Madison Hemings (January 19, 1805 – November 28, 1877) was the son of the mixed-race enslaved woman Sally Hemings and, according to most Jefferson scholars, her enslaver, President Thomas Jefferson. He was the third of her four children to survive to adulthood.[1] Born into slavery, according to partus sequitur ventrem, Hemings grew up on Jefferson's Monticello plantation, where his mother was also enslaved. After some light duties as a young boy, Hemings became a carpenter and fine woodwork apprentice at around age 14 and worked in the joiner's shop until he was about 21. He learned to play the violin and was able to earn money by growing cabbages. Jefferson died in 1826, after which Sally Hemings was "given her time" by Jefferson's surviving daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph.
The historical question of whether Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings' children is the subject of the Jefferson–Hemings controversy. At the age of 68, Hemings claimed the connection in an 1873 Ohio newspaper interview, titled, "Life Among the Lowly," which attracted national and international attention. Following renewed historical analysis in the late 20th century, and a 1998 DNA study (completed in 1999 and published as a report in 2000)[2] that found a match between the Jefferson male line and a descendant of Sally Hemings' youngest son, Eston Hemings, the Monticello Foundation asserted that Jefferson fathered Eston and likely her other five children as well.[3]
After Hemings and his younger brother Eston were freed, they each worked and married free women of color; they lived with their families and mother Sally in Charlottesville until her death in 1835. Both brothers moved with their young families to Chillicothe, Ohio to live in a free state. Hemings and his wife Mary lived there the remainder of their lives; he worked as a farmer and highly skilled carpenter. Among their ten children were two sons who served the Union Army in the Civil War: one in the United States Colored Troops and one who enlisted as a white man in the regular army.
Among Madison and Mary Hemings' grandchildren was Frederick Madison Roberts, the first African American elected to office on the West Coast. He served in the California legislature for nearly two decades. In 2010, their descendant Shay Banks-Young, who identifies as African American, together with one Wayles and one Hemings descendant, who each identify as European American, received the international "Search for Common Ground" award for work among the Jefferson descendants and the public to bridge gaps and heal "the legacy of slavery." They founded "The Monticello Community" for descendants of all the people who lived and worked there in Jefferson's lifetime.
^White, Deborah; Bay, Mia; Martin, Waldo E. Jr. (2012). Freedom on My Mind. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-4576-3760-5.
^Jordan, Daniel P., ed. (January 26, 2000). "Report of the Research Committee on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings" (PDF). Monticello.org. Thomas Jefferson Foundation (then Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation). Archived (PDF) from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
^"Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account". Monticello.org. Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Retrieved June 22, 2011. Ten years later [referring to its 2000 report], [the Thomas Jefferson Foundation] and most historians now believe that, years after his wife's death, Thomas Jefferson was the father of the six children of Sally Hemings mentioned in Jefferson's records, including Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston Hemings.
MadisonHemings (January 19, 1805 – November 28, 1877) was the son of the mixed-race enslaved woman Sally Hemings and, according to most Jefferson scholars...
father-in-law, John Wayles. Hemings's mother was Betty Hemings, the daughter of an enslaved African woman and English captain John Hemings. Sally's father, the...
Eston Hemings Jefferson (May 21, 1808 – January 3, 1856) was born into slavery at Monticello, the youngest son of Sally Hemings, a mixed-race enslaved...
her journey. Her brother MadisonHemings later said she had gone to Washington, DC, to join their older brother Beverley Hemings, who had similarly left...
mother, making Elizabeth a mulatto. In his memoir, MadisonHemings said the captain's surname was Hemings; the family tradition was that he had tried to buy...
MadisonHemings, his uncle James and (future) mother Sally actively considered staying in France for freedom while they were in Paris. (Sally Hemings...
The Hemings family lived in Virginia in the 1700s and 1800s. The family consisted of Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings and her children and other descendants....
son, MadisonHemings, the 16-year-old Sally and Jefferson began a sexual relationship in Paris, where she became pregnant. The son indicated Hemings agreed...
grandmother is Sarah (Sally) Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's mixed-race slave and half-sister to his late wife. John's father, Eston Hemings, was born a slave at...
Biography portal Thomas Jefferson and slavery Sally HemingsMadisonHemings Eston Hemings Harriet Hemings Isaac Jefferson List of slaves "Discoveries about...
a graduate of Oberlin College, and Ellen Wayles Hemings (1856–1940), the daughter of MadisonHemings and Mary Hughes McCoy, a free woman of color. Ellen...
Hemings is a surname, and may refer to: American slavery Hemings family Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings (1735–1807), enslaved American Sally Hemings (1773–1835)...
adulthood. Through his female slave Betty Hemings, Wayles fathered six additional children, including Sally Hemings, who was the mother of six children by...
100 slaves were Betty Hemings, of mixed-race ancestry, and her 10 mixed-race children. The youngest, an infant, was Sally Hemings. The six youngest were...
alternate candidate for Hemings children's paternity. Thomas Jefferson, though, was found by The Monticello Jefferson-Hemings Report (2000) to be the...
to note of MadisonHemings, "This man is the son of Thomas Jefferson." Madison's brother and fellow slave of Thomas Jefferson Eston Hemings moved to Wisconsin...
Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings and was a bestseller. Together with articles about the issue and Jefferson-Hemings descendants in American Heritage...
in ancestry. The youngest, an infant, was Sally Hemings. As they grew and were trained, all the Hemings family members were assigned to privileged positions...
Poplar Forest. Hemmings also served as the master joiner to apprentices Beverley, Madison, and Eston Hemings, Jefferson's sons by Sally Hemings. After decades...
sailed for Paris on the ship Ceres on July 5, 1784, accompanied by James Hemings. Elizabeth Epps provided Polly's early education, including reading, writing...
relationship with his slave (and sister-in-law) Sally Hemings. His other two children with Hemings were allowed to escape without pursuit. After his death...
Chevallier .... Mademoiselle Contat James Earl Jones ..... MadisonHemings Beatrice Winde ..... Mary Hemings Tim Choate .... Reporter The film was shot on location...
Sally Hemings Family Martha Jefferson (wife) Martha Jefferson Randolph (daughter) Mary Jefferson Eppes (daughter) Harriet Hemings (daughter) Madison Hemings...
in the New World.(2006) ISBN 978-0-19-514073-6 p. 201 "Memoirs of MadisonHemings". PBS Frontline. Higginbotham, A. Leon (1980). In the Matter of Color:...