30. Randolph, Domestic Life, 25–26. See, generally, Gordon-Reed, TJ and SH, "DNA: The Author’s Response."
31. Fawn Brodie, "Thomas Jefferson’s Unknown Grandchildren," 176.
32. Gordon-Reed, TJ and SH, 196–201.
33. Ibid., 170–71.
34. Ibid., 100–102, 216.
35. Nellie Jones to Stuart Gibboney, July 29, 1938, Aug. 10, 1938; Stuart Gibboney to Nellie Jones, Aug. 1, 1938, Nov. 1, 1938, correspondence in the University of Virginia Library, Accession No. 6636-a-b, Box No. Control Folder, Folder Dates 1735–1961. Nellie Jones was Madison Hemings’s granddaughter. She wrote to Gibboney, the then president of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, offering to donate mementos that her great-grandmother Sally Hemings had saved and given to their son: a pair of his glasses, an inkwell, and a silver buckle. Gibboney referred the matter to Fiske Kimball, then "Chairman of the Restoration Committee." Kimball wrote to Gibboney on Oct. 28, 1938, "Nellie Jones: This very resptctable [sic] colored woman writes a letter much more intelligently than members of our own race. Her story was very straight (except that I was not aware that Jefferson took any slave to France—but that’s not the crucial point. [Oh, but it was!] I see no harm in letting her send on the things, for inspection as she is willing to do. It might be that the buckle is identical with one of the buckles we have, which would thus authenticate the whole lot. As to purchasing them, and fixing a price, we really have quite enough of these little mementoes so that it would be indifferent whether we bought any more" (emphasis added). On the strength of that analysis Gibboney wrote to Jones, saying, "Under the circumstances, therefore, we will not be interested in buying these relics, but we will keep your letters in our file in case we hear of someone who would be interested in acquiring them, should you not dispose of them yourself in the meantime." It is not clear what the state of affairs was in 1938 with respect to "relics," but it is hard to imagine that the museum devoted to TJ’s life could really have had too many pairs of his eyeglasses lying around.
36. Burstein, The Inner Jefferson, 61–62.
18: The Return
1. Colin Jones, Paris: The Biography of a City (New York, 2005); Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris (New York, 2002), 155; David Garrioch, The Making of Revolutionary Paris (Berkeley, Calif., 2002), 45; Malone, Jefferson, 2:205–6.
2. MB, 723 n. 31; Malone, Jefferson, 2:206.
3. In a postscript to that same letter written on Dec. 15 that he was unable to send until Jan. 11, because of lack of a "conveiance," he reported (no doubt after receiving his new thermometers) that the temperature had dropped to "9 1/2 degrees below zero." TJ to Francis Eppes, Dec. 15, 1788, Papers, 14:358.
4. Horne, Seven Ages of Paris, 155–56. See William Doyle, Origins, 168, suggesting that "as many as 30,000 more immigrants than usual may have been present in Paris as a result of the economic crisis." See also Doyle’s chap. 12, outlining the state of affairs in 1788–89 in Paris.
5. TJ to Andre Limozin, May 3, 1789, Papers, 15:86; William Short to TJ, Oct. 8, 1789, ibid., 511; Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, 212; Georges Lefebvre, The Coming of the French Revolution, 199–205.
6. TJ to Lucy Paradise, Sept. 10, 1789, Papers, 15:412; TJ to Thomas Paine, Sept. 13, 1789, ibid., 424.
7. William Short to John Hartwell Cocke, Aug. 12, 1826, Cocke Papers, University of Virginia, quoted in "Thomas Jefferson and William Short," at Monticello.org.
8. TJ to Montmorin, July 8, 1789, Papers, 15:260.
9. John Jay to TJ, June 19, 1789, Papers, 15:202. TJ’s SJL lists the letter as having been received on Aug. 23.
10. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, 243; MB, 247; TJ to John Trumbull, Sept. 9, 1789, Papers, 15:407.
11. MB, 247.
12. See, e.g., Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, 43, 114–16. For a discussion of TJ’s health problems in later years, see Andrew Burstein, Jefferson’s Secret Death and Desire at Monticello (New York, 2005), The relationship between TJ’s physical illnesses and stress was not strictly a psychological matter. Modern scientists have noted, and are still attempting to understand more clearly, the role that stress plays in compromising the human immune system, making certain people more prone to illness during times of emotional upheaval.
13. Gordon-Reed, TJ and SH, 246.
14. Herbert E. Sloan, Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt (New York, 1995), 13–14.
15. James Madison to TJ, May 27, 1789, Papers, 15:153; TJ to James Madison, Aug. 29, 1789, ibid., 369; TJ to James Madison, Jan. 9, 1790, ibid., 16:92–93 ("I expect with anxiety the President’s ultimate determination as to what is to be done with me. I cannot bring myself to be indifferent to the change of destination, tho’ I will be passive under it"); Malone, Jefferson, 2:248–49.
16. TJ, Autobiography, in Writings, 98.
17. TJ to Joseph Delaplaine, April 12, 1817, LOC, 37369.
18. TJ to James Maurice, Sept. 16, 1789, Papers, 15:433.
19. MB, 743–47.
20. Ibid.
21. Jared Sparks, The Life of Benjamin Franklin, containing the Autobiography, with Notes and a Continuation (Boston, 1848), 509.
22. "Extract from the Diary of Nathaniel Cutting at Le Havre and Cowes," Papers, 15:490, 494
23. MB, 745.
24. TJ to William Short, Oct. 7, 1789, Papers, 15:509; "Extract from the Diary of Nathaniel Cutting," ibid., 495.
25. TJ to William Short, Oct. 7, 1789, Papers, 15:509.
26. TJ to Madame de Corny, Oct. 14, 1789, Papers, 15:520; MB, 745.
27. TJ to Madame de Corny, Oct. 14, 1789, Papers, 15:520.
28. MB, 747; John Trumbull to TJ, Sept. 22, 1789, Papers, 15:468.
29. MB, 555. In addition to keeping a daily log of the latitude, longitude, distance traveled, temperature, and wind direction, TJ noted sightings of sea creatures observed each day.
30. TJ to William Short, Oct. 23, 1789, Papers, 15:527; MB, 747; TJ to Nathaniel Cutting, Nov. 21, 1789, ibid., 551–52; MB, 747; Martha Jefferson Randolph’s reminiscences, Papers, 15:560–61.
31. TJ to William Short, Oct. 4, 1789, Papers, 15:506; "List of Baggage Shipped by Jefferson from France" [ca. Sept. 1, 1789], ibid., 375–77. See also Stein, The World of Thomas Jefferson.
32. TJ to John Trumbull, Nov. 25, 1789, Papers, 15:560; Martha Randolph Jefferson reminiscences, ibid., 560.
33. "Address of Welcome of the Officials of Norfolk," Nov. 25, 1789; "Jefferson’s Reply to the Foregoing Address of Welcome," Nov. 25, 1789, Papers, 15:556, 556–67.
34. Martha Randolph Jefferson’s reminiscences, ibid., 560–61; MB, 748, 748–49.
35. William L. Shirer, Love and Hatred: The Tormented Marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy (New York, 1994).
36. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, 248.
19: Hello and Goodbye
1. Farm Book, 24; MB, 749.
2. Gordon-Reed, TJ and SH, 254.
3. Henry S. Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, 3 vols. (1858; reprint, New York, 1972), 1:552, Martha J. Randolph on the homecoming; Wormley Hughes on the homecoming, ibid., 552–53.
4. TJ to Nicholas Lewis, Dec. 16, 1788, Papers, 14:362.
5. Randall, Life, 1:552, 553.
6. Ibid., 553. See also Stanton, "The Other End of the Telescope," 56 (2000): 139–52, 150–51. Stanton, who with Dianne Swann Wright has collected a multitude of family stories from the descendants of people who were enslaved at Monticello, as well as some stories from TJ’s white descendants, has found that the story of TJ’s return has survived for two hundred years among black and white families, who interpret the meaning of the recollection differently. TJ’s white descendants tell it as an example of the extreme loyalty of slaves. The descendants of slaves tell it as a story that illustrates TJ’s dependence upon their family members.
7. Randall, Life, 552.
8. Stanton, Free Some Day, 133–36, 143–44.
9. Malone, Jefferson, 2:253.
10. TJ to Randolph Jefferson, Jan. 11, 1789, Papers, 14:433–34.
/> 11. See Morris, Southern Slavery and the Law, 347–48, discussing the southern attitude about teaching slaves to read, noting that "half of the slave states did not prohibit teaching slaves to read and write." Virginia, for example, never made it completely against the law to teach slaves to read. Unlawful assembly laws were directed chiefly at stopping the creation of schools for blacks. Whites were interested primarily in black labor and rarely had the incentive to teach blacks to read. Those blacks who did learn often taught others.
12. See Papers, 28:223, listing the dates the letters were written and the dates they were received as recorded in the SJL.
13. Gordon-Reed, TJ and SH, 139–40, 149.
14. First page of James Hemings’s inventory of kitchen utensils (in the first insert).
15. Gordon-Reed, TJ and SH, 247.
16. "Life among the Lowly," Pike County (Ohio) Republican, March 13, 1873.
17. See Hemings family tree in this book; Lucia Stanton, "Monticello to Main Street, 123.
18. TJ to William Short, Dec. 14, 1789, Papers, 16:26; "Address of Welcome by the Citizens of Albemarle and Jefferson’s Response," Feb. 12, 1790, Papers, 16:177.
19. MB, 749.
20. Thomas Bell to TJ, June 12, 1797, Papers, 29:427; Stanton, "Monticello to Main Street," 123 (although Bell’s grandson’s recollections refer to visits that would have taken place after Bell’s death, it is apparent from the tenor of the two men’s letters, and the fact that Bell’s store was attached to his home, that TJ visited Bell’s home in the 1790s as well); TJ to Thomas Bell, March 16, 1792, Papers, 20:758–59; TJ to Archibald Stuart, Dec. 2, 1794, ibid., 28:214; TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Aug. 20, 1795, ibid., 28:214, 439; James Madison to TJ, Dec. 25, 1797, ibid., 29:591.
21. Stanton, "Monticello to Main Street." 100.
22. See, generally, Joshua Rothman, Notorious in the Neighborhood, on the attitudes in TJ’s immediate community about interracial relations.
23. Robinson, Dangerous Liaisons, 101.
24. TJ to Francis C. Gray, March 4, 1815, LOC, 36173.
25. See Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia (1901; reprint, Berryville, Va, 1984), 276, listing Bell as a magistrate, one of the "County Officers" in 1791. In 1794 he was part of a commission to "study how to reinstate" records that were lost owing to the "wanton ravages of the British troops near the close of the Revolutionary War" (p. 25). The following year Bell was chosen with, among others, Wilson Cary Nicholas, to study the question of public education. Other jurisdictions were hesitant even to talk about it, because it would require raising taxes. The matter died a quick death. Ironically, in 1849 the issue arose again, and Thomas Jefferson Randolph was one of the leading opponents to bringing public education to Charlottesville, which put him on the opposite side of Dr. William H. McGuffey, a professor at the University of Virginia, which Randolph’s grandfather, of course, had founded (p. 90).
26. Stanton, "Monticello to Main Street," 100; Gordon-Reed, TJ and SH, 138.
27. TJ to William Short, Dec. 14, 1789, Papers, 16:26.
28. TJ to Elizabeth Eppes, July 25, 1790, Papers, 17:266.
29. Stephanie M. H. Camp, Closer to Freedom, 36–37; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 542.
30. Camp, Closer to Freedom, 37.
20: Equilibrium
1. TJ to George Washington, Dec. 15, 1789, Papers, 16:34–35; TJ to James Madison, Jan. 9, 1790, ibid., 92–93; George Washington to TJ, Jan. 21, 1790, ibid., 116–18; TJ to George Washington, Feb. 14, 1790, ibid., 16:184.
2. Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. to TJ, Jan. 30, 1790, Papers, 16:135 (TJ received the letter on Feb. 4); TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Feb. 4, 1790, ibid., 16:154–55.
3. See Malone, Jefferson, 1:19–20, on the early relations between the Jeffersons and Thomas Mann Randolph Sr., and 2:250–53, on the marriage of Martha Jefferson and Randolph Jr.
4. See, e.g., Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. to TJ, Aug. 16, 1786, Papers, 10:260–61; TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., Aug. 27, 1786, ibid., 205–9.
5. Randall, Life, 1:558.
6. Randolph, Domestic Life, 138–39.
7. TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Feb. 28, 1788, Papers, 14:367–68 n. Julian Boyd effectively sorted out the question whether the couple met in Paris in 1788. His conclusion that they did not is persuasive. Additional evidence that the couple did not meet and fall in love in France is that after her father announced that he was taking a leave of absence, Patsy Jefferson spoke to friends about her wish to stay in France during her father’s leave of absence. MB, 730 n. 47.
8. Jack McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello (New York, 1988), 241–42.
9. Dolley Payne Todd Madison to Anna Payne Cutts, Aug. 28, [1808], University of Virginia Press, 2004, http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/dmde/DPMO178. See, e.g., Martha Jefferson Randolph to Ann Cary Randolph Morris, Jan. 24, 1828, Family Letters Project, stating "that poor Jefferson [her son] is about to have another addition to his family is merely the usual annual occurrence."
10. Thomas Jefferson Randolph to Dabney S. Carr, July 11, 1826, Carr-Cary Papers, quoted in Lewis, "The White Jeffersons," Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture, ed. Jan Ellen Lewis and Peter S. Onuf (Charlottesville, 1999), 134. Jefferson’s overseer Edmund Bacon remembered the incident when Randolph hit his son-in-law in the head with an iron poker after he mistook him for a slave in the failing light of dusk one evening. Pierson, Jefferson at Monticello, 99.
11. Pierson, Jefferson at Monticello, 99.
12. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, "The Last Days of Jefferson," Special Collections, ViU.
13. William H. Gaines, Thomas Mann Randolph, Jefferson’s Son-In-Law (Baton Rouge 1966), 32–34.
14. Cynthia A. Kierner, Scandal at Bizarre, 38–39.
15. Pierson, Jefferson at Monticello, 99–100.
16. Gaines, Thomas Mann Randolph, 106–7.
17. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, "Last Days of Jefferson," Special Collections, ViU.
18. Elizabeth Trist to Nicholas Trist, Feb. 13, 1819, Family Letters Project.
19. Ellen Coolidge to Henry S. Randall, March 13, 1856, Coolidge Letter Book, Special Collections, University of Virginia.
20. TJ to Wilson Cary Nicholas, March 8, 1819, LOC, 38312.
21. Gaines, Thomas Mann Randolph, 39; Malone, Jefferson, 3:175.
22. TJ to Martha Randolph, April 4, 1790, Papers, 16:300.
23. Kierner, Scandal at Bizarre, 22.
24. Thomas Mann Randolph to TJ, May 25, 1790, Papers, 16:441. Randolph describes the bad state of affairs at Varina. "We have 2 small houses with 2 rooms in each, which might have been rendered very commodious, had they not been situated at a distance from each other." He makes clear that the home was unsuitable and the couple wished to move elsewhere as soon as possible. The excessive heat was making him ill.
25. Susan Kern, "The Material World of the Jeffersons at Shadwell," WMQ, 3d ser., 62, no. 2 (2005), at http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/wm/62.2/kern.html; Kierner, Scandal at Bizarre, 19–20. See also Philip Hamilton, The Making and Unmaking of a Revolutionary Family: The Tuckers of Virginia, 1752–1830 (Charlottesville, 2003), 100, discussing how Thomas Mann Randolph’s daughter took the cue from her parents about the importance of a "glittering lifestyle…to their reputation." See Martha Jefferson Carr to TJ, Dec. 3, 1787, Papers, 15:640, noting the death of Archibald Cary and the dire financial straits in which he had left his family.
26. Stanton, Free Some Day, 124.
27. Marriage settlement for Martha Jefferson, Papers, 15:189–91.
28. TJ to Elizabeth Wayles, July 25, 1790, Papers, 17:266; Thomas Mann Randolph to TJ, May 25, 1790, ibid., l6:441, in which Randolph tells his father-in-law that his Martha was staying at Eppington while he prepared "for her coming to Varina."
29. TJ to Elizabeth Wayles, July 25, 1790, Papers, 17:266. The SJL notes that TJ received Martha’s letter on July 2. He did not get the letter from his sister-in-law until July 8, as he notes in the body of his reply to her.
3
0. See Stanton, Slavery at Monticello, at 16, reproducing a copy of a missing page from Jefferson’s Farm Book.
31. See Martha Jefferson Randolph to Anne Cary Randolph Morris, Jan. 22, 1826, referring to Molly Warren as one of her long time house servants. Family Letters Project.
32. TJ to William Short, July 1, 1790, Papers, 16:588–90.
33. TJ to Elizabeth Eppes, July 25, 1790, Papers, 17:266; Elizabeth Eppes to TJ, Aug. 11, 1790, ibid., 331; TJ to Elizabeth Wayles Eppes, Oct. 31, 1790, ibid., 658. Jefferson was unable to realize his plan to have his younger daughter join him in Philadelphia during the summer of 1791, and Maria did not make it to the city until the fall of that year. MB, 836–37.
34. Marriage settlement for Mary Jefferson, Papers, 29:549–50.
35. Ibid., 550.
36. Thomas Mann Randolph to TJ, April 23, 1790, Papers, 16:370; Martha Randolph to TJ, April 25, 1790, ibid., 384.
37. Elizabeth Eppes to TJ, May 23, 1790, Papers, 6:209 n.
38. Mary Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, Oct. 1790 [?], LOC, 11992. Mary Jefferson’s letter to Randolph is undated. The estimated date appended to the top appears to be incorrect. Jefferson indicated that his family had arrived at Monticello on Sept. 22, 1790. TJ to James Madison, Sept. 23, 1790, Papers, 17:512 n. There would have been no reason to write to her brother-in-law in Oct., because they were together at Monticello. On Anne Skipwith’s illness, see Mary Jefferson to TJ, July 20, 1790, Papers, 17:239; Elizabeth Eppes to TJ, Aug. 11, 1790, ibid., 331.
39. TJ wrote to Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. in July about the situation at Varina, hoping that they could "arrange together a matter which our children have at heart. I find it is the strong wish of both to settle in Albemarle. They both consider Varina too unhealthy, a consideration too important, nor to overbear every other." TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, July 25, 1790, Papers, 17:274.
40. TJ to Martha Randolph, Aug. 8, 1790, Papers, 17:327.
41. TJ to Martha Randolph, July 17, 1790; TJ to Mary Jefferson, July 25, 1790; TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, July 25, 1790, Papers, 17:327, 214, 275.
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