Madison Hemings AU Retelling

CHAPTER TWO - A Retelling

"What did Thomas Jefferson do?"

"To induce my mother to give up her freedom and right to be paid for her labours, my father promised her extraordinary privileges."

"What was that?"

"He made a solemn pledge that my mother could practice her faith."

"Islam?"

"Yes. He kept two copies of the Qur'an in his private collection. The first one originally belonged to my great grandmother Susannah who brought it with her from Africa. The second was my mother's that she bought in London."

"What was she doing there?"

"On her way to France, she stayed with Ambassador John Adams and his wife Abigail. That was before he became the Second President of the United States. Anyway, she bought a Qur'an after she enquired into the whereabouts of Capt. Hemings who married my great-grandmother."

"Why did he never return?"

"That's the thing. He did, and was killed by the Master, John Wayles. His heart was lain to rest in Virginia and the rest of his remains sent back to Gt. Britain. Susannah never knew that her husband and lover's heart had been close all those years."

"Well, I never."

"Susannah was a devout woman, her faith kept her strong and to a ripe old age in captivity. Many slaves converted to conform, my family did not. In many Southern Baptist Churches, you hear that humming and acapella singing. That's a throw-back to the call to prayer, our original faith."

"I did not know that."

"Susannah, Betty and my mother Sally endured many indignities as the Master's live-in concubine. Despite that, my mother believed being forced to convert was a violation worse than all others."

"Practising her faith was the concession your father made?"

"Mother also relied on the Declaration of independence that "all men are created equal" to appeal to my father to take an oath and sign a contract that her children would be freed at the age of twenty-one years. In consequence of his oath she returned with him to Virginia."

"She trusted him?"

"In his own way, I believe that my father loved my mother.   He gave up his great passion for Maria Cosway an Italian-English musician of twenty seven years. He wanted my mother to be his lifelong companion."

"What about your step-aunt Patsy?"

"She did not approve of the relationship, but was one of the witnesses to the contract between my father and mother. Soon after they returned to Monticello, my mother gave birth to her first child with my father. It lived but a short time."

"What happened?"

"A short illness, I believe contracted when she made a brief stop with the Housa people."

"The what people?"

"The African people that Susannah came from. Sally relayed what happened to the relatives that remained before returning to Monticello a slave. My mother gave birth to four other children, and my father Thomas Jefferson was the father of all of them. Their names were Beverly, Harriet, Madison (myself although as I said earlier, my mother called me Alexandre), and Eston; three sons and one daughter. We were all freed in compliance with the oath and contract entered into by our parents before we were born. We all married and have families of our own.

At twenty one, Beverly left Monticello and went to Washington as a white man. He married a white woman in Maryland, and their only child, a daughter, was not known by the white folks to have any African blood coursing in her veins. Beverly's wife's family were wealthy people.

Harriet married a white man in good standing in Washington City, whose name I could give, but will not, for prudential reasons. She raised a family and so far as I know they were never suspected of having African ancestry in the community where she lived or lives. I have not heard from her for ten years, and do not know whether she is dead or alive. She thought it for the best going to Washington, to assume the role of a white woman, and by her dress and conduct as such I am not aware that her identity as Harriet Hemings of Monticello has ever been discovered.

Eston married an African American woman in Virginia, and moved from there to Ohio, and lived in Chillicothe several years. In the fall of 1852 he removed to Wisconsin, where he died a year or two afterwards. He left three children.

As to myself, as you know I was named Madison by the wife of James Madison, who was afterwards President of the United States. Dolley his wife happened to be at Monticello at the time of my birth, and begged the privilege of naming me, promising my mother a fine present for the honour."

"What was the present?"

"Ah like many promises of white Masters to a slave she never gave my mother anything."

"Why do you say 'white' Masters?

"Many people forget that many African men had to buy their wives and children from white Masters thereby becoming slave owners. The system reduced people to purchasing their own flesh and blood. And of course like my brothers and sister, that look white, hid their African ancestry in order to live have a good life free of prejudice."

"Where and when were you born?"

"I was born at my father's seat of Monticello, in Albemarle County, Virginia, near Charlottesville, on the eighteenth day of January, 1805."

Madison's Bedroom at Monticello

"What are your earliest recollections?"

Continued...