Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves

by Henry Wiencek

  3. TJ to William Wirt, 1815, quoted in McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello, p. 127.

  4. Kern, Jeffersons at Shadwell, pp. 141, 325n37; Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 1, p. 177n54.

  5. Kern, Jeffersons at Shadwell, p. 140.

  6. www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/001446.asp.

  7. Account Book Kept by Thomas Jefferson and Others, no. 186-a. II, “The Est. of Thomas Jefferson Esqr. in Account with Nicholas Lewis,” April 9, 1791. The purchase was made after TJ’s return from France when he was in Philadelphia; Lewis was still managing Monticello. At first I thought these might have been horse collars, but those items are identified in TJ’s records as “leather collars” or “horse collars,” and Lewis would have been similarly specific.

  8. TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Aug. 26, 1811, in Farm Book, p. 149.

  9. Randolph to TJ, March 27, 1792, in Papers, vol. 23.

  10. TJ to Randolph, April 19, 1792, in Papers, vol. 23; TJ to Randolph, Feb. 18, 1793, in Papers, vol. 25.

  11. TJ to Randolph, April 19, 1792.

  12. Randolph to TJ, April 22, 1798, in Papers, vol. 30.

  13. TJ to Randolph, Jan. 25, 1798, in Papers, vol. 30.

  14. Randolph to TJ, Feb. 26, 1798, in Papers, vol. 30.

  15. Stanton, Free Some Day, pp. 42–43.

  16. Randolph to TJ, Jan. 13, 1798, in Papers, vol. 30; TJ to Randolph, Jan. 25, 1798, in Papers, vol. 30; TJ to Randolph, May 3, 1798, in Papers, vol. 30; Stanton, Free Some Day, pp. 36–40.

  17. TJ to Stevens Thomson Mason, Oct. 27, 1799, in Papers, vol. 31.

  18. TJ to James Monroe, July 10, 1796, in Papers, vol. 29.

  19. Hochman, “Thomas Jefferson,” pp. 211–13.

  20. Stanton, “Looking for Liberty,” p. 651; Moss and Moss, “Jefferson Miscegenation Legend in British Travel Books,” pp. 257–58; Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, p. 370. Anonymous letter: McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello, pp. 96–97, 100.

  21. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels Through the United States of North America, vol. 2, p. 162.

  22. Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, p. 934n.

  23. Eppes to TJ, Feb. 10, 1803, no. 1397, Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

  24. TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, June 24, 1793, in Papers, vol. 26.

  25. TJ to James Madison, Aug. 16, 1810, in Papers, Retirement Series, vol. 3; Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, p. 1251n.

  26. Martha Jefferson Randolph and Thomas Mann Randolph to TJ, postscript, Jan. 31, 1801, in Papers, vol. 32.

  27. Francis L. Berkeley Jr., introduction to Farm Book, p. xviii.

  28. McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello, p. 112.

  29. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation, p. 535.

  30. Ibid., pp. 529, 534.

  31. Ellis, American Sphinx, p. 149; Malone, Jefferson the Virginian, p. 163.

  32. Randolph to TJ, April 12, 1800, in Papers, vol. 31.

  33. Randolph to TJ, ca. April 19, 1800, in Papers, vol. 31.

  34. TJ to Randolph, Jan. 23, 1801, in Papers, vol. 32.

  35. Randolph concluded, “Such is the sound sense cleverness & energy of Lillie.” Randolph to TJ, Jan. 31, 1801, in Papers, vol. 32.

  36. TJ to Dinsmore, Dec. 1, 1802, no. 6540, TJ Papers, University of Virginia; Bear, “Mr. Jefferson’s Nails.”

  37. Randolph to TJ, May 30, 1803, TJ Papers, University of Virginia; TJ to Randolph, June 8, 1803, in Farm Book, p. 19; Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 77; McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello, p. 113. Stanton states that Cary was a friend of the runaway James Hubbard and suggests that Cary too might have been planning to run away; if so, Colbert’s prank deranged Cary’s plans.

  38. Martha Jefferson Randolph to TJ, Nov. 30, 1804, in Family Letters, p. 264.

  39. Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, p. 1108.

  40. TJ to Jones and Howell, May 16, 1804, in Farm Book, p. 445.

  41. Oldham to TJ, Nov. 26, 1804, quoted in Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 116. I have corrected Oldham’s spelling.

  42. On July 20, 1805, TJ wrote to Oldham, who was then in Richmond: “I am informed that James Hemings my servant has put himself under your superintendance until he can hear from me on the subject of his return. I can readily excuse the follies of a boy and therefore his return shall ensure him an entire pardon. During my absence hereafter I should place him with Johnny Hemings and Lewis at house joiner’s work. If you will get him a passage in the Richmond stage I will get Mr. Higginbotham to pay his fare on his arrival at Milton.” It seems that Hemings briefly considered the offer, then thought better of it and disappeared (TJ to Oldham, July 20, 1805, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston). A small note in TJ’s records indicates that years later Jimmy Hemings did come back to the mountain, probably to see his family. TJ gave him a tip for finding the lost eyepiece of his telescope. But he never again came under TJ’s control. McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello, pp. 113–15.

  43. TJ to John Strode, June 5, 1805, Library of Congress; TJ to Randolph, June 5, 1805, Library of Congress.

  44. Randolph to Nicholas Trist, Nov. 2, 1818, Papers of the Trist, Randolph, and Burke families, accession no. 10487.

  45. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, p. 98.

  46. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/home.html.

  47. Waldstreicher, Runaway America, p. 185.

  48. “Dillwyn Park Would Hold Memories of Struggle,” p. A6, quoting Wilbert Dean.

  49. Randolph to Nicholas Trist, Nov. 2, 1818.

  50. Onuf, Jefferson’s Empire, p. 9; Bob Dylan, “Lonesome Day Blues,” in “Love and Theft.”

  9. A Mother’s Prayers

  1. Hannah’s letter, Farm Book, pp. 41–42.

  2. Farm Book, plates 9, 31.

  3. TJ to Edmund Bacon, Poplar Forest, Nov. 29, 1817, quoted in Martin, “Mr. Jefferson’s Business,” p. 156.

  4. Yancey to TJ, Oct. 20, 1819, in Farm Book, pp. 44–45.

  5. Yancey to TJ, Oct. 14, 1819, in Farm Book, pp. 304–5.

  6. Yancey to TJ, Oct. 20 and 26, 1819, in Farm Book, pp. 44–45; Oct. 14, 1819, p. 305.

  7. Elizabeth Trist to Nicholas P. Trist, Nov. 28, 1822, Nicholas Philip Trist Papers, Library of Congress; transcription: Monticello.org, Family Letters Digital Archive, http://retirementseries.dataformat.com/Search.aspx. Trist wrote that Billy “horribly mutilated” the man’s face.

  8. Richmond Enquirer, Nov. 22, 1822, p. 1.

  9. Henry Brown was a relative of Nicholas P. Trist, the husband of TJ’s granddaughter Virginia; Jacob White was the overseer.

  10. Wilson C. Nicholas Jr. to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Jan. 31, 1823, March 2, 1824, accession no. 1397, box 4, Edgehill-Randolph Papers; Horn, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, pp. 101–102; Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 85. The story of Hannah’s Billy is difficult to reconstruct, and McLaughlin’s account (Jefferson and Monticello, pp. 114–16) is partially incorrect, confusing Hannah’s Billy with William “Billy” Hern. Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 85. Bedford County Court Order Book, vol. 18, pp. 318–19.

  11. Elizabeth Trist to Nicholas P. Trist, Oct. 2, 1822, Nicholas Philip Trist Papers, Library of Congress, transcription: Family Letters Digital Archive.

  10. “I Will Answer for Your Safety…Banish All Fear”

  1. Harrison and Burke, Two Monticello Childhoods, p. 4.

  2. Margaret Bayard Smith’s Account of a Visit to Monticello, July 29, 1809, in Papers, Retirement Series, vol. 1.

  3. Neiman, “Sub-floor Pits, Slave-Quarter Architecture, and the Social Dynamics of Chesapeake Slavery.”

  4. Neiman, “Changing Landscapes.”

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, pp. vi, 31.

  8. www.monticello.org/archaeology/survey/site22.html.

  9. Stanton, Free Some Day, pp. 74–77.

  10. www.monticello.org/plantation/
work/nailmaking.html; Daniel Bradley to TJ, Sept. 7, 1805, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston; TJ to Daniel Bradley, Oct. 6, 1805, in Farm Book, pp. 20–21; Stanton, Free Some Day, pp. 75–76.

  11. Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 83.

  12. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, pp. 97–99.

  13. TJ to Reuben Perry, May 10, 1811, in Papers, Retirement Series, vol. 3.

  14. Stanton, Free Some Day, pp. 80–82; Towler, “Albemarle County Court Orders.”

  15. Martin, “Mr. Jefferson’s Business,” p. xxxix.

  16. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, p. 80.

  17. Ibid., p. 71.

  18. Ibid., p. 97.

  19. Bacon to TJ, May 19, 1819, quoted in Martin, “Mr. Jefferson’s Business,” p. xxxviii.

  20. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, p. 90.

  21. Ibid., pp. 92–93.

  22. Neiman, McFaden, and Wheeler, “Archaeological Investigation of the Elizabeth Hemings Site.” In the summer of 2007 the archaeology team found evidence of other slave houses near this site.

  23. Ibid., p. 8.

  24. Ibid., p. 54. The tea set is on display at the Visitor Center.

  25. Crawford: Getting Word Project File, interview, March 26, 2001, quoted in Bon-Harper, Neiman, and Wheeler, “Monticello’s Park Cemetery,” p. 9; visitors’ question: ibid., p. 1.

  26. Philip D. Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, p. 642.

  27. Gawalt, “Jefferson’s Slaves.”

  28. The Grangers also received seven pecks of cornmeal—the stuff of the hoecakes that formed the staple of a bland diet. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, p. 54; Sorensen, “Taking Care of Themselves.”

  29. TJ to Edward Coles, Aug. 25, 1814, in Papers, Retirement Series, vol. 7.

  30. TJ to William A. Burwell, Jan. 28, 1805, in Farm Book, p. 20.

  11. “To Serve You Faithful”

  1. “With Respect to the three Jobs Stewart was to do I beleave it will be impossople to Get him to do them The old man has never done one or not more than one days work since you Left heare. He is Eternally drunk and like a mad man.” Bacon to TJ, Nov. 8, 1807, in Martin, “Mr. Jefferson’s Business” p. 59. “A very fine workman”: Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, p. 102.

  2. Quoted in Susan R. Stein, “Dining at Monticello: The ‘Feast of Reason,’” in Fowler, Dining at Monticello, p. 74.

  3. The French chef at the White House used a similar stove and wrote to TJ, “I am worried about the charcoal.” Working with charcoal stoves was a recognized hazard, but there is no record of Monticello cooks becoming ill. Etienne Lemaire to TJ, Sept. 17, 1804, translation courtesy of Lucia Stanton.

  4. The restorers followed a detailed inventory of cooking equipment drawn up by James Hemings before he left TJ’s service. Dianne Swann-Wright, “African Americans and Monticello’s Food Culture,” in Fowler, Dining at Monticello, p. 42.

  5. Justin A. Sarafin, “Like Clockwork: French Influence in Monticello’s Kitchen,” in Fowler, Dining at Monticello, pp. 25–26.

  6. George Ticknor, Feb. 1815, in Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. 1, p. 36.

  7. Fowler, Dining at Monticello, pp. 1, 7.

  8. Elizabeth V. Chew, “Carrying the Keys: Women and Housekeeping at Monticello,” in ibid., pp. 33–34.

  9. Fowler, Dining at Monticello, p. 3.

  10. Lucia Stanton, “Nourishing the Congress: Hospitality at the President’s House,” in ibid., pp. 8, 11–13.

  11. Stanton, “‘A Well-Ordered Household’,” p. 13.

  12. Ibid., p. 10.

  13. Freeman to TJ, April 1804, dated as received April 18, Library of Congress; Deed of John Freeman’s Indenture to James Madison, in Papers, Retirement Series, vol. 1.

  14. Freeman to TJ, March 2, 1809, Library of Congress.

  15. Stanton, “‘A Well-Ordered Household,’” p. 19.

  16. TJ to Martha Jefferson Randolph, Jan. 27, 1803, in Family Letters, p. 242; www.history.com/this-day-in-history/presidents-child-born-in-white-house; www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28109794/ns/politics-white_house/t/blacks-white-house-slavery-service/#.TyvwUS01tu8; www.whitehouse.gov/about/first-ladies/marthajefferson (accessed Feb. 4, 2012).

  17. Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, p. 1069.

  18. Family Letters, pp. 229n2, 295n4.

  19. Lemaire to TJ, Aug. 17, 1802, transcript of translation by Lucia Stanton, Jefferson Library, International Center for Jefferson Studies.

  20. Farm Book, plate 129; Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, p. 1077; Stanton, “‘A Well-Ordered Household,’” p. 11 caption.

  21. Stanton, “‘A Well-Ordered Household,’” pp. 9, 21n35.

  22. TJ to Joseph Dougherty, Sept. 6, 1807, quoted in ibid., p. 12.

  23. TJ to Dougherty, July 31, 1806, in Farm Book, p. 22.

  24. Stanton, “‘A Well-Ordered Household,’” p. 11.

  25. TJ to Lewis, April 12, 1792, in Papers, vol. 23.

  26. TJ to Bell, Sept. 25, 1792, in Papers, vol. 24.

  12. The Double Aspect

  1. Quoted in Justus, Down from the Mountain, p. 150.

  2. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, pp. 99–100.

  3. Lucia Stanton, “Those Who Labor for My Happiness,” in Onuf, Jeffersonian Legacies, pp. 152–53.

  4. Ibid., p. 151.

  5. Self and Stein, “Collaboration of Thomas Jefferson and John Hemings,” p. 236.

  6. Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 136.

  7. Ibid., pp. 135–36.

  8. TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, May 19, 1793, in Papers, vol. 26.

  9. Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 136.

  10. TJ to Richard Richardson, memorandum [ca. Dec. 21, 1799], in Papers, vol. 31, note.

  11. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, p. 54.

  12. Ibid., pp. 101–102.

  13. Stanton, Free Some Day, pp. 71, 137.

  14. TJ to Richardson, memorandum, in Papers, vol. 31; Langhorne, Monticello, p. 228.

  15. Stanton, Free Some Day, pp. 121, 137; TJ to Martha Jefferson Randolph, Aug. 24, 1819, in Family Letters, p. 431.

  16. Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 137.

  17. Horn, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, p. 40.

  18. TJ to Ellen Coolidge, Nov. 14, 1825, in Family Letters, p. 461; Martha J. Randolph to Ellen Coolidge, Nov. 16, 1825, Family Letters Digital Archive, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., http://retirementseries.dataformat.com; Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, p. 1391.

  19. Cornelia Jefferson Randolph to Virginia Jefferson Randolph Trist, Nov. 7, 1814, Family Letters Digital Archive, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., http://retirementseries.dataformat.com

  20. Ellen (Eleanora) Wayles Randolph Coolidge to Martha Jefferson Randolph, [Poplar Forest], [Nov. 1816?], Family Letters Digital Archive.

  21. Quoted in Self and Stein, “Collaboration of Thomas Jefferson and John Hemings,” p. 233.

  22. TJ to Dinsmore, Nov. 15, 1808, Library of Congress.

  23. TJ to Dinsmore, April 13, 1817, Jefferson and others, Sixty-Eight Letters to and from Jefferson.

  24. TJ to Dinsmore, June 25, 1817.

  25. TJ to Dinsmore, Sept. 26, 1810, in Papers, Retirement Series, vol. 3.

  26. Langhorne, Monticello, p. 227.

  27. Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 137.

  28. Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, pp. 1026, 1265, 1275, 1328, 1352.

  29. Papers, Retirement Series, vol. 1, pp. 192–93n; vol. 3, p. 520n.

  30. Bacon wrote such a pass for Hubbard. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, p. 98.

  31. Bear, “Hemings Family of Monticello,” p. 80.

  32. Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 104.

  33. TJ to Martha Jefferson Randolph, Aug. 8, 1790, in Papers, vol. 17.

  34. Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, pp. 923–24.

  35. Deed of Manumission for Robert Hemings, Dec. 24, 1794, in Papers, vol. 28; Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 118; TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Dec. 26, 1794, in Papers, vol. 28.

  36. Martha
Jefferson Randolph to TJ, Jan. 15, 1795, in Papers, vol. 28.

  37. When Robert died in 1819 at age fifty-seven, Martha wrote to her father that “Poor old Robert Hemming is dead.” Bear, “Hemings Family of Monticello,” pp. 80–81; Farm Book, p. 451.

  38. TJ to William Short, May 7, 1784, in Papers, vol. 7.

  39. McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello, pp. 220–22.

  40. Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, p. 808n7.

  41. Ibid., p. 819.

  42. Dianne Swann-Wright, “African Americans and Monticello’s Food Culture,” in Fowler, Dining at Monticello, p. 40; Farm Book, p. 15; Bear, “Hemings Family of Monticello,” p. 82.

  43. TJ to James Barbour, May 11, 1821, Library of Congress.

  44. Communication from Leni Sorensen.

  45. Lucia Stanton, “Nourishing the Congress: Hospitality at the President’s House,” in Fowler, Dining at Monticello, p. 189n4; Stanton, Free Some Day, pp. 125–29; Bear, “Hemings Family of Monticello,” p. 84.

  46. Langhorne, Monticello, p. 108.

  47. Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 1, p. 371.

  48. Randall, Life of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1, pp. 337–39.

  49. Monroe quoted in Stanton, Free Some Day, p. 104; TJ to Martha Jefferson Randolph, Aug. 8, 1790, in Papers, vol. 17; TJ to Hylton, July 1, 1792, in Papers, vol. 24.

  50. There is no mention of Martin in the Memorandum Book after TJ’s return from France.

  51. TJ to Hylton, Nov. 22, 1792, in Papers, vol. 24. TJ was at Monticello from July 22 to September 27, and Martin is not mentioned in his household accounts. Bear and Stanton, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, pp. 877–78.

  52. TJ to Martha Jefferson Randolph, Jan. 22, 1795, in Papers, vol. 28.

  53. When Robert was sold to Dr. Stras, it was noted in the Memorandum Book, but Martin’s sale was not; nor is there a record of his death. Some sources state that Martin Hemings died in 1807, but that is an error based on a misreading of TJ’s records; there was another Martin who died in 1807.

  54. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, p. 4.

  13. America’s Cassandra

  1. Turner, Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, pp. 355–56.

  2. Fleming, Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers, pp. 409–16.

  3. The Woodson family oral history states that Tom Woodson was Sally Hemings’s first child; but Madison Hemings never mentioned Tom Woodson, and the DNA test did not find any link between the Woodson and the Jefferson families. Joseph Fossett’s descendants have claimed that he was TJ’s son, but Madison Hemings, speaking of himself and his Hemings siblings, insisted, “We were the only children of his by a slave woman.”