William Beverly Hemings | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1798-04-01)April 1, 1798 Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | c. 1873 |
| Known for | Son of Sally Hemings; widely believed to be the son of Thomas Jefferson |
| Mother | Sally Hemings |
| Relatives | Madison Hemings (brother) Eston Hemings (brother) Harriet Hemings (sister) John Wayles Jefferson (nephew) |
William Beverly Hemings (April 1, 1798 – 1873), also referred to by family members as Beverley, was the son of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Monticello, and widely believed to be the eldest son of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States.[1] He was one of four Hemings children to survive to adulthood and was part of the large enslaved Hemings family closely associated with Jefferson.
Early life
Hemings was born at Monticello in Albemarle County, Virginia, on April 1, 1798.[1] His mother, Sally Hemings, was an enslaved woman of mixed ancestry, the half-sister of Jefferson’s wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. Contemporary accounts and later research suggest that Hemings and his siblings were afforded relatively privileged status compared with other enslaved people at Monticello, including training, lighter work, and eventual de facto freedom.
In his Farm Book,[2] Thomas Jefferson listed Beverley among the plantation's skilled tradesmen, specifically as a carpenter. Plantation records and correspondence between Jefferson and his principal overseer Edmund Bacon, indicate that he was apprenticed to his uncle, the skilled master Joiner John Hemings, from the age of fourteen. In this role, he is believed to have assisted in the plantation's cooperage (barrel-making) and, more significantly, in the construction and fine woodworking at Jefferson's second plantation home and periodic retreat, Poplar Forest in Bedford County, Virginia, about 80 miles to the southwest.
As was true of several others in the Hemings lineage, Beverley was also a musician, occasionally called upon to play violin for dances arranged by Jefferson's granddaughters.
Adulthood and passing into white society
In keeping with Jefferson’s practice regarding Hemings’ children, Beverley was allowed to leave Monticello without pursuit when he came of age. Although he was never formally manumitted he was, as was said then, "Given his time" and permitted to leave the plantation as a free person. Unlike his younger brothers Madison and Eston, who identified as Black later in life, Beverley reportedly chose to assimilate into white society, marrying a woman of European descent, and raising a family whose descendants identified as white. Apart from certain U.S. Census records, his later life in Washington D.C., and also possibly in the State of Maryland, was lived outside the public record, with relatively limited detail.
Family background
The Hemings family held a unique position at Monticello. Sally Hemings’ mother, Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings, and her many descendants formed a large enslaved kinship network within Jefferson’s household, both at Monticello and Poplar Forest. William Beverly Hemings was one of six known children born to Sally Hemings, only four of which survived to adulthood; his siblings were Harriet (I and II), James Madison Hemings, and Thomas Eston Hemings.[1] In his 1873 memoir, Madison Hemings stated that Thomas Jefferson was the father of all of Sally Hemings’ surviving children.[3]
In that same memoir, Madison goes on to explain how their sister Harriet was also permitted to leave Monticello, having been, in fact, assisted in doing so by her renowned father. She too ultimately joined her brother Beverley there at Washington City where she likewise proceeded to pass undetected into the majority society, marry and raise a family there, unbeknownst to any others as the former slave girl Harriet Hemings of Monticello.
Death
Beverley Hemings is believed to have died around 1873, though documentation is limited.
Legacy
Interest in William Beverly Hemings and his siblings grew significantly in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, following the Monticello community’s work to integrate the history of slavery into the site’s interpretation.[1] The 1998 Y-DNA study published in Britain's Nature science journal linked the Jefferson male line with Eston Hemings’ descendants, further supporting accounts that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings’ children.[4] His life illustrates the complex intersections of race, slavery, freedom, and identity in early America.
See also
- Hemings
- Sally Hemings
- Madison Hemings
- Eston Hemings
- John Wayles Jefferson
- Jefferson–Hemings controversy
- Monticello
- Snow Riot § Biography of Beverly Snow
Further reading
- Brodie, Fawn M. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. W.W. Norton, 1974. ISBN 978-0-393-00771-3.
- Gordon-Reed, Annette. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. University of Virginia Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-8139-1759-2.
- Gordon-Reed, Annette. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. W.W. Norton, 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-34574-6.
- Gordon-Reed, Annette, and Peter S. Onuf. Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination. Liveright, 2016. ISBN 978-0-87140-442-8.
- Stanton, Lucia. Those Who Labor for My Happiness: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. University of Virginia Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8139-3224-3.
References
- ^ a b c d "William Beverly Hemings". Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
- ^ "Thomas Jefferson Papers". Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
- ^ Hemings, Madison (13 March 1873). "Memoirs of Madison Hemings". Pike County Republican. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
- ^ Foster, E.A.; Jobling, M.A.; Taylor, P.G.; Donovan, F.M.; Kennedy, T.; Singh, R.S.; Roberts, D.F. (5 November 1998). "Jefferson fathered slave's last child". Nature. 396 (6706): 27–28. doi:10.1038/23835. PMID 9817204.
External links
- Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
- Sally Hemings and Her Children
- The Memoirs of Madison Hemings
- The Memoirs of Israel Jefferson
- Edmund Bacon, Mr. Jefferson's Servants, memoir, Thomas Jefferson, PBS Frontline
