Eston Hemings

Eston Hemings Jefferson was born on May 21, 1808, at Monticello, the estate of Thomas Jefferson, in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was the youngest son of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman of mixed racial heritage, and is widely believed by many historians to have had Thomas Jefferson as his biological father, supported by both circumstantial historical evidence and a 1998 DNA analysis which linked a paternal male line to a descendant of Eston Hemings Jefferson.

Sally Hemings was a member of the Hemings family, which was prominent within Monticello's social hierarchy. She was a daughter of Betty Hemings and John Wayles, making her three-quarters European in ancestry, and half-sister to Martha Wayles Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's wife. As a child, Eston Hemings was permitted to stay around the Monticello estate and was involved in light duties, including carpentry training alongside his brother Madison at the age of 14. Both brothers learned to play the violin.

In 1827, Thomas Jefferson's will freed Eston and Madison Hemings, their emancipation occurring when they reached adulthood at ages 19 and 22, respectively. Jefferson also requested legislative approval for the Hemingses to remain in Virginia after emancipation, which was granted. Following their freedom, Eston lived in Charlottesville with his family until his mother Sally Hemings' death in 1835.

In 1832, Eston Hemings married Julia Ann Isaacs, a free woman of color with Jewish and African ancestry. Julia Ann was the daughter of David Isaacs, a German immigrant merchant, and Nancy West, a woman of mixed race. Eston and Julia Ann had three children: John Wayles Jefferson (born 1835), Anna Wayles Jefferson (born 1837), and Beverly Frederick Jefferson (born 1839). The family moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, around 1837, a free state with active abolitionist sentiments and support for the Underground Railroad. In Ohio, Eston pursued a career as a musician and entertainer, leading a dance band and playing the fiddle.

Their children attended integrated schools; Anna was reported in 1902 as being described as the granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. The family lived in Ohio until 1852, when Eston moved with his family to Madison, Wisconsin. In Madison, the family adopted the surname Jefferson and integrated into the white community. Both of Eston’s sons served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, with John Wayles Jefferson reaching the rank of colonel.

After the war, John Jefferson became a cotton broker in Memphis, Tennessee, accumulating wealth and leaving an estate at his death in 1892. He never married and had no children. Eston's daughter Anna married a white man, Albert T. Pearson, and their son Walter Beverly Pearson became an industrialist in Chicago. Beverly Jefferson, Eston’s son, married Anna Smith and also served in the Union Army. He later managed hotels and founded Madison’s first omnibus line.

Eston Hemings Jefferson died on January 3, 1856. His descendants, through his children, often identified as white, with some maintaining professional and middle-class statuses. His family is interred at Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin. In the 1970s, rediscovered family histories and genetic research confirmed some of Eston Hemings Jefferson's lineage, leading to increased awareness of his heritage.