Wealth and Its Disparities Timeline

Thomas Jefferson inherits approximately 40 enslaved African Americans and 2,750 acres of land from his father, Peter Jefferson, and 135 enslaved African Americans, including the Hemings family, and 11,000 acres of land from his father-in-law, John Wayles.

American Revolution

The Federalist Papers worked to promote the then-radical ideas of the U.S. Constitution by addressing challenges to the new government.

Thomas Jefferson sells Mary Hemings to Charlottesville merchant Col. Thomas Bell

The U.S. Treasury General Land Office begins selling public land of the Northwest and Louisiana Territories to small farmers.

Thomas Jefferson dies $107,000 in debt; 5 people are freed in his will, including his sons with Sally Hemings, Madison and Eston Hemings. The following year 130 enslaved people are sold to pay Jefferson’s debts.

Madison and Eston Hemings move with their families to southern Ohio

Eston Hemings moves to Madison, Wisconsin. Passing as white and changing his name to E.H. Jefferson, his children begin to accrue wealth.

Homestead Act and Civil Rights Act - enables any citizen to acquire 180 acres of western land for a minimal fee and gain title to the land after living on it for five years.

Charlottesville’s enslaved community is freed when the U.S. Army occupies the city.

The rise and decline of the American union labor movement in the struggle for fair wages, wealth generating pensions and better working conditions.

Andrew Jackson Roberts and his wife Ellen Wayles Hemings Roberts, granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, move to Los Angeles. Roberts founds A.J. Roberts and Son, the first Black owned mortuary in the city, becoming a wealthy and influential citizen and member of the National Urban League.

The Sherman Antitrust Act paves the way for Theodore Roosevelt’s “Trust Busting” of wealth-concentrating monopolies.

Plessy vs. Ferguson: U.S. Supreme Court rules that the 14th Amendment allows states to pass "separate but equal" laws enforcing racial segregation and inequality.

Department of Commerce and Labor is established.

Eston Hemings’ grandson, entrepreneur and inventor Walter Pearson, becomes President of The Standard Screw Company. On his death in 1917, his $2,000,000 estate is divided among his children and cousins.

The 16th Amendment and the Revenue Act create the progressive Federal Income Tax system of rates and exemptions proposed by Thomas Jefferson in the 1780s

Tulsa Race Massacre. The affluent African American community of Greenwood, Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street” is looted and set ablaze by white rioters resentful of the concentration of African American wealth. An estimated 300 people dies in the violence.

Pullman Porter’s Union founded by A. Philip Randolph to raise the wages and standard of living of African American railroad workers.

Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression

The Federal Housing Administration, a New Deal program to enable home ownership, advantages white home buyers by establishing “Redlining” practices, denying African Americans access to FHA Mortgages.

The Social Security Act provides retirees a minimum income, but farm laborers and domestic workers (the majority of whom are people of color) are ineligible for benefits.

The G.I. Bill provides educational benefits and low-cost mortgage loans for WWII veterans, but accommodates Jim Crow laws, increasing the wealth gap between whites and people of color.

Taft-Hartley Act Severely restricts the organizing activities and power of labor unions and enables states to pass “right to work” laws limiting union power.

President Lyndon Johnson declares “War on Poverty” and the Civil Rights Act is signed into law.

Fair Housing Act passed prohibiting redlining.

The Poor People’s Campaign, led by Dr. Martin Luther King calls attention to the growing wealth disparity in the U.S.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits creditors from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religions, national origin, sex, marital status, or age.

Great Recession and Occupy Wall Street Movement

Descendants of Monticello’s enslaved community on both sides of the color line achieved many “firsts” in government, in the military, and in the workplace.