Madison Hemings

Madison Hemings was the son of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. He was the third of Sally Hemings's four children to survive to adulthood. Enslaved since birth, in accord with the legal doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem, Hemings grew up on Jefferson's Monticello plantation, where his mother was also enslaved. After some light duties as a young boy, Hemings became a carpenter and fine woodwork apprentice at around age 14 and worked in the joiner's shop until he was about 21. He learned to play the violin and was able to earn money by growing cabbages. Jefferson died in 1826 and Madison was freed in his will, after which Sally Hemings was "given her time" by Jefferson's surviving daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph.