The Tragic Story of Eston Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's Hidden Son

Comments · 289

• BE

  @BehindTheThroneOfficial · 8 days ago · pinned

  Eston Hemings was born enslaved by the man evidence would later identify as his father. He eventually built a life under the Jefferson name, but freedom demanded a silence that followed his family for generations. When survival asks someone to hide part of who they are, do you see reinvention as freedom—or as another kind of loss?

  51

• BI

  @BirdyBlink · 7 days ago

  What struck me most is the irony that the branch of the family forced to hide the truth was ultimately the branch whose DNA helped restore it. History took 146 years to listen.

  103

• AR

  @ArquivoPolicialBR · 7 days ago

  One factual correction: Sally Hemings was born at The Forest, John Wayles’s plantation, not at Monticello. She came to Monticello with members of the Hemings family in 1774. A small distinction, but an important one in a documentary this detailed.

  78

• LO

  @LOVEJESUS-1 · 3 days ago

  Disgusting, appalling, and extremely sad for the people who suffered, feared, and ran because they could be bought and sold.

  30

• JU

  @julietambakis3235 · 4 days ago

  What an incredible story. Thank you for sharing it.

  19

• MR

  @mrfester42 · 3 days ago

  The story of Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemmings and the family they created, along with their descendants is the most perfect distillation of the story of America.

  17

• SH

  @shenisenicole103 · 4 days ago

  I didn’t know she could have remained in France as a free person ?

  19

• OB

  @obxgypsy · 3 days ago

  Madison Hemings kept a lot of family secrets...he knew where Harriet was & who she married, but never told.

  10

• HA

  @hamptonbumgarner9063 · 2 days ago

  Simply stellar !!! THANK YOU !!! Visiting Monticello as a high schooler was one of my greatest memories....

  4

• MA

  @MaryK-bh6ps · 2 days ago

  Great documentary. &nbsp;Goes to show you that many really don&apos;t know where all their <br>&quot;roots&quot; come from. &nbsp;We are not responsible for our DNA. &nbsp;Nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of. &nbsp;We decide who we are &nbsp;present and future.

  7

• LO

  @LorionVieCha · 7 days ago

  That single “H” on his gravestone carries so much weight. He changed his life, but he never completely abandoned his mother’s name.

  40

• AL

  @alomaalber6514 · 5 days ago (edited)

  Last week on the network news it was announced that Jefferson&apos;s locks of hair proves his children by Sally. There is also a new book about the science journey in the modern time to prove it all. What we knew BEFORE now: Thomas Woodson ( a son of Jefferson with his own chosen name) moved to DC and became a successful cabinetmaker with TJ&apos;s old pals as customers for the best carpentry in Washington. His sister later came there to his large fine house in DC. She had trades and talents too and had woven cloth as a teenager in Charlottesville inside the house. She was well dressed and showed up in tailored clothes in town and &quot;passed&quot; as white and married VERY well in DC. We do not know but perhaps one of Woodson&apos;s rich customers. A high school in DC is named for Woodson and the path of the sister is a fog. In today&apos;s world three adults were interviewed last week, one had the Jefferson profile, pale skin and straight cold black hair, the other a light skinned black beauty who could play Sally and was the speaker for the three on the news show. The third looked like an older almost too thin white man but had black eyes, He and the lady were delighted to be cousins and held hands and looked delighted to know each other in the 2026 footage. The noses of the black speaker and the thin gent match, they are different from the chiseled TJ nose/profile on the other man all are related and happy to be on the TV segment.. Cheers. P.S. I enjoyed the detail of the fiddler, music is genetic and can flourish if the environment and instrument is available.

  30