Martin Hemings

**

**Martin Hemings''' (1755-????) was a man from Virginia.  He was the oldest male child of Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings.  History does not say who his father was, but it was not John Wayles.  Martin Hemings was the half-brother of Sally Hemings and James Hemings.  He was enslaved to Thomas Jefferson. He worked as Jefferson's butler at Monticello.

## Family history and early life
According to Madison Hemings, Martin Hemings' grandmother was a fully African woman and might have been born in Africa.  She was enslaved to the Eppes family in Virginia. Historians do not know for sure what her name was.  Papers with the names of enslaved women in the Eppes family say the names of many women: "Dinah," "Judy," "Abbie," "Sarah," "Parthenia," and others.  Historian Annette Gordon-Reed said that there were many girls named "Thenia" in the Hemings family, and they might have been named after Parthenia.  But she also says that "Sally" is a nickname for "Sarah," and there were many girls named "Sarah" and "Sally" in the Hemings family too. When Thomas Jefferson became governor of Virginia and lived in houses in Richmond, Virginia and Williamsburg, Virginia, Martin Hemings went with him.

During the American Revolutionary War, the British army came to Monticello.  Martin Hemings hid the valuable silver tableware&mdash;forks, knives and other items for eating.  He hid them under the floorboards.  Another enslaved man, called Caesar, hid under the floor with them and could not get out for days because the British soldiers had not left.  Martin did not tell the British soldiers where the silver was, not even when they hit him.

Jefferson's granddaughters told historian Henry S. Randall the family story: A British officer pointed a gun at Martin Hemings and told Hemings to say which way Jefferson had gone. "Fire away, then," answered Hemings.

White people wrote about how this showed Martin was loyal to his master and his country. Historian Annette Gordon-Reed, who lives in the twenty-first century, writes that perhaps Martin just did not like being told what to do.

## Later life
Jefferson was away from Monticello a lot.  After his wife died, he wanted to be somewhere else.  He even went to Paris for years when he was the United States Ambassador to France.  During these times, enslaved people in the Hemings family were allowed to come and go as they wanted.  The Hemings men lived almost like free black men: They could find jobs where they wanted and keep all the money they earned.

When Jefferson came back from Paris, he wanted his butler, Martin Hemings, to stay at Monticello.  But Hemings had been used to doing what he wanted and going where he wanted like a free man would.  He "ran away" from Monticello many times.  Sometimes he stayed away for months, working another job somewhere else.  But someone always caught him and brought him back.

In 1792, Thomas Jefferson wrote that he and Martin Hemings had had a disagreement or fight.  He did not say what the fight was.  He told one of his managers at Monticello that he and Martin Hemings had agreed on what to do: Jefferson would sell Martin Hemings to someone else.  Martin Hemings was 36 or 37 at the time.  Jefferson told the manager that Martin Hemings could choose another master.  He said he did not care how much money he got for Hemings, so long as Hemings was gone.  He also told the manager that he did not want to free Martin Hemings, the way he would free his half-brothers Robert and James later in their lives.

 "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. If you could find a master agreeable to him, I should be glad if you would settle that point at any price you please .... Perhaps Martin may undertake to find a purchaser. 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."

This means:

"Martin and I had such a bad disagreement that he asked me to sell him to someone else.  I think I should do it.  He should not work for me any more.  Please find him another master that he thinks would be good.  I do not care about the money.  Martin can even choose his new master, but I will not free him.  Please find a buyer quickly.  I do not want to talk to or argue with Martin about this."

Thomas Jefferson's letters and writings about Monticello say that Martin Hemings was still at Monticello in 1795.  His writings do not say that Jefferson sold Martin Hemings.  Then Jefferson's writings stop talking about Hemings.  Historian Annette Gordon-Reed thinks Martin Hemings died of natural causes before Jefferson and Hemings could find a buyer.

## References