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Subject: [JEFFERSON-HEMINGS] Freedom for the Hemings Family
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 16:33:01 EST
Sally Hemings was freed in 1826 according to the 1833 Special Census of Free
People of Color under the Auspices of the American Colonization Society who
wanted to see how many free Blacks could be returned to Africa. In this
listing, Sally is named, along with her family, Madison Hemings, and Eston
Hemings. A census taker visited the home of 60 year old Sally Hemings to
ask if she wanted to be shipped to Africa. She said no, as did every one of
more than 300 freed slaves surveyed in Albemarle County, Vriginia.
The 1833 Virginia census revealed that, 7 years after Jefferson's death,
Sally Hemings was living with her son Madison 4 miles from Monticello in
Virginia. The home they lived in was purchased by Madison and his brother
Eston in 1830 from a white carpenter. Deed Book 29, pae 276 at the county
courthouse. A Black grocer A. J. Buckner bought the old Hemings property
in 1882 from the heirs of Mary B. Strange. The propery can be located on an
1890s map and in the city directories.
According to her son Madison, after his mother left Monticello, she lived in
a rented house in Charlottesville with him and his brother Eston until her
death in 1835 at age of 62.
Thomas Jefferson never denied his relationship with Sally Hemings. After he
died, the Virginia State Legislature voted a special dispensation for her in
recognition of the well-known fact that she had been the President's
mistress. Only Sally and her sons, Madison and Eston, were allowed to stay
behind at Montecello. All of the other of the 187 slaves were disbursed.
Jefferson's three older children by Sally had previously been freed.
Sally's son, Madison Hemings (1805-1878), a carpenter and joiner, was given
his freedom in Jefferson's will; he resettled in southern Ohio in 1836, where
he worked at his trade and had a farm.
According to Madison in his memoirs, though Sally was 16 and pregnant in
Paris, she did not want to leave Paris and return to Monticello with Thomas
Jefferson. "To induce her to [return] he promised her extraordinary
privileges, and made a solemn pledge that her children should be freed at the
age of 21 years. In consequence of his promise, on which she implicitly
relied, she returned with him to Virginia. Soon after their arrival, she
gave birth to a child of whom Thomas Jefferson was the father."
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