Elizabeth Hemings and her Descendants
Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings (1735-1807) was born in slavery, probably in Chesterfield County, almost one hundred miles east of Monticello. According to her grandson Madison Hemings, she was the daughter of an English sea captain and an enslaved woman, possibly born in Africa. She was the property of Martha Eppes, who became the first wife of John Wayles, Jefferson's father-in-law.
Not long after Wayles's death in 1773, Elizabeth Hemings was brought to Monticello with her ten children, six of whom were, according to Madison Hemings, fathered by Wayles (Robert, James, Thenia, Critta, Peter, and Sally). Two more children were born to her at Monticello (Lucy and John). More than seventy-five of her descendants lived at least some part of their lives in bondage at Monticello.
Elizabeth Hemings was a valued domestic servant, whose children and grandchildren occupied the most important household and trades positions on the mountaintop. They were cooks, butlers, seamstresses, weavers, carpenters, blacksmiths, gardeners, and musicians. Jefferson freed, or allowed to go free, three of her sons and six of her grandchildren in his lifetime or in his will -- the only slaves to whom he granted freedom. Many descendants of her daughters Mary, Betty, and Sally have been interviewed as part of Monticello's Getting Word oral history project. Their family histories include the tradition of descent from Thomas Jefferson.
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