1 HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer The Battle of Trenton .docx

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HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer
The Battle of Trenton
Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851), by Emanuel Leutze
This painting is one of the most famous depictions of an event
from American history. Washington
Crossing the Delaware was painted in 1851 by a German
immigrant named Emanuel Leutze.
(Therefore, this picture was painted long after the event it
depicts and is not a primary source for the
Revolutionary War.) The painting depicts the dangerous and
daring crossing of the Delaware River by
General George Washington on the night of December 25, 1776.
Washington went on to capture 1,000
Hessians at the Battle of Trenton, in New Jersey, in the wee
hours of the morning of December 26. (The
Hessians were German mercenaries and played a role in the
British army similar to that of special

forces.) Despite the fact that Leutze painted this picture long
after the Revolutionary War had ended, his
painting nevertheless captures the bravery (desperation?
foolhardiness?) of Washington’s expedition, as
well as the rag-tag nature of the Continental Army. Note that
only some of the men in the boat are in
uniform. Note also that one of the men is African American.
Historians think that one of the men
holding the flag may represent the future president James
Madison, who served under Washington in the
Revolutionary War.
By late 1776 the war was going badly for the Patriots (aka the
American rebels). Washington
and the Continental Army did not have the training necessary to
defeat the British in a pitched battle
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(where the two sides line up on opposite sides of a battlefield)
and he had kept the war going by using
guerilla tactics and forcing the British army to chase him
around the countryside. Furthermore, the term

of enlistment for much of Washington’s army ended on
December 31, 1776 and the soldiers in the
Continental Army were so demoralized and poorly provisioned
that Washington feared that they would
chose not to re-enlist. Washington needed a game-changer and
therefore, with utmost secrecy, he
planned an attack on a force of Hessians at Trenton for
Christmas night 1776. This campaign was so
secret that, as the soldiers headed off into a raging blizzard on
December 25, they did not yet know what
their target was.
Conditions were not conducive to a top-
secret covert operation. Washington had
divided his forces into three contingents; one
would cross the Delaware south of Trenton; one
would cross near Trenton; and the force
personally commanded by Washington himself
would cross north of Trenton. The plan was to
converge on Trenton in a coordinated attack,
taking the drunken and sleepy Hessians by

surprise (it was Christmas night – they had been
partying). A night-time coordinated attack
under the best of circumstances in the
eighteenth century, before modern
communication-tools like radio, was extremely
difficult. Moreover, on the night of December
25, 1776 there was a raging blizzard. The
Delaware River was frozen in places; where
there was open water there were also chunks of
floating ice and choppy waters to worry about.
Soldiers who took part in the operation later
recalled that it was so cold that night that they
had to jump up and down in the boats to knock
off the ice that was continually forming on the
hulls. To make matters worse, some of
Washington’s men had no shoes and lacked
warm clothing.
Of the three contingents, only Washington’s made it across the

Delaware River. The other two
contingents, which were to cross the Delaware further
downstream, could not: the water had more ice
and was choppier because of proximity to the Atlantic Ocean.
Washington therefore faced a choice: try
and take the Hessian force at Trenton with the 2,400 men he had
with him, or go back across the
Delaware. He chose to attack, fearing that this campaign might
be his last best chance to swing
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momentum (and public opinion) in the war towards the
American rebels. Washington divided his
contingent into two and was able, in the dark and in the middle
of a blizzard, to launch a coordinated,
surprise attack on the Hessians. Washington’s men captured
1,000 Hessians; four Americans were
killed. This victory was followed by a defeat of a British force
at Princeton, New Jersey, on January 7,
1777. Washington could not hold Trenton and Princeton and
retreated into the hills around Morristown,

but his brazen attacks convinced the British to retreat to the
safety of New York City.
Washington’s attack on Trenton accomplished a number of
goals. First, it boosted morale
among soldiers in the Continental Army and many chose to re-
enlist. Second, it boosted Congress’
confidence in Washington’s abilities. And third, although he
did not permanently capture territory from
the British as a result of the battle, Washington’s victory kept
the war going. An important aspect of the
Revolutionary War is that the rebels did not have to win the war
in order to win the war: Washington
knew that the longer the rebels kept the fight going, the more
into debt Great Britain sank and the more
unpopular the war became among the British populace in
England. At some point, the British would
give up. Conversely, for the British to win the war, they had to
militarily win the war – that is, they had
to force all American rebels to put down their arms. These
discrepancies were brought into sharp focus
by the fact that the rebels were fighting on their home soil,
whereas the British government was funding
and coordinating the war from across the Atlantic. In this
respect, the rebels had a distinct advantage.

Washington also knew, however, that the British might be able
to outlast the will of the
American rebels to fight. Therefore it was essential to him that
the Continental Army be transformed
from a rag-tag collection of soldiers with little training into an
efficient, well-disciplined professional
army. He took major strides towards accomplishing this goal
Forge, where a Prussian baron who claimed to be an expert
military tactician, Friedrich von Steuben,
offered his services to Washington. The aristocratic title, it
turned out, was fake, but von Steuben’s
military skill was not and the next spring, at the Battle of
Monmouth Courthouse (June 1778),
Washington’s forces defeated a British army of similar size
headed by General Henry Clinton in a
pitched battle. It was through success in pitched battles that the
American rebels convinced France to
declare war on Britain and broke the will of the British
government to continue fighting the war.
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The Battle of Saratoga (1777) was the first pitched battle that
the American rebels won. It was, however, a lopsided fight:

General Horatio Gates, with an army of 17,000 Patriots,
defeated British General John Burgoyne, who had 8,000 men.
The
Battle of Monmoth Courthouse (1778) was the first pitched
battle the American rebels won in which they were fighting
against a British army of similar size. In other words, our
victory at the Battle of Saratoga demonstrated that we had the
potential to ultimately defeat the British in battle; the Battle of
Monmouth Courthouse demonstrated that we had the ability to
defeat the British in battle.
Excerpt from the Autobiography of Joseph Plumb Martin

[Here Martin describes the actions of Mary Hays McCauley (aka
“Molly Pitcher”), the wife of a Pennsylvania private, at the
Battle of
Monmouth Courthouse (1778). With their husbands away in
battle,
many working-class women were unable to provide for
themselves.
Some of them chose to follow their husbands from battle to
battle.
Although they were looked down on by some, these women

provided
much needed services for the poorly supplied Continental Army:
they
cooked, cleaned the soldiers’ clothes, and served as nurses.
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]
…One little incident happened, during the heat of the
cannonade, which I was eyewitness to, and which I think it
would be
unpardonable not to mention. A woman whose husband
belonged to
the artillery, and who was then attached to a piece in the
engagement, attended with her husband at the piece the whole
time.
While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her
feet as
far before the other as she could step, a cannon shot from the
enemy
passed directly between her legs without doing any other
damage
than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat. Looking
at it
with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did
not

pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away
something else, and continued her occupation.
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Introduction and first excerpt from R.D. Marcus et al., eds,
America
Firsthand, Vol. 1, 8
th
edn (Boston, 2010), pp. 110–16. Last excerpt from
Private Yankee Doodle Being a Narrative of the Adventures,
Dangers and
Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier by Joseph Plumb Martin,
ed. by G. F.
Scheer (Boston, 1962), pp. 132–3.
Hamilton Round I.htmlHamilton: Round I
Here you have several audio and visual clips pertaining to the
Broadway musical, Hamilton, which premiered in 2015. The
play was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also stars as
Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton was born in a
British colony in the Caribbean in 1755. He immigrated to the

colony of New Jersey in 1772 and, the following year, moved to
New York to attend Columbia University. (He dropped out
after three years, feeling that there was nothing more he could
learn there.) Hamilton served under General George
Washington during the Revolutionary War (1775-83). During
the war Hamilton also courted and married Elizabeth Schuyler,
who was a member of one of the wealthiest families in New
York. After the war, Hamilton was instrumental and building
support for the ratification of the US Constitution. After that
document was ratified he served as the first Secretary of the
Treasury under President George Washington. Hamilton and
Thomas Jefferson were lifelong political rivals. In the election
of 1800, however, Hamilton worked to give the presidency to
Jefferson in order to thwart a power-play by fellow New Yorker
and Vice Presidential candidate Aaron Burr. This, and other
clashes between Hamilton and Burr, led Burr to challenge
Hamilton to a duel and, in 1804, Vice President Burr shot and
killed Hamilton. The play Hamilton recently won 11 Tony
Awards. (Tonys are the equivalent of Oscars, but for plays and
musicals.)
First watch an interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda on
CBS This Morning. This interview will give you an overview
of Hamilton’s life, the play Hamilton, and Lin-Manuel
Miranda. The clip is about 9 minutes long and aired a year ago.
Hamilton Round III.htmlHamilton: Round III
As you learned in Topic 7, After George Washington left office
in 1797, Alexander Hamilton fell out of favor with President
Adams and, initially worked to undermine him. During this
time Hamilton started an affair (or was lured into an affair) with
Maria Reynolds. When news of the affair was broken by
Hamilton’s political enemies, Hamilton wrote a pamphlet
explaining what he had done and asserted that, while he had
committed adultery, he had never broken the law or cheated the

US government. In HIST 120 we focus on Hamilton primarily
as a Founding Father, ignoring his personal life, as if there was
a firm distinction between the two. And, indeed, this was the
point that Hamilton was making in the Reynolds Pamphlet:
whatever mistakes he made in his personal life were of no
concern to the American people, as long as those mistakes did
not impact his ability to do his job well and faithfully.
Hamilton’s manic energy led him to juggle more work than most
of his contemporaries and it may have led to form attachments
to multiple women (recall Angelica Schuyler and the song
“Satisfied” in Topic 6); these two collided in in 1791 when he
met a young, poor woman named Maria (pronounced “Mariah”)
Reynolds. In “Say No to This” Reynolds seduces Hamilton and
he learns a shocking secret.“Say No To This”
The Northwest Ordinance
There are two main reasons why the Northwest Ordinance of
1787 is important. First, it created a mechanism
for the expansion of the United States of America through the
addition of states that would be on equal footing
with the original thirteen states. According to the Northwest
Ordinance, once settlers began moving into a
territory Congress could appoint a territorial government and
territorial judges. The next step was when the
population of the territory reached 5,000 adult males, at which

point settlers could draw up a temporary
territorial constitution and elect a territorial legislature, giving
the settlers a degree of self-government. The
final step could be taken once the population of the territory
reached 60,000 settlers. At that point, the settlers
could draw up a state constitution and submit it to Congress for
approval. If Congress approved the state
constitution, that territory would be admitted into the union as a
state. Coupled with the Land Ordinance of
1785, the Northwest Ordinance set out a method for the orderly
westward expansion of the United States. As
important, the mechanism for expansion laid out in the
Northwest Ordinance was based upon converting new
territories into states, rather than keeping them as territories or
colonies. To better understand the significance
of this decision, consider this fact: at the end of the
Revolutionary War, several of the thirteen original states
claimed vast tracts of land in the interior of the continent:
The fear was that these inland areas might become essentially
colonies of the original thirteen states. …And we
had just fought a war over the contentious relationship between
a mother country and its colonies. The
Founding Fathers wanted to make sure that we did not stumble

right back into the kind of mess that had led to
the Revolutionary War. To this end, they wanted to make sure
that the interior lands could become states fully
equal to the original thirteen states. Doing so required
convincing some of the original thirteen states to give up
their claims on land in the interior. The Northwest Ordinance,
as its name suggests, originally applied to the
Northwest Territories, but it became the template for American
expansion until the late 1800s: up until the late
1800s the United States grew by adding states, not colonies.
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The second reason why the Northwest Ordinance is important
involves its ban on slavery in the
Northwest Territories. As we move into the 1800s, you will
learn that the federal (aka national) government
adopted a policy of allowing each state to decide whether or not
to allow slavery. That is, there was no federal
prohibition on slavery. Especially from the 1820s, Southern
states aggressively fought any perceived attempt
by Northerners or the federal government to set limits on where
slavery could and could not exist in the United

States. White Southerners even denied that the federal
government had the power to thus limit slavery. Well…
a precedent had already been set with the Northwest Ordinance!
In 1787 Southerners had not cared too much
about the Northwest Ordinance because very few slave owners
had settled in the Northwest Territories and the
geography of the Northwest Territories was not suitable for the
kind of cash crops that were produced through
slave labor. But because the Northwest Ordinance had been
approved by Congress, its passage was an implicit
acknowledgment that Congress did have the power to set limits
on where slavery could and could not exist in
the United States.
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That situation changed in the late 1800s, as the United States
embarked on a period of imperialism. We annexed Alaska,
Hawaii, the
Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico with little intention that
they would one day become states. Instead they became US
territories,
ruled as colonies. (Alaska and Hawaii are exceptions that prove
the rule: they only attainted statehood in 1959, long after they
had

been annexed by the United States. The US annexed Hawaii in
1898 and bought Alaska from the Russians in 1867.)
Optional Reading Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr and the
Election of 1800, by John Ferling.html
Optional Reading: "Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr and the
Election of 1800", by John Ferling
This article appeared in Smithsonian Magazine in 2004 and
gives a lot of detailed information on the tumultuous election of
1800: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thomas-
jefferson-aaron-burr-and-the-election-of-1800-131082359/?no-
ist. Ferling is one of the leading scholars on the period of the
Early Republic.
Optional Viewing Interview with Annette Gordon-Reed.html
Optional Viewing: Interview with Annette Gordon-Reed
Students often find the story of Sally Hemings and Thomas
Jefferson interesting. In the assigned reading on this pair I have
given you a written overview of their relationship. If you want
more information (or, if you learn best when you can watch or
hear information) you may also want to check out the following
interview given by Annette-Gordon Reed in 2014. She is the
leading scholar on Jefferson and his relationship with the
Hemings family and her speaking style is engaging and easy to
listen to. (Note: You may draw on this video for your Topic 8
post but, if you do, make sure to demonstrate that you have
done the required reading as well.)
At the start of the clip there is an introduction. The actual
interview starts at the 4:30 mark and lasts for one hour.

Topic 8
Jeffersonian America
Remember to include dates and discussion of key terms in your
answers! All graded posts must be at least 300
words long. And if all questions are answered at least once,
everyone who participated in the discussion forum
gets a point of EC!
Key terms (Discuss relevant key terms in your posts.)
the agrarian republic
Marbury v. Madison (1803) and judicial review
Louisiana Purchase
attack of the HMS Leopard on the USS Chesapeake
Embargo Act (1807)
Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa
William Henry Harrison

Treaty of Fort Jackson (1814)
nullification
Era of Good Feelings
the American System
Adams-Onís Treaty
Monroe Doctrine
Panic of 1819
Missouri Compromise
Thomas Jefferson
Sally Hemings
Madison Hemings
Eston Hemings
Harriet Hemings
Beverly Hemings
John Wayles (aka John Wales)
James Callender
the Reynolds Affair
Aaron Burr

Focus Questions
Tying the Readings Together (Tie together information from
more than one of the assigned
readings.)
1. Do you agree with the stance taken by Hamilton and
Jefferson that a person’s personal life shouldn’t
matter in their public life, as long as one does one’s job well
and faithfully? Why or why not?
2. What does Article IV Section II of the US Constitution have
to do with Sally Hemings’ children? (This
question requires you to tie the sources for Sally Hemings and
Thomas Jefferson to the material from
Topic 7.)
Out of Many, Ch. 9 (Draw on multiple sections of the chapter.)
3. What were the hallmarks of President Jefferson’s vision for
the country? Describe specific steps he took
to make this vision a reality.
4. Describe the westward expansion of American settlement
during the period from c.1790 to c.1820.
Include in your answer a discussion of one of at least one the
following:

a. how regional differences played a role in westward expansion
in the northern and southern parts
of the country.
b. the changing relationship between Americans, the United
States government, and Native
Americans.
5. Discuss the causes and outcomes of the War of 1812.
6. How did the American economy change during the period
from c.1790 to c.1820? In your answer
include a discussion of the American System.
7. What overall message was Secretary of State John Quincy
Adams sending to European powers in the
Monroe Doctrine? How does this message reflect the wider
foreign policy concerns outlined throughout
Ch. 9 of Out of Many?
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
8. Why do you think Callender’s claims failed to hurt Jefferson
politically? Do you think a similar scandal
would hurt an American president or elected leader today? Why

or why not?
9. Did Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson love each other?
Were they and their children a family? And
do you think these are valid questions to ask?
10. Based Madison Hemings’ family history, how common was
racial intermixing in 18th and 19th century
Virginia?
11. Madison talks about two promises that were made to his
mother. What were they?
Hamilton: Round III: See the “Tying the Readings Together”
questions, above.
Topic 6
The Revolutionary War
We’re covering a lot of important ground with Topic 6.
To supplement Ch. 7 of Out of Many I have added two brief
files to the Topic 6 folder. With regard to
covering wars, the trend in textbook-writing today is to focus
less on specific battles and more on the

experiences of participants. But like learning about the battles!
I have therefore included a file titled The
Battle of Trenton in the Topic 6 folder. The file contains a
picture (Washington Crossing the Delaware) and a
discussion (by me) of the importance of the Battle of Trenton
(1776). One of your key terms for this topic is
the Northwest Ordinance (1787). It gets a brief mention in Out
does not effectively communicate how important the act was for
American history, so I have also added a
discussion of this ordinance to the Topic 6 folder.
While I think it’s important to discuss important battles, I also
think that the current trend in writing about
warfare, in which the experiences of average men and women
are paramount, is important. One of my favorite
accounts of the Revolutionary War is by Private Joseph Plumb
Martin, one of the few Patriots who served in
the Continental Army for the entire war. His autobiography
provides an important counterpoint to many
narratives of the Revolutionary War, which focus on “big men”,
like George Washington and other generals.
Note: Joseph Plumb Martin has an awesome, and very dry, sense
of humor; it is easy to overlook if you don’t
read carefully.

Finally, you have a number of audio and visual clips pertaining
to the Broadway musical Hamilton. To
steal a phrase from Justin Timberlake, Hamilton puts the sexy
back in the Founding Fathers. Over the course
of the summer session we will use the musical Hamilton to
think about a couple of important aspects of early
American history: What does it mean to be American? What
relevance do the actions and writings of dead
white men have to do with an America today in which the vast
majority of Americans are not white men?
Remember: graded posts need to be at least 300 words long.
And try to ensure that every focus question
is answered at least once on the Topic 6 discussion forum so
that you can get that point of extra credit!
Key Terms (Discuss relevant key terms in your answer.)
Continental Army
Friedrich von Steuban
Valley Forge
Patriots vs Loyalists
“Molly Pitcher”
Battle of Trenton

Hessians
Battle of Saratoga
Joseph Brant
Battle of Yorktown (1781)
Articles of Confederation
Treaty of Paris (1783)
Land Ordinance of 1785
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1786)
Phyllis Wheatley
Joseph Plumb Martin
Alexander Hamilton
Elizabeth Schuyler
Angelica Schuyler
Focus Questions
Tying the readings together (Tie together information from
more than one of the assigned

readings.)
1. What advantages did the Americans have during the
Revolutionary War? What advantages did the
British have? (Tip: remember to draw on the textbook and at
least one of the sources.)
2. Why did Washington think it important to have a national
army? Why were some Americans against
the idea of a national army? Based on your reading of the
excerpt from Joseph Plumb Martin’s
autobiography, do you think Washington was right about the
importance of a national army?
3. How much support did the civilian population give the
Continental Army during the Revolutionary
War?
Out of Many, Ch. 7
4. What do you think the most important battles or events of the
Revolutionary War were? Explain your
reasoning.
5. How important were the alliances that we made with the
French, the Spanish, and the Dutch to our
victory in the Revolutionary War? Explain your reasoning.
6. Describe the main achievements of the national government

under the Articles of Confederation. What
were the main strengths and weaknesses of the national
government outlined by the Articles of
Confederation?
Excerpt from the Autobiography of Joseph Plumb Martin
7. How does Joseph Plumb Martin justify writing his memoirs?
Why do you think he apologizes for
writing them?
8. What examples does Joseph Plumb Martin give of how dire
conditions were in the Continental Army?
Given these conditions, why did he remain in the army?
Hamilton: Round I (Draw on both CBS This Morning and the
musical Hamilton.)
9. Why does Lin-Manuel Miranda think that Alexander
Hamilton is an archetypical American and what
“American” characteristics does Miranda think that Hamilton
embodies?
10. Before the musical Hamilton came out last year, few
Americans knew much about Alexander Hamilton.
Why do you think that was so? And why did Lin-Manuel
Miranda think it was important to tell
Hamilton’s story?

11. What do you find most surprising about the way that Lin-
Manuel Miranda presents Alexander
Hamilton’s life and times?
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Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
The following two primary sources both make the claim that
Thomas Jefferson fathered children by one of his
slaves, Sally Hemings. The first source was written by an
embittered former political associate of Jefferson’s,
James Callender, in 1802. Callender was a journalist who had
been hired by the Republicans to attack the
Federalists in the run-up to election of 1800. For these verbal
attacks Callender, a Scottish immigrant, was
thrown in jail for violating the Alien and Sedition Acts. He was
financially ruined, and when he was released
from prison he tried to blackmail Jefferson, who was by then

President of the United States, into giving him a
well-paid government job. Jefferson refused to respond to the
threat and so Callender “outed” Jefferson’s
relationship with Sally Hemings in a series of newspaper
articles. Jefferson never publically responded to the
articles and they did not hurt his political career.
The second source is an interview given by an elderly man
named Madison Hemings to an Ohio newspaper in
1873. In the interview Hemings stated that he was Jefferson’s
son. Until very recently, most historians dismissed
the claims of both Callender and Madison Hemings, along with
a few other pieces of evidence that suggested that
Jefferson had had a relationship (and children) with Sally
Hemings. Then, in 1998, DNA tests were done on the
descendants of Madison Hemings and the descendants of his
brother Eston: the tests proved that these two men
were direct decedents of Thomas Jefferson. Most historians
now accept that most or all of Sally Hemings’
children were fathered by Jefferson.
Before the DNA tests, many historians saw Jefferson’s personal
life (including whatever relationship he had
with his slaves) as being of marginal importance for our
understanding of him as a statesman. Indeed, this is the

way that Jefferson himself would seem to have wanted us to
view him: we have volumes upon volumes of his
writings, including political and scientific tracts and personal
letters written to friends, and in these Jefferson is
generally very reticent about all aspects of his personal life.
However, the DNA tests corroborate what Madison
Hemings asserted: that Jefferson and Sally Hemings had a long-
term relationship that began in the 1780s or
1790s and continued until Jefferson’s death in 1826. Moreover,
the relationship appears to have been
monogamous.
Therefore, the DNA tests have prompted historians to
reconsider their views of Jefferson. Historians have
begun pouring over all of Jefferson’s writings again, re-
evaluating everything he wrote about freedom,
independence, slavery, and race-relations in the light the DNA
evidence. One response has been to re-cast
Jefferson as the stereotypical exploitative white slave owner,
but the reality seems to have been much more
complex, as Madison’s interview suggests. For instance,
Jefferson asserted that enslaved African Americans
were inferior to white Americans, but he also stated that he was
not sure whether this was due to a natural
difference between the races or whether the (apparent)

inferiority was a result of Africans having been enslaved.
At the same time, Jefferson also held more unsavory views. For
example, he thought that beauty was linked to the
lightness of one’s skin color, and that blacks and whites should
not intermarry or have children together.
For all the ink that has been spilt by historians in an attempt to
understand Thomas Jefferson, the most that
can be said with certainty is that his views on slavery and race-
relations were complex ‒ which is why historians
would dearly love to know what Sally Hemings thought about
her life with Jefferson. Unfortunately, she left no
writings (that we know of). The closest that we can get to Sally
and what her relationship with Jefferson was like,
is the interview that her son, Madison, gave in 1873, along with
a few other scattered clues. For instance, in his
2
memoirs, an overseer who worked for Jefferson named Edmund
Bacon recalled that it was his job to manage
Jefferson’s slaves but that his authority did not extend to Sally
Hemings and her family. Bacon also recalled that

when Harriet “ran away” from Monticello, Jefferson told him to
pay her stage coach fare to Philadelphia and
give her $50.
Perhaps the clearest indication of the nature of the relationship
between Jefferson and Hemings involves
what happened after Jefferson died. Jefferson was deeply in
debt when he died and most of his estate, including
his hundred slaves, had to be sold to pay off those debts.
However, the members of the Hemings family who were
still at Monticello were not sold; they were given their freedom.
Sally Hemings lived out her days as a free
woman.
1
I have also included a family tree for the Hemings family, based
mainly on the interview with Madison
Hemings.

1
Actually, she remained a slave. The state of Virginia had
passed a law making it illegal for slave owners to free slaves
who
were over 50 years of age. The implication is that slave owners
were freeing, or rather turning out, elderly slaves who could
no longer work in order to save themselves the cost of providing
for these older slaves. Sally was 53 when Jefferson died and
so she could not legally be freed. However, she is listed as a
free woman in a US census of the early 1830s. Presumably,
then, Jefferson’s heir, his (white) daughter Martha, abided by
her father’s wishes that Sally be allowed her freedom.
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A. From James Callender, “The President, Again”, Richmond
Recorder, 1 September 1802.2
It is well known that the man, whom it delighteth the people to
honor, keeps, and for many years past
has kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves. Her name is
SALLY. The name of her eldest son is TOM.

His features are said to bear a striking although sable
resemblance to those of the president himself. The boy
is ten or twelve years of age. His mother went to France in the
same vessel with Mr. Jefferson and his two
daughters. The delicacy of this arrangement must strike every
person of common sensibility. What a
sublime pattern for an American ambassador to place before the
eyes of two young ladies!
If the reader does not feel himself disposed to pause we beg
leave to proceed. Some years ago, this
story had once or twice been hinted at in Rind’s Federalist. At
that time, we believed the surmise to be an
absolute calumny. One reason for thinking so was this. A vast
body of people wished to debar Mr. Jefferson
from the presidency. The establishment of this SINGLE FACT
would have rendered his election impossible.
… By this wench Sally, our president has had several children.
There is not an individual in the
neighbourhood of Charlottesville, who does not believe the
story; and not a few who know it. … Behold the
favorite, the first born of republicanism! the pinnacle of all that
is good and great! in the open consummation
of an act which tends to subvert the policy, the happiness, and
even the existence of this country!

‘Tis supposed that, at the time when Mr. Jefferson wrote so
smartly concerning negroes, when he
endeavoured much to belittle the African race, he had no
expectation that the chief magistrate of the United
States was to be the ringleader in shewing that his opinion was
erroneous; or, that he should chuse an African
stock whereupon he was to engraft his own descendants. …
If the friends of Mr. Jefferson are convinced of his innocence,
they will make an appeal of the same
sort [that Callender had made during the Hamilton-Reynolds’
scandal].3 If they rest in silence, or if they
content themselves with resting upon a general denial, they
cannot hope for credit. The allegation is of a
nature too black to be suffered to remain in suspence. We
should be glad to hear of its refutation. We give it
to the world under the firmest belief that such a refutation never
can be made. The AFRICAN VENUS is said to
officiate, as housekeeper at Monticello. When Mr. Jefferson
has read this article, he will find leisure to
estimate how much has been lost or gained by so many
unprovoked attacks upon
J. T. CALLENDER

2
As printed in: Sally Hemings & Thomas Jefferson. History,
Memory, and Civic Culture, ed. by Jan Ellen Lewis and Peter S.
Onuf (Charlottesville, 1999), pp. 259–60.
3
In 1797 James Callender accused Alexander Hamilton in print
of having an affair with a young, poor woman named Maria
Reynolds. Both Hamilton and Reynolds were married. (In fact,
Reynolds’ husband knew about the affair and had demanded
that Hamilton pay him off to keep quiet about it!) In 1797
Callender was still allied with Jefferson’s (Democratic-
)Republicans against the Federalists. Hamilton was one of the
leading Federalists and so there was a political motive to
Callender’s accusations. When called upon to back up his
accusations, Callender produced letters written by Hamilton in
which Hamilton admitted to the affair. Hamilton then took the
unusual step of publishing a pamphlet in which he admitted to
the affair but said that it had not compromised his governmental
duties and so (here I am paraphrasing) Callender should shut
up about it. Hamilton survived the scandal, but his reputation
was somewhat damaged.
4

B. “Life among the Lowly, No. 1”, Pike County (Ohio)
Republican, 13 March 1873.4
I never knew of but one white man who bore the name of
Hemings; he was an Englishman and
my great grandfather. He was captain of an English trading
vessel which sailed between England and
Williamsburg, Va., then quite a port. My great-grandmother
was a fullblooded African, and possibly a
native of that country. She was the property of John Wales, a
Welchman. Capt. Hemings happened to
be in the port of Williamsburg at the time my grandmother was
born, and acknowledging her fatherhood
he tried to purchase her of Mr. Wales, who would not part with
the child, though he was offered an
extraordinarily large price for her. She was named Elizabeth
Hemings. Being thwarted in the purchase,
and determined to own his own flesh and blood he resolved to
take the child by force or stealth, but the
knowledge of his intention coming to John Wales’ ears, through
leaky fellow servants of the mother, she
and the child were taken into the ‘great house’ under their
master's immediate care. I have been

informed that it was not the extra value of that child over other
slave children that induced Mr. Wales to
refuse to sell it, for slave masters then, as in later days, had no
compunctions of conscience which
restrained them from parting mother and child of however
tender age, but he was restrained by the fact
that just about that time amalgamation began, and the child was
so great a curiosity that its owner
desired to raise it himself that he might see its outcome. Capt.
Hemings soon afterwards sailed from
Williamsburg, never to return. Such is the story that comes
down to me.
Elizabeth Hemings grew to womanhood in the family of John
Wales, whose wife dying she
(Elizabeth) was taken by the widower Wales as his concubine,
by whom she had six children – three
sons and three daughters, viz: Robert, James, Peter, Critty,
Sally and Thena. These children went by the
name of Hemings.
Williamsburg was the capital of Virginia, and of course it was
an aristocratic place, where the
‘bloods’ of the Colony and the new State most did congregate.
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the
Declaration of Independence, was educated at William and Mary

College, which had its seat at
Williamsburg. He afterwards studied law with Geo. Wythe, and
practiced law at the bar of the general
court of the Colony. He was afterwards elected a member of the
provincial legislature from Albemarle
county. Thos. Jefferson was a visitor at the ‘great house’ of
John Wales, who had children about his
own age. He formed the acquaintance of his daughter Martha (I
believe that was her name, though I am
not positively sure,) and intimacy sprang up between them
which ripened into love, and they were
married. They afterwards went to live at his country seat
Monticello, and in course of time had born to
them a daughter whom they named Martha. About the time she
was born my mother, the second
daughter of John Wales and Elizabeth Hemings was born. On
the death of John Wales, my
grandmother, his concubine, and her children by him fell to
Martha, Thomas Jefferson’s wife, and
consequently became the property of Thomas Jefferson, who in
the course of time became famous, and
was appointed minister to France during our revolutionary
troubles, or soon after independence was
gained. About the time of the appointment and before he was

ready to leave the country his wife died,
and as soon after her interment as he could attend to and
arrange his domestic affairs in accordance with
4
As printed in: Sally Hemings, ed. by Lewis and Onuf, pp. 255–
58.
5
the changed circumstances of his family in consequence of this
misfortune (I think not more than three
weeks thereafter) he left for France, taking his eldest daughter
with him. He had sons born to him, but
they died in early infancy, so he then had but two children –
Martha and Maria. The latter was left
home, but afterwards was ordered to follow him to France. She
was three years or so younger than
Martha. My mother accompanied her as a body servant. When
Mr. Jefferson went to France Martha
was just budding into womanhood. Their stay (my mother’s and
Maria’s) was about eighteen months.
But during that time my mother became Mr. Jefferson’s

concubine, and when he was called back home
she was enciente
5
by him. He desired to bring my mother back to Virginia with
him but she demurred.
She was just beginning to understand the French language well,
and in France she was free, while if she
returned to Virginia she would be re-enslaved. So she refused
to return with him. To induce her to do
so he promised her extraordinary privileges, and made a solemn
pledge that her children should be freed
at the age of twenty-one years. In consequence of his promise,
on which she implicitly relied, she
returned with him to Virginia. Soon after their arrival, she gave
birth to a child, of whom Thomas
Jefferson was the father. It lived but a short time. She gave
birth to four others, and Jefferson was the
father of all of them. Their names were Beverly, Harriet,
Madison (myself), and Eston – three sons and
one daughter. We all became free agreeably to the treaty
entered into by our parents before we were
born. We all married and have raised families.
Beverly left Monticello and went to Washington as a white man.
He married a white woman in

Maryland, and their only child, a daughter, was not known by
the white folks to have any colored blood
coursing in his veins. Beverly's wife’s family were people in
good circumstances.
Harriet married a white man in good standing in Washington
City, whose name I could give, but
will not, for prudential reasons. She raised a family of children,
and so far as I know they were never
suspected of being tainted with African blood in the community
where she lived or lives. I have not
heard from her for ten years, and do not know whether she is
dead or alive. She thought it to her
interest, on going to Washington, to assume the role of a white
woman, and by her dress and conduct as
such I am not aware that her identity as Harriet Hemings of
Monticello has ever been discovered.
Eston married a colored woman in Virginia, and moved from
there to Ohio, and lived in
Chillicothe several years. In the fall of 1852 he removed to
Wisconsin, where he died a year or two
afterwards. He left three children.
As to myself, I was named Madison by the wife of James
Madison, who was afterwards
President of the United States. Mrs. Madison happened to be at

Monticello at the time of my birth, and
begged the privilege of naming me, promising my mother a fine
present for the honor. She consented,
and Mrs. Madison dubbed me by the name I now acknowledge,
but like many promises of white folks to
the slaves she never gave my mother anything. I was born at
my father’s seat of Monticello, in
Albemarle county, Va., near Charlottesville, on the 19th day of
January, 1805. My very earliest
recollections are of my grandmother Elizabeth Hemings. That
was when I was about three years old.
5
That is, pregnant.
6
She was sick and upon her death bed. I was eating a piece of
bread and asked if she would have some.
She replied: ‘No, granny don’t want bread any more.’ She
shortly afterwards breathed her last. I have
only a faint recollection of her.

Of my father, Thomas Jefferson, I knew more of his domestic
than his public life during his life
time. It is only since his death that I have learned much of the
latter, except that he was considered as a
foremost man in the land, and held many important trusts,
including that of President. I learned to read
by inducing the white children to teach me the letters and
something more; what else I know of books I
have picked up here and there till now I can read and write. I
was almost 21½ years of age when my
father died on the 4th of July, 1826.
About his own home he was the quietest of men. He was hardly
ever known to get angry,
though sometimes he was irritated when matters went wrong,
but even then he hardly ever allowed
himself to be made unhappy any great length of time. Unlike
Washington he had but little taste or care
for agricultural pursuits. He left matters pertaining to his
plantations mostly with his stewards and
overseers. He always had mechanics at work for him, such as
carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers,
coopers, &c. It was his mechanics he seemed mostly to direct,
and in their operations he took great
interest. Almost every day of his later years he might have been

seen among them. He occupied much
of the time in his office engaged in correspondence and reading
and writing. His general temperament
was smooth and even; he was very undemonstrative. He was
uniformly kind to all about him. He was
not in the habit of showing partiality or fatherly affection to us
children. We were the only children of
his by a slave woman. He was affectionate toward his white
grandchildren, of whom he had fourteen,
twelve of whom lived to manhood and womanhood. His
daughter Martha married Thomas Mann
Randolph by whom she had thirteen children. Two died in
infancy. The names of the living were Ann,
Thomas Jefferson, Ellen, Cornelia, Virginia, Mary, James, Benj.
Franklin, Lewis Madison, Septemia
and Geo. Wythe. Thos. Jefferson Randolph was Chairman of
the Democratic National Convention in
Baltimore last spring which nominated Horace Greeley for the
Presidency, and Geo. Wythe Randolph
was Jeff. Davis’ first Secretary of War in the late
‘unpleasantness.’
Maria married John Epps, and raised one son – Francis.
My father generally enjoyed excellent health. I never knew him
to have but one spell of

sickness, and that was caused by a visit to the Warm Springs in
1818. Till within three weeks of his
death he was hale and hearty, and at the age of 83 years walked
erect and with a stately tread. I am now
68, and I well remember that he was a much smarter man
physically, even at that age, than I am.
When I was fourteen years old I was put to the carpenter trade
under the charge of John
Hemings, the youngest son of my grandmother. His father's
name was Nelson, who was an Englishman.
She had seven children by white men and seven by colored men-
-fourteen in all. My brothers, sister
Harriet and myself, were used alike. We were permitted to stay
about the ‘great house,’ and only
required to do such light work as going on errands. Harriet
learned to spin and to weave in a little
factory on the home plantation. We were free from the dread of
having to be slaves all our lives long,
7
and were measurably happy. We were always permitted to be

with our mother, who was well used. It
was her duty, all her life which I can remember, up to the time
of father's death, to take care of his
chamber and wardrobe, look after us children and do such light
work as sewing, &c. Provision was
made in the will of our father that we should be free when we
arrived at the age of 21 years. We had all
passed that period when he died but Eston, and he was given the
remainder of his time shortly after. He
and I rented a house and took mother to live with us, till her
death, which event occurred in 1835.
In 1834 I married Mary McCoy. Her grandmother was a slave,
and lived with her master,
Stephen Hughes, near Charlottesville, as his wife. She was
manumitted by him, which made their
children free born. Mary McCoy's mother was his daughter. I
was about 28 and she 22 years of age
when we married. We lived and labored together in Virginia till
1836, when we voluntarily left and
came to Ohio. We settled in Pebble township, Pike County. We
lived there four or five years and
during my stay in the county I worked at my trade on and off
for about four years. Joseph Sewell was
my first employer. I built for him what is now known as

Rizzleport No. 2 in Waverly. I afterwards
worked for George Wolf Senior. and I did the carpenter work
for the brick building now owned by John
J. Kellison in which the Pike County Republican is printed. I
worked for and with Micajab Hinson. I
found him to be a very clever man. I also reconstructed the
building on the corner of Market and Water
Streets from a store to a hotel for the late Judge Jacob Row.
When we came from Virginia we brought one daughter (Sarah)
with us, leaving the dust of a son
in the soil near Monticello. We have born to us in this State
nine children. Two are dead. The names of
the living, besides Sarah, are Harriet, Mary Ann, Catharine,
Jane, William Beverly, James Madison,
Ellen Wales. Thomas Eston died in the Andersonville prison
pen, and Julia died at home. William,
James and Ellen are unmarried and live at home in Huntington
township, Ross County. All the others
are married and raising families. My post office address is Pee
Pee, Pike County Ohio.

8
9
Some additional information on the Hemings family tree:
The John Wayles of the family tree is the same John Wales
mentioned by Madison Hemings. His
name usually has the former spelling.
Most of the information on the family tree comes from Madison
Hemings’ interview. I have
included some additional information about the family of
Eston’s wife. Eston inherited his father’s red
hair, fair skin, freckles, and talent for playing the violin. Eston

married Julia Ann Isaacs in 1832. Julia
Ann’s father, David Isaacs, was Jewish. Her mother, Nancy
West, was a free black woman. David
Isaacs and Nancy West had a long-term monogamous
relationship, but maintained separate homes.
Their seven children were born from 1796 to 1819. In 1822
Isaacs and West were charged with
fornication. Why then? Because they had decided to move in
together (a move that might have forced
the white community to accept their relationship).
The subsequent histories of the families of Eston and Madison
are eloquent testimonies to the
different opportunities that were available to white and black
Americans in the nineteenth and earlier
twentieth centuries. Around 1850 Eston, Julia Ann and their
children moved to Wisconsin, where no
one knew them. There the family adopted the surname
Jefferson and lived as white Americans. Eston’s
descendants included a number of doctors and lawyers.
Madison and his family continued to reside in
Ohio, where they lived as African Americans. Madison’s
descendants included a number of small
farmers, shopkeepers and domestic servants.

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