Tuesday, October 26, 2021

The Wayles/Eppes/Jefferson/Hemings Relations...Black & White Cousins

I want to talk about my connection to this group of my cousins.

I remember as a teen in the 1970's when a bombshell book came out written by the historian Fawn M. Brodie  It was called "Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History".  My mother bought this book and it sat in our den on the bookshelf.  At the time I remember it caused a stir(especially since I lived in Virginia)as it included the accusation that Jefferson had children with his slave Sally Hemmings outside of his marriage to his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson.

Just about everyone at that time who knew anything about Thomas Jefferson knew these rumors were true but people didn't go around talking about it nor had anyone written a book containing this information for public consumption.  I took the book and read it when I went away to college in 1977.  This was right after Alex Haley published "Roots" in 1976 and they came out with the much touted mini-series based on his book.

As for the cousining, let's start with Henry Isham I(1627-1675).  He had two daughters, Anne Fitzhugh Isham and Mary Isham.  Anne married Col. Francis Eppes III(1659-1718).  Anne is my 2nd cousin 12 x removed.  Their son, Francis Eppes IV(1686-1734)married Sarah Kennon(1684-1748).  Their daughter, Martha Eppes(1712-1748), my 4th cousin 10 x removed)married John Wayles(1715-1773)a Welshman who immigrated to America.

Martha Eppes and John Wayles had a daughter, Martha Wayles(1748-1782).  Martha Eppes Wayles died a few days after giving birth to that daughter Martha.

John Wayles also had an older brother, Richard Wayles(1714-1765)who married Martha Cocke Bolling(1726-1758)and they had a son, Francis Eppes(1747-1808).  This Francis Eppes married Elizabeth Wayles(1752-1810).  Elizabeth Wayles was the daughter of John Wayles and his second wife, Mary Tabitha Cocke(1724-bet.1758-1760), making Francis Eppes and Elizabeth Wayles not only husband and wife but also double cousins and making Martha Wayles and Elizabeth Wayles half siblings.  Is everyone following this so far? ;-)

Not only did John Wayles have two wives, he also "took liberties" with one of his slaves, Elizabeth "Betty" Hemmings.  

Betty was the daughter of a sea captain, John Hemmings and an African slave, thus Betty was biracial or as they used the term back in the day "mulatto".  The story goes that John Hemmings plied his trade between England and the port town of Williamsburg and that is where he met and had his way with the African slave who's name is lost to history.  This slave was the property of John Wayles.  Captain Hemmings claimed paternity of the child Betty and tried to buy her from John Wayles but Wayles would not hear of it and took the slave and child into the "great house" to live to keep the child away from Hemmings if he considered kidnapping the child.  Wayles also thought her a novelty, being mulatto, and saw this as "a grand experiment" and wished to see how she would "turn out".  So John Wayles raised Betty and then once his second wife died he turned around and slept with Betty, producing six children with her.  Betty had already had 4 other children with unknown fathers-well one was a carpenter of Irish extraction who worked on building Monticello named Joseph Neilson.  Among these offspring Betty had with John Wayles(the number are still undecided)were Thenia, Cristena "Critta", Robert "Bob", James and Sally Hemings(1773-1835).

This would make Sally Hemings 3/4 European White and 1/4 African American and John Wayles' "white" daughter, Martha Wayles, with his wife Martha Eppes Wayles, Sally's half sister.  This ad mixture back in that day made Sally an "octoroon" or "almost white" in appearance.  There are no images of Sally Hemings from that era but here is one often used to "portray" her....

Compare that to a known portrait of Martha Wayles, Sally's half sister......


And a portraiture of Sally and Thomas Jefferson's only daughter Harriet, who lived to adulthood, until 1863 or 1864 *no  one is sure*.....


So why my interest in these genealogical lines?  I am a 5th cousin 9x removed to Thomas Jefferson through my maternal Great Grandmother and his mother who was a Randolph.  I am also a 5th cousin 9x removed to Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson through the same Great Grandmother and her mother who was an Eppes.  Isham, Eppes, Wayles, Jefferson are all my cousins by blood. (Also my 7th Great Grandmother married as her 4th Husband, Thomas Jefferson's uncle, Fielding Jefferson, though they had no children together.  So my direct ancestor was also for a time the Aunt of Thomas Jefferson and was the part of the first couple in English America to have a legal pre-nuptial agreement.)

So this whole argument that has raged for centuries about Thomas Jefferson having a "shadow family" as it was often referred to in the South with Sally Hemings, his slave and half-sister of his wife, is near to my heart.

Once the Brodie book came out the debate among the direct Jefferson ancestors as to whether to accept the Hemings ancestors "into the family" has taken center stage.  First the Jefferson Society hierarchy refused to provide DNA to confirm or deny the Hemings link and court cases ensued.  Then the sticking point became only the "white" direct ancestors of Jefferson were allowed to be buried at Monticello as is the family members' right.  Even after DNA testing has confirmed centuries of oral history there is still a segment of the "white" Jefferson's who started the ultra-conservative Thomas Jefferson  Heritage Society who still refuse to come around and deny any Jefferson-Hemings ties.  These folks keep pushing against the tide.

My thoughts?  I am all for embracing the Sally Hemings offspring descendants as Jefferson descendants.  

I grew up in the South during the Civil Rights Era.  I saw that struggle first hand from the sidelines as a child.  I have progressive relatives and I have relatives who'd prefer we all go back to the "good old days".  I've seen my share of racism.  (Let me add that having lived up North since 1984 I've seen about as much racism up here as down South where I grew up.) 

All the Hemings descendants are welcomed as my cousins and I have added them(as much information as I can find)to my personal family tree. We are ALL cousins when it comes down to it and any of them are welcomed at my table.

Sluggy


9 comments:

  1. Bravo! I love your Ancestry posts. So interesting,

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  2. I've read about Sally, but I also read about James Hemings and macaroni and cheese. Now I see he was Sally's brother. Thank you for this info.

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    1. Both James and Sally accompanied Thomas Jefferson and his daughter in the delegation Thomas brought to Paris-James who was trained in French cooking as Jefferson enjoyed it and Sally as her half-sister's companion in France. James was given his freedom once he trained someone else at Monticello who met Jefferson's culinary palate to replace him and he chose his brother Peter. Jefferson kept trying to lure James back to work at Monticello but he only returned a few times to visit family. James ended up dying young while working in a tavern in Baltimore MD. It is said he committed suicide while under the influence of alcohol. We'll never know what demons James wrestled with but he taught himself the French language and was a talented chef. He brought back many French inspired dishes to American, including macaroni and cheese, a version of French Fries and hard ice cream.

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  3. This is all so interesting even though it does make my head swim! I am quite sure my ancestors who married Indians had a hard time of it. But, I know nothing of it. It is amazing and heartbreaking to see what one human will do to another.

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  4. Fascinating! I love the story of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Your post was a great read.

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  5. What an interesting post. I remember that book well. I wrote a review of it for a college American history class in 1978. The Jefferson-Hemings family was an open secret in Charlottesville.

    Love,
    Janie

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  6. Wow, amazing research!!
    The good, the bad and the ugly.
    I had hopes that with the passing of the older generation, that maybe there would be less racism, but now I have my doubts. Not sure things have changed that much since Jefferson's time or even Lincoln's time or even Martin Luther King's time.

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  7. I have read this more than once, it is fascinating to see your connections to the past.

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  8. I'm sure in generations upon generations back, we'd all dig up relationships that had horrific starts. I just assume it's so. I think your experience if racism being non geographical is spot on. My BIL's black friend from Alabama often said it was easier to deal with southern racism even though it was more overt, but in the north was more destructive.

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