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After Thomas Jefferson's death in 1826, most of the 130 enslaved people at Monticello were dispersed by sale at auction. Three of the five men freed by Jefferson's will, and others who were able to purchase their freedom later, moved with their families to southern Ohio in the 1830s and 1840s. Many of their descendants are still in Ohio, while others have traveled to and settled in all parts of the United States.

Those who remained in bondage in 1826 found their place of residence determined by others. Some were taken to Alabama, Kentucky, and Missouri by Jefferson's descendants and other emigrants to the west in the mid-nineteenth century. Most remained in the Monticello neighborhood until Emancipation in 1865. Although some families moved north in the Great Migration of the early twentieth century, there are today numerous descendants of Monticello's black community who reside near the mountain where their ancestors lived and worked.

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The deed of manumission of Robert Hemings (1768-1819), dated 24 Dec. 1794, is in Thomas Jefferson's hand. It begins: "This indenture witnesseth that I Thomas Jefferson of the county of Albemarle have manumitted and made free Robert Hemings, son of Betty Hemmings." At right an advertisement in the Charlottesville Central Gazette, 13 Jan. 1827, offers for sale "130 VALUABLE NEGROES" from the estate of Thomas Jefferson. Below are several receipts from the 1827 sale for the purchase of Joseph Fossett's wife, Edith, some of their children, and the children of Wormley and Ursula Hughes.

 

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