. He probably
lived in a stone house that Jefferson ordered built next
to Monticello. James Hemings. Sally's older brother went
with his sister and Jefferson to France to train as a
French chef. In France, slavery was illegal, so James
was a free man. He traveled alone with Jefferson's money
and was paid a salary as well. But when Jefferson
returned to Virginia, James came, too, and invented a
much admired cross between French and Virginia cooking.
Four of his recipes survive. When Jefferson became
president in 1801, he tried to lure James - who was
working in Baltimore - to Washington but couldn't make a
deal. Peter Hemings, another brother of Sally who was
trained as a cook by James, served as Jefferson's chef
and a skilled brewer for 30 years. He was bought for $1
at Jefferson's estate sale. John Hemings. Sally's
younger brother was perhaps Monticello's greatest
craftsman. The son of an English carpenter, John crafted
furniture and was Monticello's chief joiner, responsible
for all interior woodworking. He also made Jefferson's
coffin. Eston Hemings, the son of Jefferson and Sally
Hemings, was freed under the terms of Jefferson's will.
A violinist like his father, he became a professional
musician who led dance bands. He moved to Madison, Wis.,
changed his last name to Jefferson and passed as white.
His son, Lt. Col. John Wayles Jefferson - tall and
red-haired, like his father and Jefferson - served in a
white regiment in the Union Army. In the army, he met
someone who knew he was descended from slaves. According
to a newspaper account, he begged them not to reveal his
slave heritage. John Wayles Jefferson later became a
wealthy cotton broker in Memphis, Tenn. Another of
Eston's sons, Beverly Frederick Jefferson, owned hotels
and a bus service in Madison. He invented a heater to
warm the feet of his bus passengers. His son, Carl
Jefferson Smith, was chief counsel of a Midwestern
railroad. Madison Hemings, Eston's brother, never left
the black community after he was freed. To this day, his
descendants consider themselves people of color while
Eston's consider themselves white. Madison had 10
children. A grandson, Frederick Madison Roberts, was the
first black to serve in the California Legislature.
Several thousand descendants of Thomas Jefferson and
Sally Hemings may be alive today, but only a small
fraction of them know of their ancestry. "It's like
having a whole new family," says Julia Jefferson
Westerinen, a vice president at a New York furniture
company, of learning she was descended from Sally
Hemings. Today, Westerinen (a white Hemings) and her
distant cousin, Shay Banks-Young (a descendant of
Madison Hemings and thus a black Hemings), lecture
together at colleges. They also circulate petitions that
advocate building a national museum about slavery.

REPLY: If you think this article lacks balance....YES IT DOES, (this
man interviewed me and didn't mention my information in his article), as
do those of the Wash-Post...see their article of May 30, 99 taking their
reporters to task for unclear, speculation and reporting what is
convenient. Dr. Foster says of the OMBUDSMAN, "I THINK SHE DID A GOOD
JOB IN SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT". This from the man in charge of the
DNA study. Go to: http://www.angelfire.com/va/TJTruth for this and many
other revealing problems with this Jefferson-Hemings DNA Study.

Herb Barger
Jefferson Family Historian

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