Chronology—the Jefferson-Hemings
Relationship
• (adapted from Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of
Monticello. New York: W. W. Norton.)
• 1735: Elizabeth Hemings (EH) (mother of Sally Hemings) is born; she is a slave of the Eppes family in VA
• 1746: Martha Eppes marries John Wayles;
• 1748: Martha Wayles is born (future wife of Thomas
Jefferson); Martha Eppes dies and leaves EH the property of
John Wayles
• 1762-70: EH gives birth to five children by John Wayles (her master)
• 1772: Martha Wayles marries Thomas Jefferson (TJ)
• 1773: Sally Hemings born (the last child of EH and John
Wayles)
• NB: Sally Hemings (SH), therefore, is the half sister of Martha
Jefferson, TJ’s wife!

Chronology—the Jefferson-Hemings
Relationship
• 1782: Martha Jefferson dies at Monticello; Jefferson promises
Martha on her deathbed that he will never marry again; Sally
Hemings present.
• 1784: TJ and James Hemings (Sally’s older brother, also
Martha’s half-brother) go to Paris, France
• 1787: SH joins TJ and her brother James in Paris; her assignment is to tend to TJ’s youngest daughter, but SH also works as TJ’s chambermaid.
• 1789: When SH balks at returning to America (she would be freed, under French law, if she had staid in Paris), TJ promises her a good life and freedom of their children when they become adults. JH and SH return to Monticello in December.
• 1790: SH gives birth to her first child (with TJ). The infant dies.

Chronology—the Jefferson-Hemings
Relationship
• 1793: Thomas Jefferson puts his agreement to free James Hemings in writing; JH becomes legally free in 1796; JH later turns down TJ’s request to become chef at the White House; in 1801, JH commits suicide.
• 1795: Harriet Hemings I, daughter of SH and TJ is born at Monticello.
Harriet dies in 1797.
• NB: All of SH and TJ’s children, therefore, are cousins as well as
siblings of TJ’s white children with his wife Martha…
• 1798: William Beverly Hemings, son of SH and TJ is born at
• 1799: first published allusions to TJ and SH’s relationship appear in the press
• 1800: SH and TJ’s daughter Harriet II born at Monticello
• 1802: James Callender exposes the relationship between SH and TJ.
• 1805: James Madison Hemings, 2 nd son of SH and TJ is born at
Monticello.

Chronology—the Jefferson-Hemings
Relationship
• 1807: Elizabeth Hemings, Sally’s mother, dies at Monticello (she remained a slave…)
• 1808: Thomas Eston Hemings, the last child of SH and TJ, is born at
Monticello.
• 1809: TJ retires from public life; stays at Monticello
• 1810-26: SH and TJ’s children learn various trades at Monticello
• 1822: Beverly and Harriet leave Monticello to live as white people.
• 1826: TJ drafts a will that formally frees his sons Madison and Eston
Hemings. TJ dies on July 4, 1776
• SH, Madison, and Eston move to Charlottesville, VA.
• 1831: Monticello, along with many of TJ’s slaves, is sold at auction to pay for TJ’s large debt.
• No date of SH’s death is officially recorded. Madison claimed she died in 1835, though some other reports of travelers to
Charlottesville claim to have seen her as late as 1837.

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/vi ew/

In his own words:
Thomas Jefferson on Slavery and Race
• Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (Paris, 1785
[private edition]; London, 1787).
• Query 14: Laws (see handout!)

• Jefferson in Paris. Director, James Ivory. 1995

• Questions:
• What is the relationship between fiction and non-fiction in
Brown’s novel, i.e. how does Brown combine a fictional story with the facts and reality of slavery? (“fiction founded in truth”)
• What is the significance/function of Brown’s autobiographical account? How does the fictional account return to specific paradigms set up in the autobiographical narrative (e.g. the selling of blood relatives by white masters)?
• Why does Brown choose to write fiction, rather than nonfiction anti-slavery tracts?
• How does he cast/re-cast the stock figure of the “tragic mulatta” and other figures?

• Questions—Continued:
• Does the formal difficulty of the novel (e.g. its lack of unity) have a correlative in the ideas that are conveyed?
• How does the novel play with the meanings of freedom?
• In how far does the important theme of the separation of families comment on 19 th -century ideals of domesticity, family values, marriage, virtue, etc.?
• How does Brown use but also undermine the discourse of sentimentalism in 19 th -century culture and fiction?
• What does the novel say about the ways in which slavery undermines the important notion of republican virtue? How does it topple/deconstruct the ideals of a nation built on virtue, sentiment, education, Republican womanhood, religion, authority of the people, etc….?