Posted on 01/10/2018 6:26:48 PM PST by mairdie
Archaeologists have uncovered the 250-year-old kitchen of Thomas Jefferson's enslaved chef, James Hemings, who introduced mac and cheese and meringues into US culture.
Hemings became the property of Thomas Jefferson in January of 1774 when he was just nine years old.
His younger sister is Sally Hemings, who had six children believed to have been fathered by Jefferson after the death of his wife Martha Jefferson.
Growing up, Hemings was one of Jefferson's favorite servants and even accompanied him to Paris, France, in 1784.
In France, Hemings learned the art of French cookery and upon their return to America, he introduced crème brûlée, meringues and continental European-style macaroni and cheese to American cooking.
Hemings became one of the most masterful chefs in the US and prepared dishes for the future president and his guests in the kitchen of Jefferson's Virginia plantation, Monticello.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I’ve been to Montecello. It is miles from anything now and probably them would have taken a released slave days or weeks to go anywhere. Sounds like Mr. Heming had a good life.
I’ve been there, too. Loved it. Mostly remember a many sided bedroom. It was much smaller than I expected.
Where is Regulator Country when you need him?
Amazing. I had no idea it was gossip of the time.
Randolph was not there when Sally conceived. But Thomas was.
“Her descendants all have Jefferson DNA.”
IIRC, only one of her kids were tested. And “Jefferson DNA” was probably NOT Thomas Jefferson DNA.
“Randolph made only four recorded visits to Monticello (in September 1802, September 1805, May 1808, and sometime in 1814); none is related to Sally Hemings’s conceptions.”
You assume all visits were recorded, but we don’t even know all the dates THOMAS Jefferson was there. We also do not know where Hemings was much of the time. Slaves were often loaned out, or traveled with family members without it being recorded anywhere.
Not at Monticello!
Yes at Monticello. Slaves were not paid that much attention to.
Renting slaves was a way to earn hard currency. Slaves trained in trade skills like carpentry would be rented out and often allowed to keep some of their earnings. Some even earned enough to buy their freedom. Some of those even became slave owners themselves.
Sally wasn't a field hand though and her only known skill would be a wet nurse.
“Critta (1769-1850) served in a number of domestic capacities. In 1793, Jefferson specified that she should live in the nearest of the new 12’x14’ log cabins on Mulberry Row, “as oftenest wanted about the house.”
Critta Hemings was briefly nurse to Jefferson’s grandson Francis Eppes, who later bought her freedom so that she could join her husband, Zachariah Bowles, a member of the local free black community.”
https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/brief-biographies-members-hemings-family
Read up on the recent research into the Hemings-Jefferson children. Jefferson kept good records of his travels and of the children of his slaves. He was always present when Sally conceived, and he never recorded the father of her children.
I used to believe that we could not know which Jefferson fathered the Hemings children. It has become extremely likely that Thomas Jefferson was the father. Even if it was a nephew, very unlikely, that makes little difference. The story about the supposed randy nephews Peter and Samuel Carr was spread by Jefferson’s grandson Thomas Randolph after the principals were all dead. DNA tests show that the Carrs were not the father.
It was an open secret at the time that there were Jefferson-Hemings children at Monticello. They were a privileged group, and they were freed by Jefferson, despite his crushing debts. Most of his slaves, as well as Monticello, were sold to pay his heavy debts. This is in contrast to Washington and Madison, who freed their slaves in their wills. According to one of her sons, Jefferson made a deal with Sally in France that he would free her children upon adulthood, if she would be his mistress. The children were at least 7/8’s white, so they could pass as white.
Thomas Jefferson was a major figure in US history, but very ambiguous in personal morality.
https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/appendix-h-sally-hemings-and-her-children
Look up Prof. Robert Turner and Thomas Jefferson re his masterful article on the absolute lack of proof that Jefferson fathered any children by Sally Hemings.
Her own writings refer to “Randolph”, Thomas Jefferson’s brother.
Right now there is a lack of genetic material from Jefferson to test re the Heming descendants according to several articles.
However, the British journalists are still smarting about the way the Revolutionary War went so we can understand their bias and incompetence. Hey, they sound just like our leftist media hacks. Cousins across a polluted pond, eh?
What bullshit oft repeated as truth
Ridiculous
I think most likely is Randolph or one of his five boys or Peter Carr son of Jeffersons sister
Who knows
While in France Hemings was paid the equivalent of 650 bucks a month plus room and board to cook
Both he and Sally could have applied for,freedom in France and likely granted it
But did not
Doesn’t quite fit the cheap virtue modern indignation conventional wisdom no?
>So...multiple nephews of Jefferson would ride for miles to bed Hemings and Jefferson would feel compelled to spend considerable money training them in trades and freeing them when they turned 21...
Samuel and Peter Carr (also Jefferson DNA) lived at Monticello. See the comments of the overseer about them going into the girls bedrooms, at Part 1: “Evolution of the Myth”.
It was a common practice to free ‘house slaves’.
“In fact, Jefferson was one of at least 25 adult male Jeffersons (male-line descendants of his paternal grandfather, Field Jefferson) who might have fathered Eston Hemings, passing on to him the Y chromosome with the distinctive Jeffersonian characteristics. Indeed, eight of these 25 Jefferson males lived within 20 miles (a half-day’s ride) of Monticello—including Thomas Jefferson’s younger brother, Randolph Jefferson, and Randolph’s five sons, who ranged in age from about 17 to 26 at the time of Eston’s birth.”
The only match is Jefferson — each time a different male relative of Jefferson’s is ruled out by improved techniques, yet another is put forward. Beats me why anyone continues to dig in their heels on this one.
Sally Hemings left no writings. Randolph Jefferson's visits to Monticello do not coincide with any of her conceptions.
He also brought back the making of ice cream. Jefferson evidently liked vanilla.
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