Harriet Hemings

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Harriet Hemings (May 1801 – after 1822) was born into slavery at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, in the first year of his presidency. Most historians believe her father was Jefferson, who is believed to have fathered, with his slave Sarah "Sally" Hemings, four children who survived to adulthood. 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 of Hemings’ younger brothers were compared. The later DNA testing conclusively proved that Jefferson fathered Hemings' younger brothers, Madison Hemings and Eston Hemings. Descendants of Hemings and her brother Beverley, who both reportedly married white spouses and lived as White Americans, have not thus far been identified. While Jefferson did not legally free Harriet, in 1822 when she was 21, he aided her "escape". He saw that she was put in a stage coach and given $50 (~$1,209 in 2025) for her journey. Her brother Madison Hemings later said she had gone to Washington, D.C., to join their older brother Beverly Hemings, who had similarly left Monticello earlier that year. Both entered into white society and married white partners of good circumstances. All the 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. Hemings and her siblings were seven-eighths European in ancestry, called octoroons in the contemporary terminology. Legally, Hemings and her siblings were white under Virginia law at the time, even though they were born enslaved. Jefferson freed the two youngest brothers in his will of 1826, so they were legally free. Beverly and Harriet stayed in touch with their brother Madison Hemings for some time,...