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Jefferson's Lineage

"The tradition in my father's family was that their ancestor came to this country from Wales ... "

-Thomas Jefferson, 1821

Martha Wayles Jefferson

“… every time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, every absence which follows it, are preludes to that eternal separation which we are shortly to make!” – Tristam Shandy

 

Martha Jefferson Randolph

"... my evening prospects now hang on the slender thread of a single life."

-Thomas Jefferson, 1804

Martha Jefferson Randolph and her family were a constant presence in Jefferson's world, living with him in Washington, D.C. and Monticello, where she ran his household as the plantation's mistress.

Maria Jefferson Eppes

“god bless you my ever dear daughter and preserve you safe to be the blessing of us all"

-Thomas Jefferson, 1804

Sally Hemings

"Such is the story that comes down to me."

-Madison Hemings, 1873

Available from The Shop at Monticello

The Hemingses of Monticello

Historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings's siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha.