As I work on my next novel series, I thought I would take some time to revisit the RIDGELY RAILS LEGACY. The following is an article printed in the September issue of the Caroline Review Magazine, out of Denton, Maryland.
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​A town so small that it doesn’t have a single traffic light might not seem like a worthy setting for a novel, but as an author with a vivid imagination and a love of history, I found Ridgely, Maryland, perfect for my generational small-town-America series.

I didn’t grow up on the Eastern Shore, but my father did and we often came here to visit family. Some of my earliest memories are of riding in the old station wagon across a great expanse of water on the narrow road which spanned it. I usually had my nose in a book, so my mother would make sure that I didn’t miss it. I would peer out the window at the waves far below as we traveled across the two-lane bridge to the other side of the Chesapeake Bay, where we would enter what seemed like another world. The land was flat and once the water had faded from view, the roads were lined with fields and pastures interspersed with towns that captured my young mind with their Victorian architecture and fading glory.

As an adult, I had the opportunity to move into such a town and into just such a house as I had always dreamed. (Little did I imagine I would one day marry a local resident and historian!) It inspired me to learn all I could about Ridgely and to use it as the background for my next series. This was achieved thanks to a gentleman who saw the value of his hometown and captured as much of its history as he could through old newspapers and interviews with senior citizens and compiled them into booklets. Tommy Rampmeyer’s collection was an invaluable resource to me as I researched the town’s history and development through the years.

The town of Ridgely didn’t come into being until 1867 when farmland owned by Thomas Bell and the Reverend Greenbury W. Ridgely was purchased by the Maryland and Baltimore Land Association. They mapped out their plans for a grand city which would boast wide boulevards, beautiful parks, prosperous factories and stores, and which would sprawl as far as the Choptank River, with busy docks and a successful shipyard.

This “dream city” died, however, when the Land Association went bankrupt within its first year. Ridgely consisted of only four buildings, including a railroad station, hotel, and two private residences. One of these was owned by James K. Saulsbury and was known as the “Ridgely House.” Today, it serves as the Town Hall building.

Ridgely would have remained no more than a crossroads on a map if not for the railroad. Lots were sold at public auction, the surrounding area was settled by farmers, and an economy based on crop production was established. Strawberries, peaches, huckleberries, vegetables, eggs, and poultry were shipped out to be sold in larger towns and cities throughout the Eastern Seaboard. The Ridgely train station became a bustling center of business.

Many towns on the Eastern Shore which are now rundown or mere stopping points on the way to somewhere else flourished during this age, when commerce depended on riverways and railroads. Thus, as a tribute to its roots—memorialized by the train station museum in the center of town—I named my series “The Ridgely Rails Legacy.”

This series chronicles the growth of the town as it follows three generations of women. The first is Ella Mae, a young woman who grew up on a farm just outside of town in the late 1800s. The second book in the series picks up with her daughter Sophie in 1915, when the United States is inching closer to The Great War. The third book concludes with Gloria, Ella Mae’s granddaughter, who experiences World War Two on the homefront. Each woman must face the unique obstacles of her era while holding on to her faith, to family, and to the men they love.

A sweeping saga following three generations of women through the most dynamic and rapidly changing times in American history, The Ridgely Rails Legacy series is also rich with local history and bound to be appreciated by both Caroline County residents and fans of historical fiction/romance.

Book 1: Where This Road Ends
1895--Ella Mae Hutchins knows exactly what she wants from life. Getting it turns out to be much harder than she expects. She has only two dreams: to marry Daniel Evans and to become a successful novelist. When neither dream seems achievable, she sets out to build a life without either.

Book 2: Along the Way
1915--Sophie is a teenager when the United States joins the Great War and mandatory conscription is enacted. All her dreams hang in the balance when her fiancé is drafted and sent to France to fight in the trenches.

Book 3: A Passing Mist
1943--After the United States enters World War Two, Gloria joins the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in hopes of adventure. Her escape is short-lived, however, and duty calls her back to the family farm—but returning to Ridgely means facing memories she’d rather leave behind. As she struggles to make peace with her past, a new challenge arises. German POWs are hired to help work the farm. Gloria never imagined she would find love again, and certainly not with a man on the wrong side of the war.

*All my novels are available for purchase in paperback or kindle formats on Amazon.

As promised, here is the update on my latest work in progress! I'm so excited to share with you what I'm currently researching and writing. Nothing beats the adrenaline rush of a new project!  

ADRIFT ON WINDS OF CHANGE is book one in the AMERICAN HERITAGE SERIES, which will chronicle three important phases in the history of our nation. Beginning with the Revolutionary War era, then moving into the period of Manifest Destiny and concluding with the War Between the States, I hope to entertain and educate readers with fictional stories rooted in historical settings.

On March 10, 1913, the world lost an icon of courage and compassion. Although Harriet Tubman was born into slavery, and was a Black woman in a time when women had few rights and Blacks had none, she possessed a fierce spirit which would not be controlled by anyone or limited by anything! She was only five feet tall, but Harriet was a force to be reckoned with!

When I read the Freedom Train about her rescue missions as a child, I was inspired by her daring as much as by her dedication to helping her friends and family achieve the same glorious sensation of liberty she experienced when she crossed over the line into the free state of Pennsylvania. Harriet Tubman is remembered for having delivered as many as 70 people on her 13 trips into the South, risking her own freedom and safety by returning to the Eastern Shore of Maryland where she had been enslaved and leading groups of men, women, and children north into freedom. 

When writing THE TIME RETURNS SERIES, which explores local history as well as the roots of racism in the institution of slavery, I felt it appropriate to dedicate a portion of the second novel to my character Natalie Winslow's research of Harriet Tubman. While there are many well known anecdotes which have been share in biographies or movies, I learned much about this incredible woman which is not common knowledge. 

For example, John Brown, famous for his efforts to incite a slave rebellion in Harpers Ferry, WV., in 1859, had great respect for Harriet and referred to her as "General Tubman"--quite a compliment from the fiery abolitionist who led a raid on a Union Armory and refused to be rescued from jail after his capture, choosing instead to be hung as a martyr for the sake of the cause. Although Harriet Tubman was unable to participate in the raid, she assisted Brown in recruiting men and providing valuable knowledge and support. 

Several years later, when the War Between the States broke out, Tubman criticized President Lincoln for his lack of decisive action to outlaw slavery even though she joined the Union Army. She hoped that a defeat of the Confederacy would result in the end of the abhorrent practice. In 1863, she was the first woman to plan and lead an armed assault when she guided a regiment of 300 Black soldiers in a raid at Combahee Ferry, S.C., and commanded the gunboats around Confederate mines in the river. The battle was won and resulted in the liberation of 756 people.

During the Civil War, Tubman also served as a nurse, caring for soldiers who were wounded or sick. She used her knowledge of herbal medicine to heal them, and was inspired in return by their bravery and strength. In her later years, she opted to have surgery performed on her skull to relieve the pressure caused by a head injury she had sustained as a youth. It had given her severe headaches and dizzy spells throughout her life. Declining the use of anesthesia, Harriet Tubman chose instead to bite down on a bullet as the soldiers had done in the war to cope with the pain of amputation. Talk about tough! 

Another interesting fact pertains to matrimony. Most people are familiar with Harriet's first husband, John Tubman, from whom she took her last name. (She was born Araminta Ross and changed her first name to Harriet after her escape.) Many are unaware that she married a second time, in 1869, to a Union Veteran named Nelson Charles Davis, who was 22 years younger than she was! (Now that's brave!) They adopted a girl, named Gertie, and lived together as a family in Auburn, New York, until Davis died of tuberculosis in 1888.

Additionally it is assumed that she retired from her exciting life of activism after the abolition of slavery. However, Harriet Tubman continued to fight for those who lacked the full benefits of liberty and was an outspoken voice for women's suffrage. She traveled to New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. to advocate for women's voting rights. In 1897, a newspaper reported a series of receptions to honor her in Boston. It is said she had given so much of her own resources away to those in need that in order to attend, she was forced to sell a cow to afford the train ticket.

In 1911, Tubman was frail and her health failing. She was admitted to a rest home named in her honor and was described as "ill and penniless." In 1913, she died of pneumonia, surrounded by family members and close friends. Her last words were, "I go to prepare a place for you." She was buried at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York, with semi-military honors.

WHEN THE SUN COMES BACK is the title of the second novel in THE TIME RETURNS SERIES and is taken from one of the code phrases used by Harriet Tubman on the Underground Railroad. In this novel, I give tribute to a woman who was selfless in her dedication to both the broader causes of humanity and the individual instances of need she witnessed in her personal life. Her bravery and strength were equaled only by the kindness which compelled her to live in the service of others.

On this day, the 108th anniversary of her death, I want to honor a woman who has been an inspiration to generations to fight for those who are oppressed and to give generously to those in need. Throughout her life, Harriet Tubman attributed her courage and the source of her compassion to God. She is an example to all of us us of what Christian servant leadership should look like. I am confident that when Harriet Tubman entered the gates of heaven, she was greeted with the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." 

Although I originally intended to have completed THE TIME RETURNS by November, Black History Month is the perfect occasion to release the third book in a series which examines the roots of racial prejudice in the institution of slavery while also celebrating the achievements of the Civil Rights movement.

As a writer of historical fiction, I have the unique pleasure of interweaving imaginary characters with real life people and events. My purpose is not only to entertain my readers, but to bring history to life in a way that educates and inspires. Through our study of times gone by, we have the opportunity to gain greater insight into how the present has been shaped by the past.
In this series each book has two alternating storylines, one moving forward through the 1960s and 70s, the other moving backwards into the past.

The modern story follows Natalie Winslow and Tony Buckle, a Caucasian woman and a Black man on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It chronicles their controversial romance and marriage, and explores the challenges they face raising mixed children in a place slow to adapt its ideology to the changing times.

The historical narrative transports the reader back in time through the brides of the Winslow estate, Dogwood Hall. In the first book, Charity’s diary gives insight into the complications which result when people are divided by skin color and assigned different values instead of being seen as members of the same human race. Her mother-in-law Eliza’s experiences are revealed in book two, as she lives with the consequences of a culture which gives full power to white men and suppresses women and minorities. In this third book, Adelaide’s story develops the foundation of Dogwood Hall in 1798 and the moral dilemma of those who were opposed to slavery and yet benefited from it.

Each novel also highlights an historical figure through Natalie’s interest in researching local history. The first book highlights Frederick Douglass, the second gives tribute to Harriet Tubman, and the third focuses on the notorious exploits of Patty Cannon and her gang.  Regrettably, the accounts of the kidnapping and sale of fugitive slaves or freed blacks are based on historical records.

As the two storylines are laid out next to one another—separated by more than one hundred years—it becomes apparent that great progress has been achieved in promoting racial equality. However, even as we celebrate how far we’ve come, I hope we will be inspired to continue working together to peacefully advocate for the unity of all mankind.

Writing WHEN THE LAST MOON RISES in 2021, I am grieved that incidences of racial prejudice and misunderstanding continue to exist. When I began this series two years ago, I could not have anticipated how relevant it would become. My original motive was curiosity to better understand the past, but it has grown into something greater—a call to action to strive for equality, harmony, and genuine Christ-like love.
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“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 NIV

“This notorious woman shed human blood as lavishly as if it had been water. She procured and held in subjection a desperate gang, whose sole business was to perpetrate robberies and murders she planned, in which she generally took the lead, and frequently perpetrated murders single handed in order to rob.” –Hereditary Descent, O.S. Fowler 

He’s referring to Patty Cannon, whose crimes and murders were recounted in my last blog post. Although there are many unsubstantiated myths and legends surrounding this woman, the evidence discovered at her home confirmed that she kidnapped and sold black men and women into slavery, and that she was guilty of numerous murders, the remains of which were unearthed in her fields and garden.
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Fowler writes, “Her destructiveness and also acquisitiveness, as well as nativeness, were enormous, as seen in the engravings of her skull.”  

Patty Cannon was convicted of murder and taken to the jail in Georgetown, Delaware. While there, either awaiting trial or execution—there is some dispute—she died of what some believe was self-ingested poison. Tradition claims that no one came to claim her body and she interred on the premises at the Sussex County Jail.

A letter written by Alfred W. Joseph relates that not long after the turn of the century, several bodies were exhumed to build a parking lot.  His uncle by marriage, James Marsh, took the position of deputy sheriff and somehow came into possession of Patty Cannon’s skull. When he moved out of the area, he gave the skull to Alfred’s father, who for years kept it on a nail in his barn. After a time, to save it from damage or possible theft, he stored it in a box in his attic. In 1946, after his father’s death, Alfred inherited the artifact and in 1961, gave the skull on a loan to the Dover Library, where it was brought out for a Halloween display that also promoted reading about Cannon's disgraceful chapter of Delaware history.

In 2010, it was donated to the Smithsonian Institute. Dr. Douglas Owsley, chief of the Division of Physical Anthropology at the Smithsonian, plans to examine and preserve the skull as part of a larger study of life in the Chesapeake from colonial times to the 19th century. Owsley said the skull is showing its age. The lower jaw is missing and some of the facial bones have separated from the cranium, which itself is starting to split along natural growth lines.
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The grisly artifact's first examinations were performed by O.S. Fowler, a phrenologist in the early 1800’s, who was interested in Patty’s skull because of her dark family history. Phrenology is a process that involves observing and/or feeling the skull to determine an individual's psychological attributes. It was mostly discredited as a scientific theory by the 1840s and is today recognized as pseudoscience. Fowler, however, was interested in the possibility that evil traits could be passed down from the parents and evidenced in the shape of the skull. 

According to The Narrative and Confessions of Lucretia P. Cannon, a penny dreadful published in 1841, Patty Cannon’s father, L. P. Hanly, was the son of an English nobleman who disowned him after L. P. took to drink and secretly married a prostitute. With nothing left for them in England, Hanly and his wife traveled to Montreal where they set up a smuggling operation between Montreal and towns in New York and Vermont. The Hanlys lived a double life, prospering on illegal activities while giving the appearance of a respectable family. All was well until an acquaintance named Alexander Payne uncovered their operation and threatened to turn them in. Hanly decided that it was necessary kill Payne, but he was only partially successful—he split Payne’s head with an axe but was captured before he could escape. He was hanged soon after.

Her brother, James Cannon, was also said to have lived a riotous and dissipated life, and was hung for horse stealing in Canada. Patty’s sister, Betsy (possibly Twiford) was also descripted as “depraved and prone to violence.”

​Hal Roth, in his book, The Monster’s Handsome Face, interviewed George Figgs, a man who claimed to be a relation to Patty Cannon. Figgs claimed that his Aunt Midge Figgs Parkinson and her daughter, Sandy, did a lot of genealogical research in the 1970s and discovered that they were related to Patty Cannon. He said that his great-grandmother used to tell stories about Patty Cannon, claiming she was “so mean that she killed and ate one of her own children in front of her mob to quell a mutiny.” She was described as “a big-boned woman with Indian or Gypsy blood.”

Not surprisingly, he also said, “Her ghost and the ghosts of her band are supposedly roaming the swamps around the Pocomoke River; up in Nassawango Creek; down by Shad Landing. She had camps out there where she had slave pens. If anybody told on her, they would die, their children would die, and their animals would die. She was feared; that’s how she ran her regime.”

Unlike Harriet Tubman, who rescued slaves from Maryland and Delaware and led them North into freedom, Patty Cannon and her gang kidnapped free blacks and runaway slaves and sold them South into slavery for a profit. I sometimes wonder what might have happened if these two women had coexisted, but Harriet Tubman was just a child in 1829 when Patty Cannon died in jail.

Patty Cannon and her son-in-law, Joe Johnson, are the two names usually associated with the gang, which is often referred to as the Cannon-Johnson Gang. In the course of my research for my current work in progress, WHEN THE LAST MOON RISES, I learned that kidnapping was a Cannon family business and that Joe’s brother, Ebenezer, was an active member as well as some thirty to fifty other men. These included both white and black men, who were used to trick free blacks into boarding ships in Baltimore and Philadelphia, believing they were being hired for wages. Once on board, they were then taken captive. Any free black, slave, or fugitive slave who crossed paths with Patty or her gang on a dark, quiet road were also in danger of being kidnapped and sold south.

The gang operated from a house in Reliance, Md., about five miles west of Seaford, where the Cannons operated a ferry across the Nanticoke River. (It is today known as Woodland Ferry.) Because the house was located near the convergence of Sussex County in Delaware and Caroline and Dorchester counties in Maryland, Patty moved from county to county and state to state to escape the law. Her gang was so infamous they became known as the Reverse Underground Railroad.

Patty’s husband, Jesse Cannon, and their son-in-law, Joe Johnson, were both arrested at various points and ordered to be tied to the pillory and given thirty-nine lashes. The sentence for kidnapping also included having the soft part of the ears nailed to the pillory, then cut off. But in most cases, this part of the sentencing was pardoned by the judge.
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Many legends exist surrounding Patty Cannon, but hard facts are more difficult to find. Every account of her life has some variations, but they all center around the same theme: kidnapping and murder. 

It was murder charges that finally brought Patty to justice. For years, her neighbors had been concerned that there was more than just kidnapping going on, but had no way of proving it.

In April of 1829, a tenant farmer on Patty’s property was ploughing in a field, in a place generally covered with water and where a heap of brush had been lying, when his horse sunk in the mud. While digging the horse out, he found a blue painted chest, about three feet long, and in it the bones of a man. News spread among the community and it was presumed that they belonged to a slave trader from Georgia who had passed through a decade earlier and afterward went missing. It was believed that he had mentioned to Patty that he was in possession of a large sum of money, and was murdered by her to obtain it.

A black member of the gang, Cyrus James, was caught and turn’s state’s evidence, confessing that he had seen the Johnson brothers and Patty shoot this man while eating supper in her house, then force the body into the chest and bury it. He admitted that many others had been killed by Patty and that he could show them where the evidence was buried.

According to the Delaware State Journal, “The officers and citizens accordingly accompanied him to the places which he pointed out, and made necessary search. In one place in a garden they dug and found the bones of a young child the mother of which, he stated, was a negro woman belonging to Patty Cannon, which, being a mulatto, she had killed for the reason that she supposed its father to be one of her own family. Another place a few feet distant, was then pointed out, when upon digging a few feet, two oak boxes were found, each of which contained human bones. Those in one of them had been those of a person about seven years of age, which James said he saw Patty Cannon knock in the head with a billet of wood, and the other contained those of one whom he said they considered bad property; by which it is supposed was meant, that he was free. As there was at the time much stir about the children and there was no convenient opportunity to send them away, they were murdered to prevent discovery. On examining the scull bone of the largest child, it was discovered to have been broken as described by James.

“This fellow, James, was raised by Patty Cannon, having been bound to her at age of seven years, and is said to have done much mischief in his time for her and Johnson.”

She was also said to have been involved in the murder for which her daughter’s first husband, Henry Bruinton, was hanged, though she was not prosecuted. As the story goes: “Two traders, one of whom is named Ridgell, with a sum of money, came to Patty's one evening to purchase negroes; she artfully detained them by the kindest treatment, entertaining them with apple toddy and other gentle mixtures, while she sent out Bruinton and two men of the name of Griffin, to fall a tree across the Laurel road, to which town the travelers were destined.

“When they were gone, Patty, dressed in men's clothes and armed with a musket, started by a short cut through the forest, to join the murderers. When the traders came to the tree their horses stopped, and all four of the murderers, who were lying in ambush, fired at once. Ridgell was shot through the body; but he had energy enough, for the moment, to defend his life, and being armed with pistols, he and his companion fired into the cover where the murderers were lying, and drove them from the field. Mr. Ridgell was carried by his friend to Laurel, where he died that night. Governor Haslett offered a reward for the murders, and they were all arrested. One of the Griffins turned state's evidence, and convicted his brother and Bruinton, who were hung. Patty, the fiend in human shape, escaped on account of her sex, a nolle prosequi [unwilling to pursue] having been entered.”
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Cannon was arrested in April 1829 by the Dorchester County sheriff at the tavern where he found 21 people in chains ready for transport to the South. Cannon was handed over to the Sussex County sheriff and transported to Seaford by a mounted posse where she was taken to Magistrate Dr. John Gibbons from Lewes. She was then taken to the Georgetown jail to stand trial.
It is believed that Joe Johnson had already escaped south, taken a false name, and may even have taken the office of Judge of Probate in a Southwestern State. I have found no information regarding the fate of his brother, Ebenezer, and it is assumed that he too evaded capture. Her husband Jesse Cannon, is said in some accounts to have died by her hand after three years of marriage, although he was still alive in 1821 when he was indicted for kidnapping.

Patty Cannon was indicted on four counts of murder by a grand jury of 24 white males: an infant female on April 26, 1822; a male child on April 26, 1822; an adult male on October 1, 1820: and a “Negro boy” on June 1, 1824. The indictments were signed by the Attorney General of Delaware, James Rogers.  Witness Cyrus James stated he saw her take an injured “black child not yet dead out in her apron, but that it never returned.” 

According to a contemporary newspaper account: "This woman is now between 60 and 70 years of age, and looks more like a man than a woman, but old as she is, she is believed to be as heedless and heartless as the most abandoned wretch that breathes."

Patty Cannon confirmed the awful rumors about her and confessed to killing 11 people, helping to murder a dozen others, and to kidnapping and selling blacks into slavery.

On May 11, she was found dead in her cell. Speculation is that she committed suicide by taking poison smuggled into the prison, thus avoiding a public execution.

My novel’s title is taken from the statement: “When the last moon rises over the wicked pursuits of Patty Cannon and the Johnson brothers, it will be a blessed day indeed.”
 

My latest series, THE TIME RETURNS, explores the racial issues of the 1960s and their roots in the history of slavery. The titles for books 1 and 2 are taken from a song used by Harriet Tubman and other "conductors" on the Underground Railroad to communicate with potential "passengers." The song used coded language to communicate if it was safe for slaves to escape and reminded them to follow the Big Dipper to ensure they were heading north as they cut through swamps and fields toward freedom.

"When the sun comes back
And the first quail calls
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waiting
For to carry you to freedom

Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waiting
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd

The riverbank will make a mighty good road
The dead trees show you the way
Left foot, peg foot traveling on
Following the drinking gourd

Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waiting
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd

The river ends between two hills
Follow the drinking gourd
There's another river on the other side
Follow the drinking gourd

Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waiting
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd."

This is a painful and complicated American story. Thomas Jefferson was one of our most important founding fathers, and also a lifelong slave owner who held Sally Hemings and their children in bondage. Sally Hemings should be known today, not just as Jefferson’s concubine, but as an enslaved woman who – at the age of 16 – negotiated with one of the most powerful men in the nation to improve her own condition and achieve freedom for her children.

Sally Hemings (1773-1835) is one of the most famous—and least known—African American women in U.S. history. For more than 200 years, her name has been linked to Thomas Jefferson as his “concubine,” obscuring the facts of her life and her identity. Tradition holds that she is the child of Martha Jefferson’s father, John Wayles, and Elizabeth Hemings, an enslaved woman, making Martha and her half-sisters. When Sally Hemings was 14, she was chosen by Jefferson’s sister-in-law to accompany his daughter Maria to Paris, France, as a domestic servant and maid in Jefferson’s household.

In Paris, Hemings was reunited with her older brother James, whom Jefferson had brought with him two years earlier to study French cooking. They lived at Jefferson's residence, the Hôtel de Langeac. Maria (Polly) and Martha (Patsy), Jefferson’s older daughter who was already in Paris, lived primarily at the Abbaye Royale de Panthemont, where they were boarding students. Shortly after her arrival, Jefferson’s records indicate that Hemings was inoculated against smallpox, a common and deadly disease during that time. She undoubtedly received training—especially in needlework and the care of clothing—to suit her for her position as lady's maid to Jefferson's daughters and was occasionally paid a monthly wage of twelve livres (the equivalent of two dollars). She learned French (historians do not know if she was literate in either language she spoke) and sometimes accompanied Jefferson’s daughters on social outings.

Madison Hemings recounted that his mother “became Mr. Jefferson’s concubine” in France. When Jefferson prepared to return to America, Hemings said his mother refused to come back, and only did so upon negotiating “extraordinary privileges” for herself and freedom for her future children. He also noted that she was pregnant when she arrived in Virginia, and that the child “lived but a short time.” No other record of that child has been found.

Sally Hemings had at least six children fathered by Thomas Jefferson. Four survived to adulthood. Decades after their negotiation, Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings’s children – Beverly and Harriet left Monticello in the early 1820s; Madison and Eston were freed in his will and left Monticello in 1826. Jefferson did not grant freedom to any other enslaved family unit.

Beverly and Harriet Hemings were allowed to leave Monticello without being legally freed. Madison Hemings later reported that both passed into white society and that neither their connection to Monticello nor their “African blood” was ever discovered.

Sally Hemings’s descendants and historians have a range of opinions about the dynamic between Jefferson and Hemings, given the implications of ownership, age, consent, and dramatically unequal power between masters and enslaved women. Enslaved women had no legal right to consent. Their masters owned their labor, their bodies, and their children.

The nature of Sally Hemings’s sexual encounters with Thomas Jefferson will never be known.

The historical evidence points to the truth of Madison Hemings’s words about “my father, Thomas Jefferson.” Although the dominant narrative long denied his paternity, since 1802, oral histories, published recollections, statistical data, and documents have identified Thomas Jefferson as the father of Sally Hemings’s children. In 1998, a DNA study genetically linked one of Hemings’s male descendants with the male line of the Jefferson family, adding to the wealth of evidence.
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Jefferson never responded to the accusation. His recognized family denied his paternity of Hemings’s children, while his unrecognized family considered their connection to Jefferson an important family truth.

A Philosophic Cock, engraved by James Akin, 1804. This political cartoon mocked President Jefferson, the strutting rooster, with his concubine Sally Hemings (pictured as a hen)–at the same time denying her humanity and privacy.


Information in this post is taken from https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/
Follow the link for more details about the life of Sally Hemings.