[2][3][4] When he was interviewed, Madison Hemings told a historian that his grandmother Elizabeth's mother had been a fully African woman but he did not know whether she was born in Africa.
Papers with the names of female slaves in the Eppes family list "Dinah," "Judy," "Abbie," "Sarah," "Parthenia," and others.
Captain Hemings later tried to break into the Eppes' house and take his daughter away "by force or stealth," but someone told the owner about his plan.
After John Wayles' wife died, he made Elizabeth Hemings his concubine, meaning that they had a sexual relationship but he did not marry her or free her or her children.
Historians think Elizabeth Hemings took care of Martha Jefferson when she became sick and that she was present at her death.
[2] Many of Thomas Jefferson's letters and other writings survive, so historians know more about the Hemingses who lived on Monticello than about many other slave families.
Six of Elizabeth Hemings' children were Martha Jefferson's half-brothers and half-sisters because they had the same father: John Wayles.
Robert and James Hemings helped Martha Jefferson and her daughters escape from British soldiers during the American Revolutionary War.
When he was away from Monticello, he would allow the Hemings men to leave, choose other people for whom to work, and keep all their wages, something which was not required by Virginia state law.