Jefferson's Daughters

Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. 

Harriet Hemings, the daughter of a slave,  followed a different path. She escaped slavery—apparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself. Leaving Monticello behind, she boarded a coach and set off for a decidedly uncertain future.

 

For this groundbreaking triple biography, history scholar Catherine Kerrison has uncovered never-before-published documents written by the Jefferson sisters, as well as letters written by members of the Jefferson and Hemings families. The richly interwoven stories of these strong women and their fight to shape their own destinies shed new light on issues of race and gender that are still relevant today—and on the legacy of one of our most controversial Founding Fathers.  (from Amazon)

The first of the book deals with the hardships that Thomas Jefferson's wife bore during her marriage.  She had bad luck with pregnancies and lost children and died young.  Her husband was often absent.  However, she used her time to visit relatives and friends and her surviving two daughters were raised in the homes of people she loved while Monticello was never finished in her lifetime.  Much of Martha and Marie's childhood was spent at Eppington with her mother's sister's family and after Martha's death they lived there full time while Thomas Jefferson was in France.

Below is a 1888 map of Chesterfield County, Virginia showing the location of Eppington.

I did not take notes while I was reading about the lives of Martha and Maria.  Probably the thing that made the most impression on me was that Martha seems to have been strong and smart.  She had many children and led a productive life.  The book says she looked like her father while Maria was very pretty.  Maria had a very happy marriage according to the author.  She died very young leaving a young child and her husband was so devastated that he could not talk about her even to his child  even after he married again.  And again children were taken into the home of Thomas Jefferson's sister-in-law to be raised as Thomas Jefferson spent many of the following years in DC in public life.

The smallest part of the book is about Maria.  The author says she was very pretty.  But it is interesting to note that there were no likenesses of her. No paintings...nothing to save for future generations what she looked like.  

I just started the third part of the book when the author talks about the life of Harriet, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.  The author explains that when Jefferson left for the eight years he spent as President.  He left instructions that the overseer had no power over the house slaves which included Sally and her family.  Many of the slaves that Jefferson owned were Hemings family.  One Hemings man was a genius with woodworking.  Others had special gifts that set them apart,  Many of the house slaves were Hemings.  The actual family that served in the house were cooks and other specialized workers.  One can read that the fabric for their clothes was nicer than that of the field hands.  Because Jefferson was absent and the overseer did not bother the house, there was little for the house slaves to do except air out the house when Jefferson was due to arrive.  So Harriet was raised by a mother who had time for her.  And Sally Hemings had had an unusual experience and was quite worldly for the time.  She had accompanied Jefferson's daughter to Paris. She had braved the voyage to Paris with no male to accompany her as the chaperone for Jefferson's youngest daughter.  She had learned French.  She had seen balls and the beginning of the French Revolution.  She was probably more worldly than many Virginia wives.  

A google search brings up the names of the children reported to be the children of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson:

Sally Hemings had at least six children fathered by Thomas Jefferson. Four survived to adulthood. Decades after their negotiation, Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings's children – Beverly and Harriet left Monticello in the early 1820s; Madison and Eston were freed in his will and left Monticello in 1826.

and

In 1873 Madison Hemings left the only known account of his sister's life after Monticello: Harriet married a white man in good standing in Washington City. ... She raised a family of children, and so far as I know they were never suspected of being tainted with African blood in the community where she lived or lives.

The author of this book did a great deal of historical research but was never able to find anyone living in Washington City who appears to have been Harriet.

I found the book to be of great interest.