The Jefferson–Hemings controversy is a historical debate over whether there was a sexual relationship between the widowed Thomas Jefferson and his much younger slave and sister-in-law, Sally Hemings,
Caricature of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, c. 1804, attributed to James Akin (American Antiquarian Society)
19 December 1845 article in The Liberator reporting on the lack of rights for Eston or Madison in Ohio
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Colonel John Wayles Jefferson, son of Eston Hemings and widely believed to be the grandson of Thomas Jefferson
Madison Hemings
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Madison Hemings was the son of Sally Hemings. He was the third of Sally Hemings's four children to survive to adulthood. Enslaved since birth, in accord with the legal doctrine of partus sequitur vent
Jefferson–Hemings controversy
…near white ... very handsome, long straight hair down her back." Of the four Hemings children who survived to adulthood—Beverley Hemings, Harriet, Madison, and Eston Hemings—all but Madison Hemings eventually identified as white and lived as adults in white communities. Under the Virginia law of partus…
Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Jefferson Medallion Portrait, 1805, the year that Madison Hemings was born
Monticello from the book The Bloom of Monticello, 1826, the year of Thomas Jefferson's death and the year before Hemings was freed