[3][4] Martin Hemings was born on a plantation called "The Forest" that belonged to John Wayles.
[2] Hemings' duties at Monticello may have included handling money and making purchases for the household.
[4] White historians during and shortly after the war took Martin Hemings' motivation to be loyalty to his master and his country.
Whenever Jefferson was away from Monticello, the enslaved people in the Hemings family were allowed to come and go as they saw fit.
[1] When Jefferson returned from Paris, he wanted his butler, Martin Hemings, to stay at Monticello.
[1][2] "Martin and myself disagreed when I was last in Virginia insomuch that he desired me to sell him, and I determined to do it, and most irrevocably that he shall serve me no longer.
But I exclude all idea of his own responsibility: and I would wish that the transaction should be finished without delay, being desirous of avoiding all parley with him myself on the subject.
"Thomas Jefferson's letters and writings never mention any sale, but do state that Hemings was still at Monticello in 1795.