Harriet Hemings [SEP] father
Harriet Hemings
Harriet Hemings (May 1801 – 1870) was born into slavery at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, in the first year of his presidency. Some historians believe her father is Jefferson, who is believed by several historians to have fathered, with his slave Sally Hemings, four children who survived to adulthood.
While Jefferson did not legally free Harriet, in 1822 when she was 21, he aided her "escape". He saw that she was put in
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, and then Harriet stopped writing.
Early life and education.
In 1773 Jefferson and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson had inherited Sally Hemings, her mother Betty Hemings and ten siblings from the estate of her father John Wayles, along with more than 100 other slaves. The widower Wayles had had a 12-year relationship with Betty Hemings and six mixed-