Thomas 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 woman, and her enslaver Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. Additional samples of Thomas Jefferson's hair were identified in the 21st century and were used to create a Jefferson DNA profile, against which those of known descendants were compared. The later DNA testing conclusively proved that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings' sons, Madison Hemings and Eston.
Jefferson’s paternity has been debated for centuries, but most historians who have considered the question previously believed that his father was Jefferson. Evidence from a 1998 DNA test showed that a descendant of Eston matched the Jefferson male line, and historical evidence also supports the conclusion that Thomas Jefferson was probably Eston's father. Many historians believe that Jefferson and Sally Hemings had six children together, four of whom survived to adulthood. Other historians disagree.
Jefferson freed Eston and his older brother Madison Hemings in his will, as they had not yet come of age at his death. They each married and lived with their families and mother Sally in Charlottesville, Virginia, until her death in 1835. Both brothers and their young families moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, to live in a free state, where Eston Hemings earned a living as a musician and entertainer.Black Fiddlers, The documentary explores the life of Eston Hemings beyond Charlottesville
In 1852 Eston moved with his wife and three children to Madison, Wisconsin, where they changed their surname to Jefferson and entered the white community. Their sons both served in the Union Army, and the older one, John Wayles Jefferson (see also, John Wayles), achieved the rank of colonel. After the war, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, becoming a wealthy cotton broker and never married.
Eston's other children, Beverly (Beverly was also the name of Eston's oldest brother) and Anna Jefferson, married into the white community, and their descendants have identified as white. Beverly Jefferson's five sons were educated and three entered the professional class as a physician, attorney, and manager at the railroad. One of their male-line descendants was tested in the 1998 DNA study that found the link to the Jefferson-male line.
Early life What is known of Eston's life is derived from his brother Madison's 1873 memoir, a few entries in Thomas Jefferson's Farm Book, a handful of contemporary newspaper accounts, various census and land/tax records, and the family history of his descendants.Helen F. M. Leary, "Sally Hemings's Children: A Genealogical Analysis of the Evidence", National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 89, No. 3, September 2001, pp. 172–173
Eston was born into slavery as the youngest son of the enslaved Sally Hemings. As she was one of the six mixed-race children of Betty Hemings and John Wayles (Jefferson's father-in-law), she and her siblings were half-siblings to Jefferson's wife Martha Wayles and were three-quarters European in ancestry, as their mother had a white father. The historians Philip D. Morgan and Joshua D. Rothman have written about the numerous interracial relationships in the Wayles-Hemings-Jefferson families and the region, often with multiple generations repeating the pattern.Joshua D. Rothman, Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Interracial Relationships Across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861, University of North Carolina Press, 2003 The large Hemings family, with Betty Hemings as matriarch, was at the top of the slave hierarchy at Monticello; its members working as domestic servants, chefs, craftsmen and artisans.
Sally Hemings had light duties, and as children, Eston and his siblings "were permitted to stay about the 'great house', and only required to do such light work as going on errands." Like their older brother Beverley, at age 14 Madison and Eston each began training in carpentry, under tutelage of their uncle John Hemmings, the master woodworker at Monticello. All three brothers learned to play the violin (Jefferson also is known to have regularly played when he was younger, and his younger brother Randolph, according to the ex-slave Isaac Granger, "used to come out among black people, play the fiddle & dance half the night".)
Madison and Eston were freed in 1827, in accordance with President Jefferson's will. (Madison was 22; Eston was freed at 19.) Additionally, Jefferson's will petitioned the legislature to allow the Hemingses to stay in Virginia after being freed, unlike most freed slaves.Gordon-Reed, Annette. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. University of Virginia Press (April 1997). pp. 39–43. . In his 1873 memoir, Madison said the Hemings children were freed as a result of a promise Jefferson made to Sally Hemings.
After Jefferson's death, Sally Hemings was "given her time" by his daughter. The older woman lived freely with her two sons in Charlottesville. In the 1830 census, the census taker in Charlottesville classified all three Hemings as white, showing how others perceived them by appearance because of their overwhelming European ancestry.Annette Gordon-Reed, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 1997, p. 209 Sally was of three-quarters white ancestry. Her children were seven-eighths white and thus legally white under the Virginia law of the time. It was not until 1924 that Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act, which classified anyone as black who had any known African ancestry, under the "one drop rule".
Post-slavery life Upon gaining freedom, Hemings initially pursued a career in woodworking and carpentry in Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1830, Eston Hemings purchased property and built a house on Main Street, where his mother lived with him until her death in 1835.
Marriage and family In 1832, Eston married a free woman of color, Julia Ann Isaacs (1814–1889). She was the daughter of the successful Jewish merchant David Isaacs, from Germany, and Nancy West, a free woman of mixed race. Nancy West was the daughter of Priscilla, a former slave, and Thomas West, her white master. Thomas West left property to his children Nancy and James West in his will. Prohibited by law from marrying, David Isaacs and Nancy West maintained separate households and businesses for years (she was a successful baker). They had seven children together, and later in their lives shared a household.Joshua D. Rothman, Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families Across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861, University of North Carolina Press, 2003, pp. 56–65Justus, Judith, Down from the Mountain: The Oral History of the Hemings Family, Perrysburg, OH: Lesher Printers, Inc., 1990, pp. 89–96
Eston and Julia Ann Hemings had three children: John Wayles Jefferson (1835–1892), Anna Wayles Jefferson (1837–1866), and Beverly Frederick Jefferson (1839–1908) (their surname was changed from Hemings to Jefferson as the family moved to Wisconsin after 1850.) The first two were born in Charlottesville. And Beverly was born in Ohio shortly after their arrival in Ohio.
About 1837 Hemings moved with his family to Chillicothe, a town in southwest Ohio (a free state) with a thriving community. Numerous free blacks and white abolitionists had support-stations linked to the Underground Railroad to aid escaping slaves. There Hemings became a professional musician, playing the violin or fiddle and leading a successful dance band. The children were educated in integrated schools. Anna for a time attended the Manual Labor School at Albany, Ohio. A former classmate later wrote that she was introduced as "Miss Anna (or Ann) Heming[s] [sic], the grand daughter of Thomas Jefferson".Judge Sibley, "Beautiful Octoroon: Miss Anna Heming", originally in Scioto Gazette, August 7, 1902; reprinted at Jefferson's Blood, 1998, PBS Frontline
In a 1902 article of the Scioto Gazette, a correspondent wrote that while Hemings lived in Ohio in the 1840s, it was widely said that he and his brother Madison were the sons of Thomas Jefferson. In addition, several neighbors of Eston had traveled together to Washington, DC, where they saw a statue of Jefferson; they commented on how much Hemings resembled him. The correspondent also recollected:
Eston Hemings, being a master of the violin, and an accomplished "caller" of dances, always officiated at the "swell" entertainments of Chillicothe.
Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 increased pressure on the black communities in Ohio and other free states bordering slave states. In towns along the Underground Railroad, slave catchers invaded the communities, sometimes kidnapping and selling into slavery free people as well as fugitive slaves.Carol Wilson, Freedom at Risk: The Kidnapping of Free Blacks in America, 1780-1865, University of Kentucky Press, 1994. The historian Carol Wilson documented 300 such cases in her book, and noted there were probably thousands more. In 1852, Eston decided to move the family further north for security, and migrated to Madison, Wisconsin. There they took the surname Jefferson, and they passed into the European-American (white) community. Eston Hemings Jefferson died in 1856.
Their eldest son John Wayles Jefferson served as a white officer in the regular United States Army during the American Civil War, achieving the rank of colonel. John W. Jefferson led the Wisconsin 8th Infantry. He was wounded twice in battle. During the war, he published letters home, and after the war, published articles about his experiences. Before the war, John Jefferson ran the American House hotel in Madison, which was taken over by his younger brother Beverley. After the war and the end of slavery in the U.S., John Jefferson moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He became a successful cotton broker, supported his mother, and left a considerable estate at his death in 1892. He never married or had known children.
Both Anna and Beverley Jefferson married white spouses, and their descendants have identified as white. Anna married Albert T. Pearson, a carpenter who was a captain during the Civil War. Their son Walter Beverly Pearson became a wealthy industrialist in Chicago."Late President of Standard Screw Leaves $2,000,000", Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1917
Beverley Jefferson was also a Civil War veteran of the Union Army. Returning to Madison, he moved from the American House to run the Capitol House hotels. He founded the first omnibus line in the Wisconsin capital, and was a popular figure among politicians in the city. He married Anna Smith from Pennsylvania. Their five sons gained educations and three entered the professions: one became a doctor in Chicago, another an attorney, another worked in railroad management."Col. Jefferson Dies in Chicago", Obituary and photo, 1902, Wisconsin Historical Society Digital Collection
The Eston Hemings Jefferson family is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison.
Descendants In the 1970s, Jean Jefferson, unaware of her connection to the Hemings family, read Fawn Brodie's biography, Jefferson: An Intimate Portrait. She recognized Eston Hemings Jefferson's name in the book from family stories and contacted Brodie. The historian helped Jefferson start putting the pieces of the family history back together.