The Jefferson - Hemings Controversy

Episodes

Bacon, Edmund. "Mr. Jefferson's Servants." Jefferson at Monticello. Ed. James A. Bear, Jr. Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 1967.: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/slaves/bacon.html; Bacon's memoir has served as part of the "other man" and "character defense" strategies of refuting Jefferson's relationship with Hemings. A long-time chief overseer at Monticello, Bacon recounts the story of slave Jim Hubbard and the events that ensued after he was accused of stealing from the nailery. Jefferson refrained from punishing Jim, who had "suffered enough already." On the late Mrs. Jefferson's deathbed, Jefferson "promised her solemnly that he would never marry again," and Bacon affirms that Jefferson "always kept that promise." Jefferson is depicted as a kind master who "would have freed all of [his slaves], if his affairs had not been so much involved." In regard to the paternity of Sally's children, Bacon points the finger in another unnamed man's direction because he saw "him come out of [Sally's] room many a morning, when [he] went up to Monticello very early." Bacon also describes a slave who was freed before Jefferson's death, and one that successfully ran away. He closes the piece by claiming, "No servants ever had a kinder master than Mr. Jefferson."
Baird, W. Review of The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson by Sarah N. Randolph. Southern Magazine 10 (1872): 495-502.
Cocke, John Hartwell. Diary, 1853, 1859. Papers of John Hartwell Cocke. University of Virginia.: http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/small/collections/tj/jhc.html; Cocke, a close friend of Jefferson, attests decades later to the reality of the Jefferson-Hemings relationship twice in his diaries. In 1853 Cocke complained that many slave owners had children by their slave women, and there's no wonder that this should be so "when Mr. Jefferson's notorious example is considered." And in 1859 Cocke complained about the common practice of unmarried slave owners keeping a slave woman as "a substitute for a wife. . . . In Virginia this damnable practice prevails as much as anywhere -- probably more -- as Mr. Jefferson's example can be pleaded for its defense."
Coolidge, Ellen Randolph. Letter to Joseph Coolidge, 24 October 1858. Reprinted in Annette Gordon-Reed, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy; Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History; and Dumas Malone, "Mr. Jefferson's Private Life." Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 84.1 (1974): 65-72. New York Times 18 May 1974: 31.: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/1858ellenlett.html; A granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson, Coolidge describes a conversation with her brother Thomas Jefferson Randolph about "yellow children" in which she exonerates Jefferson as a kind master and a man of high moral character. A liaison between Jefferson and Hemings is a "moral impossibility," and "There is a general impression that the four children of Sally Hemmings were all the children of Col. Carr [Jefferson nephew Samuel Carr], the most notorious good-natured Turk that ever was master of a black seraglio kept at other men's expense." Coolidge's personal testimony was the central piece of evidence for defenders of Jefferson from James Parton to Dumas Malone and beyond.
Fossett, Peter. "Once the Slave of Thomas Jefferson." New York World 30 January 1898.: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/slaves/memoir.html; As possibly the last surviving Jefferson slave, Fossett depicts his former owner as an "ideal master," recounting, on the good side, the events of a visit by General Lafayette to Monticello and, on the bad side, what happened once he was sold to Col. John R. Jones. Over time he comes to see his "state as a sinner" and attains freedom for himself and his sister. Fossett relates his struggle to learn to read under the ownership of Jones and looks back on his life as a "fairy tale."
Guernsey, A. H. "Thomas Jefferson and His Family." Harper's Magazine 48 (August 1871): 366-81.: http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=harp;cc=harp;rgn=full%20text;idno=harp0043-3;didno=harp0043-3;view=image;seq=0376;node=harp0043-3%3A5; Review of Sarah Randolph's Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson.
[Hemings, Madison.] "Life Among the Lowly, No. 1." Pike County Republican 13 March 1873. Reprinted in Annette Gordon-Reed, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy and Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History.: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/1873march.html; Much contested, this document is central to the controversy, since, if accurate, it proves there was a Jefferson-Hemings relationship. Here Madison, Sally's next-to-youngest son, relays his mother's story of her relationship with Jefferson. Madison is certain that Jefferson is his father. He explains that "when [Jefferson] was called back home [to Monticello] [Sally] was enceinte [pregnant] by him." Although Sally initially resisted returning to Virginia where she would be re-enslaved, Jefferson "promised her extraordinary privileges, and made a solemn pledge that her children should be freed at the age of twenty-one years." Madison details what became of each of his own siblings, as far as he knows, and describes Jefferson as having been unaffectionate to his black children. Hemings ends the memoir with a description of his life after being freed upon Jefferson's death and affirms that he and all of his siblings have been "measurably happy." Those who accept a Jefferson-Hemings relationship (Fawn Brodie, Annette Gordon-Reed, etc.) accept this story; those who don't accept (Dumas Malone, Merrill Peterson, etc.), deny it.
Jefferson, Isaac. Memoirs of a Monticello Slave. 1847. Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 1951. (See secondary resources entries for Bear, Campbell, and Logan.): http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/small/collections/tj/memoirs.html; Charles Campbell's transcription of Isaac's recollections in the 1840s here in book form was edited and first published by Rayford W. Logan (1950) and later published by James Bear (1967) (see separate individual entries for Campbell, Logan, and Bear in secondary resources). In reminiscences of Jefferson and life at Monticello, this slave provides the only physical description of Sally: "Sally Hemings' mother Betty was a bright mulatto woman & Sally mighty near white: She was the youngest child. Folks said that these Hemings'es was old Mr Wayles' children. Sally was very handsome: long straight hair down her back. She was about eleven years old when Mr Jefferson took her to France to wait on Miss Polly. She & Sally went out to France a year after Mr Jefferson went. Patsy went with him at first, but she carried no maid with her. Harriet one of Sally's daughters was very hand-some. Sally had a son named Madison, who learned to be a great fiddler. He has been in Petersburg twice: was here when the balloon went up-the balloon that Beverly sent off." This first-person report of a beautiful (for all intents and purposes) "white" Sally dramatically counters Callender's fabrication of a more politically useful wooly-headed Black Sal.
[Jefferson, Israel.] "Life among the Lowly, No. 3," Pike County [Ohio] Republican 25 December 1873. Reprinted in Annette Gordon-Reed, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy and Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History.: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/1873israel.html; An interview in the same series as Madison Hemings's in which this slave describes his experience at Monticello and his life after Jefferson's death. Israel is ultimately able to purchase his freedom and genuinely consider himself a free man after moving to Ohio. Israel plays an important role in the controversy for he confirms Madison Hemings's claim that Sally was, in fact, Jefferson's concubine: "I know that it was a general statement among the older servants at Monticello, that Mr. Jefferson promised his wife, on her death bed, that he would not again marry. I also know that his servant, Sally Hemmings, (mother to my old friend and former companion at Monticello, Madison Hemmings,) was employed as his chamber-maid, and that Mr. Jefferson was on the most intimate terms with her; that, in fact, she was his concubine. This I know from my intimacy with both parties, and when Madison Hemmings declares that he is a natural son of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and that his brothers Beverly and Eston and sister Harriet are of the same parentage, I can as conscientiously confirm his statement as any other fact which I believe from circumstances but do not positively know."
Jones, John A. Editorial. [Waverly, Ohio] Watchman 18 March 1873. Reprinted Dumas Malone and Steven H. Hochman, "A Note on Evidence: The Personal History of Madison Hemings." Journal of Southern History 41.4 (1975): 523-28.: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/1873rebuttal.html; Jones, editor of a newspaper in the same area as the one that published Madison Hemings's memoir, responds to that memoir with a condescending tone and a sneeringly dismissive manner, categorically discrediting his claim of Jefferson's paternity. Hemings "is not supposed to be a competent witness in his own behalf. . . . his extreme youth [that is, at the time of his birth!!!] would prevent him from knowing all the facts connected with that important event." And in regard to Sally's veracity, it "is a well known peculiarity of the colored race" to "lay claim to illustrious parentage." It is more likely that Sally told "her offspring that â€˜master' is their father than to acknowledge to them that some field hand, without a name, had raised her to the dignity of a mother." Hemings is compared to a scrubby, scrawny plug who has been given an overblown pedigree for the purpose of bettering a sale.
Pierson, Hamilton W. Jefferson at Monticello: The Private Life of Thomas Jefferson. New York: Charles Scribner, 1862. Reprinted Freeport: Books for Libraries, 1971. Reprinted in Bear.: Contains Edmund Bacon's recollections. See the Bacon entry.
Quincey, Edward. Review of The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson Randolph by Sarah N. Randolph. Nation 9 November 1871.
Randall, Henry S. Letter to James Parton, 1 June 1868. See Milton E. Flower, "Letter from Henry S. Randall to James Parton on Jefferson and the â€˜Dusky Sally Story.'" James Parton: The Father of Modern Biography. Durham: Duke UP, 1951. 236-39. Reprinted Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History.: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/1868randall.html; In a letter from one Jefferson biographer to another, Randall reports on a conversation with Thomas Jefferson Randolph that ratifies the version of the story in Ellen Coolidge's letter to her husband. Parton, as we will see in episode 5, makes this version the official narrative of the Jefferson-Hemings relationship by incorporating it in his 1874 work.
Randolph, Sarah N. The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1871.: http://books.google.com/books?id=xcIaeIIm5CoC&lpg=PP1&as_brr=3&pg=PP1; Jefferson great-granddaughter Randolph's contribution to the controversy is an album of sketches depicting the loving and benign family man who couldn't do what he was accused of: "no man's private character has been more foully assailed than Jefferson's, and none so wantonly exposed to the public gaze, nor more fully vindicated. I shall be more than rewarded for my labors should I succeed in imparting to my readers a tithe of that esteem and veneration which I have been taught to feel for him." A glowing picture is painted of Jefferson as a "beautiful domestic character." He is depicted as a devoted student from a strong family line who developed into somewhat of a renaissance man. He is "An American, who, without ever having quitted his own country, is at once a musician, skilled in drawing, a geometrician, an astronomer, a natural philosopher, legislator, and statesmen." And so on, and so on.
Randolph, Thomas Jefferson. Rebuttal to Israel Jefferson. Source for the PBS excerpt linked here is unclear. C. 1874.: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/1873randolph.html; Thomas Jefferson ("Jeff") Randolph was the grandson of Thomas Jefferson and brother of Ellen Randolph Coolidge. In this rebuttal to Israel Jefferson's article in the Pike County Republican on December 25, 1873 (see Israel Jefferson entry), Randolph states that "To my knowledge and the statements other gentlemen made to me 60 years ago the paternity of these persons [Sally's children] was admitted by two other persons," presumably Peter and Samuel Carr. Regarding this document: it may be the one that Annette Gordon-Reed says was not published but is in Randolph's papers (see Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy 88).
Review of The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson by Sarah N. Randolph. The Nation 13 (1871): 309-10.
Wetmore, S. F. Editorial. Pike County [Ohio] Republican. Reprinted Dumas Malone and Steven H. Hochman, "A Note on Evidence: The Personal History of Madison Hemings." Journal of Southern History 41.4 (1975): 523-28.: Wetmore was the editor of the newspaper in which Madison Hemings's memoir appear.