Madison Hemings
American freed slave, son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings (1805-1877) · United States · Writers · Died at 72
Madison Hemings is read about 230 times a day, in 2 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 19 September 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?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.
Photos 5
Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Jefferson Medallion Portrait, 1805, the year that Madison Hemings was born
Monticello from the book The Bloom of Monticello, 1826, the year of Thomas Jefferson's death and the year before Hemings was freed
The Liberator about the connection between the Hemings family in Ohio and Thomas Jefferson, 1845
Madison Hemings's granddaughter Emma Boyd Young and her family, ca. 1915Family
Parents
Madison HemingsBrothers and sisters
Is this everyone?
Only relatives with a profile here are drawn, so a family can be larger than this. A line here can also be wrong.
Correct this familyAbout this person
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.
Writers from the United States 6
Fame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.