Betty Hemings
| Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings | |
|---|---|
| Born |
c.1735 perhaps Bermuda Hundred, Henrico County, Virginia |
| Died | 1807 (aged 71–72) Monticello |
| Cause of death | Diabetes |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | no school |
| Occupation | Slave |
| Children | Sally Hemings, John Hemings, Mary Hemings, James Hemings, Martin Hemings, Critta Hemings, Robert Hemings, Bett Hemings, Thenia Hemings, Nance Hemings, Peter Hemings, Lucy Hemings |
| Parent(s) | Captain John Hemings and Susannah Epps |
| Relatives | Harriet Hemings, Madison Hemings, Eston Hemings, Frederick Madison Roberts, John Wayles Jefferson |
Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings (c.1735 – 1807) was an enslaved mulatto in colonial Virginia, who in 1761 became the concubine of her master, planter John Wayles, a three-time widower. He had six mixed-race children with her over a 12-year period, including Sally Hemings; they were three-quarters white and, following the condition of their mother, all were enslaved from birth and half-siblings to his daughter Martha Jefferson. After Wayles died, the Hemings family and the other more than a hundred people he had enslaved were inherited as part of his estate by his daughter Martha and her husband Thomas Jefferson.
Eventually, more than 75 of Betty's mixed-race children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would ultimately be enslaved from birth. They worked on Jefferson's plantation of Monticello. Many had higher status positions as chefs, butlers, seamstresses, weavers, carpenters, blacksmiths, gardeners, and musicians in the household. Jefferson gave some of Betty's enslaved descendants to his sister and daughters as wedding presents, and they lived at other Virginia plantations.
Betty's oldest daughter Mary Hemings became the common-law wife of wealthy merchant Thomas Bell, who purchased her and their two children from Jefferson in 1792 and granted them greater freedoms than other enslaved persons were typically permitted. Mary was the first of several Hemingses to gain freedom before the Civil War. Betty's daughter Sally Hemings is widely believed by historians to have had six children fathered by Thomas Jefferson over a period lasting nearly four decades. Jefferson freed all four of her surviving children when they came of age, two of them by his will. His daughter Martha Randolph gave Sally "her time," an informal freedom allowing her to live with her sons during her last decade.
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Wikipedia