The historic Monticello property located in Virginia was a Thomas Jefferson’s plantation estate that is considered an important part of the US history. Today, this site is considered a national landmark studied by students across the States and worldwide. There was plenty of evidence and documentation regarding the Virginia plantation but none of it ever mentioned the recently discovered secrets on the property. Thanks to archaeologists and great efforts put into this discovery, we now know more about Jefferson’s life, property, and secret children than ever before. This discovery has left historians shocked with the recently revealed truth about President Thomas Jefferson.
Carrying a Mystery
Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States. His primary home before he moved to the White House in 1801 was the famous Monticello plantation located in Virginia, more precisely in Charlottesville. The construction of the Monticello estate began 1768 and today this property is considered a national landmark whose Italian name translates into “Little Mountain.”
The Monticello estate has earned such an important place in US history that you can find the picture of the main house engraved on the back of the US nickel. Despite all the available documentation about the property, the Monticello plantation carried a mystery that was discovered only recently.
The Mystery of Monticello
Thomas Jefferson inherited a piece of land in Charlottesville from his father. At the age of 26, he began building the Monticello estate that featured a large plantation stretching across 5000 acres. At the time, the plantation was mainly used as a site for cultivating tobacco and wheat. However, just like any other plantation in the US back in the day, the President’s plantation had ties with one of the darkest aspects of the American history – slavery.
Though he campaigned against it politically, exploration of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate revealed strong ties to slavery. But In 2017, there was another groundbreaking discovery that would shed light on this mystery.
The Mystery Who Is Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings was one of the many slaves who worked on Thomas Jefferson’s plantation. Even though this woman was a slave, her life seemed to have intertwined with Jefferson’s in a very unusual way. For this reason, historians were interested in the figure known as Sally Hemings for more than a century.
There wasn’t much evidence that proved Sally Hemings was more than a victim of slavery. However, a discovery that took place almost 200 years after her death has provided new information regarding her life and all the connected events that formed the mystery of the Monticello estate.
The Life of Hemings
Sally Hemings had a son named Madison, who claimed that his mother was, in fact, the half-sister of then-President’s wife, Martha, who is pictured below. Born in 1773, Sally Hemings was the daughter of John Wayles, a planter and slave trader, as well as father of Jefferson’s wife. Sally’s mother was a woman born into slavery, known as Betty Hemings.
The law at the time dictated that all children of enslaved mothers automatically became slaves and were obliged to work on plantations after reaching a certain age. While Sally was just an infant, her mother, siblings and herself were taken to Jefferson’s Monticello estate where they were considered slaves belonging to Martha, who inherited them from her father.
The Hemings Children
Sally had a total of six siblings and she was the youngest one. She was 25 years younger than her half-sister and President’s wife Martha Jefferson. The Hemings siblings grew up together at the Monticello plantation where they were forced to work as slaves and domestic servants.
According to the law at the time, children were positioned at the top of the slave hierarchy and they were not required to do any physical work on the plantation. That is why Sally, along with her brothers and sisters, became a domestic servant. Little did she know that years later she would become a matter of national interest.
Finding the Clues
Sally Hemings wasn’t a slave her whole life. She was enslaved from birth until Jefferson’s death in 1826, after which she got to live her last 9 years of life freely. Despite all the historical documentation, there weren’t many details regarding Sally’s time spent as a slave at the Monticello estate. Thanks to archaeological discoveries, several important clues were discovered that allowed us to better understand the life of this not-so-ordinary woman.
An enslaved blacksmith named Isaac Granger Jefferson was the only one to write a description of this woman, describing her as “mighty near white… very handsome, long straight hair down her back.” Other than this written description, there were absolutely no records of paintings of visual proof of appearance of this important woman in the US history.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any real-life portraits of Sally Hemings but there are several descriptions, such as the one given by Thomas Jefferson Randolph, President Jefferson’s grandson. Randolph described Sally as “light colored and decidedly good looking.”
Unfortunately, we don’t have any real-life portraits of Sally Hemings but there are several descriptions, such as the one given by Thomas Jefferson Randolph, President Jefferson’s grandson. Randolph described Sally as “light colored and decidedly good looking.”
The Description of Sally
Unfortunately, we don’t have any real-life portraits of Sally Hemings but there are several descriptions, such as the one given by Thomas Jefferson Randolph, President Jefferson’s grandson. Randolph described Sally as “light colored and decidedly good looking.”
According to trusted historians, Sally’s duties at the Jefferson’s estate included working as a chambermaid and a seamstress. There was evidence that Jefferson took strictly detailed notes and records about finances and births on the estate but it seems like he had never written about Sally Hemings.
A Trip To Paris
The life of the young Sally Hemings changed during the two years she spent in Paris. When she was 14 years old, Sally was assigned to accompany the youngest daughter of Thomas Jefferson, named Mary, to London and later to Paris, as the future president was serving as the U.S. envoy to France at the time.
Sally wasn’t the only one of the Hemings siblings to take part in this trip. Shown in the picture is James Hemings, Sally’s brother, who went to Europe as the President’s chef. According to law, slavery was illegal in France at the time Sally visited Paris. However, for a mysterious reason, she wanted to return to the U.S. where she was legally considered a slave.
A Lot Happened in Paris
What happened in Paris had changed Sally’s life forever. During this important trip, Thomas Jefferson, who was then a widower, began an intimate relationship with Sally Hemings. While Jefferson was then in his mid-40s, Sally was only 16 years old. As a result of their time spent together in Paris, Sally became pregnant.
In 1789, Hemings returned from Europe to the United States. Since then, she gave birth to six children who, according to observers at the time, were considered Jefferson’s children due to their resemblance. Even though Jefferson and Hemings were obviously involved in an intimate relationship, nothing was written about this affair until about 20 years later.
Rumors and Guesses
It was in 1802 when the first written proof of the affair surfaced. One of Thomas Jefferson’s opponents published a report known as the Jefferson-Hemings Controversy. However, Jefferson’s family publicly denied all allegations that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally’s children. Still, Jefferson never listed the name of the father of the Heming’s children in his records known as the “Farm Book.”
Out of six children she gave birth to, four of Sally’s children lived to become adults. Jefferson eventually freed them of slavery, which further proved that the rumors of him being their father could be true. Despite this action, Jefferson’s family continued to disprove these allegations and even historians fought against this idea for the next 150 years. However, the latest discoveries changed their view of the situation.
Science Gets Involved
The case of paternity of Sally Hemings’ children remained long unresolved. However, thanks to important scientific progress and discoveries, scientists were able to prove that Jefferson was indeed the father of the Hemings’ children. The historic DNA resting that took place in 1998 proved Jefferson was the father of at least one of Sally’s children, which led historians to think that he might indeed be the father of all six kids.
This important genetic test resulted in a match between a descendant of Eston Hemings (Sally’s youngest son pictured above), and the Jefferson’s male line. It would take two decades after this important genetic testing for archaeologists to reveal more shocking facts about Sally Hemings’ life.
An Important Discovery
The Monticello Plantation was supposed to be partially restored in 2017. During this project, archaeologists conducted excavations in the area, which resulted in finding the missing piece of the puzzle called the Monticello mystery. After years of not knowing the truth, historians have finally found the living quarters of the mysterious Sally Hemings.
In attempts to uncover the original layout of the South Wing of the Monticello plantation main house, archaeologists discovered something historic. They found the room hidden for centuries and it was hidden so well that no one could’ve guessed where it was.
The Hidden Room
The South Pavilion of the Monticello main house was renovated several times, both during Jefferson’s lifetime and significantly after it. The property went through several transformation projects in the 20th century when it became a museum. However, the reason no one could find the hidden room of Sally Hemings was because it was located beneath a modern bathroom built over it in 1941.
After being built in 1941, the pictured bathroom was renovated again in the 1960s when it was enlarged due to a larger number of visitors at Monticello. However, despite all that construction work and renovation, the hidden room of Sally Hemings remained unnoticed. You will be surprised when you see what made archaeologists dig deeper!
Reanalyzing the Case
After reanalyzing the history of Monticello, historians came across a document written by one of President Jefferson’s grandsons. According to this document, Sally’s room was indeed located in the south wind of the main house at the Monticello plantation.
Even though experts could not be completely sure whether this information was true, it didn’t take them long to realize that there might actually be something hiding beneath that renovated bathroom. Despite their wild imagination, no one could’ve guessed that they were about to find some stunning historic artifacts.
Stunning Discoveries
When it was time to begin the search, archaeologists destroyed the modern men’s bathroom at Monticello and dug through the dirt until they eventually found the remains of the Sally Hemings’ 14-foot living space. Surprisingly, the room still contained the original brick flooring from the early 1800s.
As they kept digging, archaeologists found even more surprises. They came across the original brick hearth and a fireplace. However, besides what the room was hiding inside, its location brought some mystery as well. Interestingly, Sally’s room was adjacent to president Jefferson’s bedroom. Could that have been a coincidence?
Finding the Meaning
After analyzing the newly found data, historians had more tangible proof that Thomas Jefferson was indeed the father of Sally’s children, considering the close proximity of Sally’s room to his private quarters. The fact that their rooms were so close to each other, along with the genetic evidence provided by the DNS test conducted in the 90s, was evidence enough for historians to conclude that Jefferson was the father of Hemings’ children.
Fraser Neiman, the director of archaeology at Monticello, later stated: “This room is a real connection to the past. We are uncovering and discovering and we’re finding many, many artifacts.” After further investigation, this hidden room revealed even more details about the life of this interesting woman who was brought to the Monticello plantation as a slave.
The Life of Slaves
“This discovery gives us a sense of how enslaved people were living. Some of Sally’s children may have been born in this room,” added Gardiner Hallock, the director of the restoration for Jefferson’s home. “It’s important because it shows Sally as a human being — a mother, daughter, and sister — and brings out the relationships in her life.”
After all these discoveries, historians came to believe that the reason why Sally Hemings returned to the U.S. from Paris was because Thomas Jefferson had promised her that her children could be free once they become adults. Interestingly, the Hemmings family were the only family Jefferson ever freed during his lifetime. Even though he did free some other individuals, he never freed a whole family of four siblings.
The Truth
Besides proving that Thomas Jefferson was the father of children born to an enslaved woman, the recent discovery of the hidden room proved that Sally Hemings had a much higher standard of living compared to other slaves at Monticello. However, despite the privileges she was given, Sally always remained a slave and had to work at the estate just like any other slave did.
Even though she had a room adjacent to Jefferson’s private quarters, Sally still lived in uncomfortable conditions. It was later discovered that the room had no windows, which meant it must have been dark and uncomfortable to live in. Some even believed that the reason a bathroom was built over her room was because people wanted to cover up her existence. They considered that building a bathroom in that location was an insult to Sally’s legacy.
Restoring the Room
The historians at Monticellow are now restoring the room of Sally Hemings and planning to open it for the public in 2018. They decided to exhibit the space along with furniture and artifacts from that period which were found on the property, including ceramics and bone toothbrushes.
A project worth 35 million dollars, named the Mountaintop Project, was created to bring more transparency on the past at Monticellow. The project aimed to tell the story of people who lived and worked at the state, both the free and enslaved workers, as well as focus on the Hemings family as one of the most extraordinary families in the US history.
First Historic Proof
“For the first time at Monticello we have a physical space dedicated to Sally Hemings and her life,” said Mia Magruder Dammann, the spokeswoman for Monticello. She also added that: “It’s significant because it connects the entire African American arch at Monticello.”
The discovery of Sally Hemings’ room shed some light on her life, as well as on life of all enslaved workers on the estate. After this important discovery, curators have been putting effort in incorporating the story of Sally’s life into the overall narrative of Jefferson’s life and presidency.
Portraying Her Outside the Mystery
According to the historian Niya Bates, the discovery of Sally’s room will also “portray her outside of the mystery.” The newly created exhibit added a more humanizing image of Sally Hemings, a woman whose life story was surrounded by rumors and gossip for centuries.
“She was a mother, a sister, an ancestor for her descendants (pictured) , and [the room’s presentation] will really just shape her as a person and give her a presence outside of the wonder of their relationship,” Bates said.
In the Memory of Sally
The decades of portrayal of Monticello have been changed due to the new archaeological findings. The focus was now put on Sally Hemings, the topic of the most interesting exhibitions on the property. Lucia “Cinder” Stanton, who is now a retired historian, began working at Monticello in 1968 and she recalled that Sally’s name wasn’t even mentioned in tours at that time. This was about to change.
There wasn’t much to say about the Hemings family back in the day. However, in 1993 on the 250th anniversary of Jefferson’s birthday, curators began including the stories of enslaved people into tours and exhibitions. Still, it took a long time for the descendants (pictured) of the slaves to visit the Monticello property.
In Honor of Mulberry Row
Besides Sally Hemings, historians focused on the lives of other enslaved people. In 2015, a new project was started at Monticello, which portrayed the stories of other enslaved workers at the manor. A restaurant called Mulberry Row was created, displaying the reconstruction of the central plantation street dwellings where the enslaved people used to live.
The row featured more than 20 structures between the years 1770 and 1831. The newly built restaurant drew over 100 descendants of enslaved workers to take part in a tree-planting memorial. This was only the beginning of many commemorative efforts to come.
A Wider Story
Along with the Mulberry Row project, the curators are going to place a lot more focus on the exhibition of Sally Hemings’ room and the overall story of her life. They are going to offer a more comprehensive account of the events that took place at the Monticello property, related not only to Jefferson’s family but other people as well.
This recent discovery has certainly shed some light on the mysteries regarding the life of Sally Hemings. However, some of her distant relatives seem to disagree with the legacy associated with Thomas Jefferson.
The Opinions of a Slave Descendant
Gayle Jessup White, Sally Hemings’ great-great-great-great niece and also a Monticello’s Community Engagement Officer, said: “As an African American descendant, I have mixed feelings – Thomas Jefferson was a slaveholder.” Despite her opinions, she has shown much appreciation for the work her colleagues are doing.
“But for too long our history has been ignored,” she added. “Some people still don’t want to admit that the Civil War was fought over slavery. We need to face history head-on and face the blemish of slavery and that’s what we’re doing at Monticello.” Jessup certainly wasn’t the only one who felt this way.
Not Everyone Shared the Same Opinion
Furthermore, White explained that people have had mixed feelings about the Monticello story being a part of African American history. “I find that some people are receptive to the message and some are resistant,” she said.
“But our message is that we want the underserved communities and communities of color to become partners with us,” he highlighted. “Anecdotally, we have seen an uptick in African Americans visiting Monticello so I know we’re making progress.”
Some Questions Still Remained Unanswered
Despite all the great discoveries of the recent time, there are still many questions and holes in the historic tale of the Monticello estate. It’s true that then-President Jefferson kept a log of hundreds of his slaves but there were only a few individual photo portraits of the actual people who worked at the plantations.
The descendants of the enslaved workers who lived at the Monticello property held several ventures at the Monticello museum, revealing more details about their lives that hadn’t been written in history.
The Hemings Family
The descendants of Sally Hemings made significant contributions to the discovery of her life story, including forming her family tree. Considering that these descendants were connected to Thomas Jefferson, it is quite impressive that we can still trace this lineage to this day.
In 2008, a book titled The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, was published by historian Annette Gordon-Reed. In this book, she discussed individual aspects of slave people by following the history of different generations of the Hemings family through legal records, farm logs, newspaper, diaries and other sources. Her efforts resulted in something quite astonishing.
More About the Hemings Children
The four of the Hemings children who survived into adulthood were Eston, Madison, Beverley and Harriet. All of them except for Madison decided to spend their lives in the white society in the North. Madison left behind a memoir that revealed more information about the other Hemings siblings.
According to this source, which was considered reliable, the Hemings sisters Beverly and Harriet both married affluent men in the white society in Washington DC. On the other hand, the remaining Hemings brothers both married free women of color in Charlottesville, while only Eston decided to change his last name to Jefferson to acknowledge his paternity.
Sally Hemings' Sons
Both sons of Sally Hemings were relatively successful and had multiple children. Some of their children even fought on the Union Side during the Civil War. Thus, the influential lineage of Sally Hemings included several grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well.
Interestingly, several generations after Jefferson’s presidency, his and Sally’s great-grandson named Frederick Madison Roberts became the first elected person of black ancestry to take public office on the West Coast. Roberts served in the California State Assembly for 20 years.
The 1993 Interviews
In the year of 1993, the historians at Monticello interviewed over 200 people in hopes to reveal more information on the subject. These interviews were an important part of an oral history project, which aimed to collect the personal accounts of the ancestors of the African American families that lived at the Monticello estate.
Furthermore, in 2016, Monticello held a summit with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Virginia. Several descendants of Monticello families attended the summit, which was titled “Memory, Mourning, Mobilization: Legacies of Slavery and Freedom in America.”
A Better Understanding
Meanwhile, the stories provided on tours at the Monticello museum have tremendously shifted to provide a wider account of the complex history surrounding the Monticello property. One of Monticello’s guides, Tom Nash, was quite candid about the former plantation while leading a group of visitors recently.
“This is a spectacular view from this mountaintop,” Nash told the tourists. “But not for the enslaved people who worked these fields. This was a tough job and some of them — even young boys 10 to 16 years old —felt the whip.”
Questions for Tom Nash
After telling such a story, Nash faced a variety of questions coming from curious visitors. The questions included “Why did some slaves want to pass for white when they were freed,” and “Why did Jefferson own slaves and write that all men are created equal?”
To answer these questions, Nash would explain: “Working in the fields was not a happy time. There were long days on the plantation.” He also added: “Enslaved people worked from sunup to sundown six days a week. There was no such thing as a good slave owner.”
The Property Today
There is no doubt that the whole controversy is going to follow the Monticello story for centuries to come. Despite all that, the Monticello property was the host of an amazing celebration that marked its 55th annual Independence Day in July 2017.
Over 70 people from a total of 30 different countries attended the event and became naturalized citizens of the United States. Still, both the United States and the rest of the world will continue to acknowledge the contributions and accounts of the forgotten people who were not free citizens of this land.
More Presidents Were Slave Owners?
While a lot of attention was placed on the fact that Jefferson owned slaves despite declaring that “All Men Were Created Equal,” some did not forget the rest of the United States’ presidential line. It was a fact that Thomas Jefferson was not the only early US President who owned slaves.
As historians claim, a total of 12 Presidents of the United States owned slaves during their lifetime. Eight of them owned slaves during their presidency as well. The US was founded on the principle of equality but, despite all of that, many of the Founding Fathers were slave owners themselves.
George Washington Owned Slaves Too
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However, Washington differed from other Presidents. He was the only one who freed his personal slaves. According to his will, his slaves were freed upon his wife’s death. His wife Martha, thus, ended up freeing more than 100 slaves after his death.
There Were Exceptions
The second President of the United States, John Adams, was to be the first resident of the White House. However, he never owned any slaves as he held “moderate” views regarding this issue. Still, slave laborers were the ones who helped build the White House itself.
His son, John Quincy Adams, who was the sixth president of the United States, didn’t hold slaves either. In fact, upon leaving office years later, he started opposing the institution of slavery.
The Situation After Jefferson
We now know more about the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, who, despite declaring that slavery was an “assemblage of horrors”, still owned slaves. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the last President to own slaves.
Other Presidents of the United States who owned slaves include James Madison, James Monroe, and Andrew Jackson. The eight president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, owned only one slave and later opposed slavery overall.
The Last Two Presidents to Own Slaves
Even though he had inherited several slaves, William Henry Harrison didn’t hold slaves during his time in the office, which lasted 31 years. Furthermore, James Polk, Zachary Taylor and John Tyler all held slaves while in office. The last two Presidents of the United States who held slaves were Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant.
The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, ordered the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. This resulted in the release of over 3 million enslaved people. Slavery was officially abolished in 1865 when the 13th Amendment was adopted.