Eston Hemings Jefferson was born an enslaved person on May 21, 1808. He was the child of Sally Hemings and slave owner Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.
Jefferson never freed his son, or any of the other children Sally bore, until his death in 1826. Once Hemings was free, he married a formerly enslaved person, Julia Ann Isaacs, and they had three children. In 1837 he moved his family to Ohio. He became a professional musician there and had his children educated in integrated schools. The family left in 1852 due to the Fugitive Slave Act, which put pressure on previously enslaved peoples in free states bordering slave states.
It is then that Hemings moved his family to Madison, Wisconsin, and changed their surname to Jefferson in order to have a better life. He died in 1856. It is said he was well-respected and loved in Madison, WI, yet, so many Madisonians do not realize the deep history in our own backyard with Eston Hemings Jefferson's grave here. It is a symbol of how deeply entrenched the struggle for freedom is all across the United States. It is also a symbol of attempts to launder America's past that this is a widely unknown fact to most Madisonians.
Join us as we pay our respects at his grave. Brings flowers, flags, prayers, poems, and whatever other offerings you would like to share. Please RSVP if you plan to attend.
WHEN
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WHERE
Forest Hill Cemetery
1 Speedway Rd,
Madison, WI 53705,
United States,
CONTACT
Shahayra Majumder ·