Harriet Hemings was born into slavery at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, in the first year of his presidency.
16 Facts About Harriet Hemings
1.
2.
Harriet Hemings saw that she was put in a stage coach and given $50 for her journey.
3.
All the Harriet Hemings children were legally slaves under Virginia law at the time, in accordance of which they inherited the status of their enslaved mother, who was three-quarters European in ancestry.
4.
Beverly and Harriet stayed in touch with their brother Madison Hemings for some time, and then Harriet stopped writing.
5.
Harriet Hemings was said to have a child born in 1790 after she returned from Paris, but it died as an infant.
6.
Harriet Hemings' first daughter who was recorded, was born in 1795.
7.
Harriet Hemings was named Harriet but she died in infancy.
8.
Harriet Hemings was the only female slave he "freed" in his lifetime.
9.
Harriet Hemings freed one girl some years before he died, and there was a great deal of talk about it.
10.
Harriet Hemings was nearly as white as anybody and very beautiful.
11.
Jefferson indirectly and directly freed all four of the Hemings children when they reached the age of 21: Beverley and Harriet were allowed to escape in 1822; the last two sons, Madison and Eston, were freed in his will of 1826.
12.
Harriet Hemings freed another of Sally's brothers and two of her nephews in his will of 1826; they had each served him for decades.
13.
In 1873, Harriet's brother Madison Hemings described his siblings and their life at Monticello and afterward, claiming Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings as their parents.
14.
Harriet Hemings said that Jefferson had promised Hemings when she became his concubine that he would free all her children.
15.
Harriet Hemings's interview was published as a memoir in the Pike County Republican.
16.
Since 1998 and the DNA study, most historians have accepted that the widower Jefferson had a long intimate relationship with Harriet Hemings, and fathered six children with her, four of whom survived to adulthood.