Martha Jefferson and the Women of Monticello

Summary

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Here's Where It Gets Interesting

Episode: Martha Jefferson and the Women of Monticello

Host: Sharon McMahon
Date: September 8, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sharon McMahon delves into the lives of the women who shaped Thomas Jefferson’s world—most notably Martha Jefferson (his wife), their daughters, and Sally Hemings. With her signature warmth and insight, Sharon traces Martha’s journey from privileged heiress to First Lady in all but name, explores the intertwined fates of Jefferson’s enslaved and free female companions, and sets the stage for an ongoing exploration of the Hemings family’s legacy. The episode shines a light on the human stories and complicated relationships that textbooks so often overlook.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Martha Jefferson: Early Life, Family, and Marriage

• Martha Wales Skelton Jefferson was born into a wealthy, prominent Virginian family at “The Forest” plantation in 1748.
  • Her mother died when Martha was three weeks old; her father, John Wales, remarried twice and later fathered children with an enslaved woman, Betty Hemings.
  • Martha was likely educated at home by tutors in literature, French, religion, and music.
• At 18, she was married to a promising young lawyer who died at 24; their son died in early childhood.
• As a widow at 22, Martha was wealthy, skilled in managing a plantation, and considered a highly eligible match.

"Beautiful, fabulously wealthy from birth and also from inheriting her husband's plantation and land, she would have been a total catch for anyone who came courting. Enter Thomas Jefferson."
— Sharon McMahon (04:49)

• Martha and Thomas Jefferson (her third cousin) married on New Year’s Day in 1772; she brought significant land, wealth, and enslaved people as her dowry.
• Jefferson delighted in designing Monticello, their home atop a little mountain near Charlottesville, Virginia.
• The early years at Monticello were filled with music and companionship.

2. Motherhood, Loss, and Martha’s Death

• Martha and Thomas had six children; only two daughters, Patsy and Polly (also called Mary), survived to adulthood.
• Martha endured difficult pregnancies, smallpox, and untreated diabetes, leading to chronically declining health.
  • Jefferson delayed or declined government appointments to care for her.
• In her final days, Martha hand-copied lines from a novel reflecting on the fleeting nature of life.

“Time weighs too fast. Every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity Life follows my pen. The days and hours of it are flying over our heads like clouds of windy day, never to return. More Everything presses on.”
— Martha Jefferson (quoted by Sharon, 10:54)

• After Martha’s death in September 1782 (only months after the birth of her last child), Jefferson was devastated, describing himself as “a blank which I have not the spirits to fill up.”
  • Respecting Martha’s wish, Jefferson never remarried.

3. Jefferson in France: Maria Cosway and Connecting Women’s Stories

• After Martha’s death, Jefferson accepted a diplomatic assignment in Paris, taking daughter Patsy with him.
• In Paris, Jefferson developed a close attachment with Maria Cosway, an accomplished musician. Their emotional intimacy resulted in Jefferson’s famous "Dialogue of the Head vs. the Heart" letter.

“He enjoyed the company of married Maria … For reference, the Declaration of Independence, of which Jefferson was the primary writer, is under 1500 words. That is how much he enjoyed the company of married Maria.”
— Sharon McMahon (16:19)

• Through Cosway, Jefferson met Angelica Schuyler Church, who became a friend and frequent correspondent.

4. Sally Hemings: Complex Ties of Family and Slavery

• Sally Hemings was Martha’s half-sister, the daughter of John Wales and Betty Hemings, an enslaved woman.
• Sally accompanied Jefferson’s daughter Polly to Paris as a teenager (age 14–16), initially because Polly's older nurse was unwell. In France, Sally was legally free and earned wages, though at far lower rates than the white staff.

“Most historians agree that it was while in France that Jefferson and Sally Hemings began a sexual relationship. But 'sexual relationship' is a tricky term to use when we're talking about consent between a 44 year old white master and a 15 year old enslaved girl.”
— Sharon McMahon (20:08)

• Sally agreed to return to Virginia only after Jefferson promised her "extraordinary privileges" and to free her future children at age 21. (Madison Hemings, her son, later recounted this negotiation.)

5. Life After France: Women of Monticello and Their Legacy

• Sally Hemings bore Jefferson six children over 32 years; four survived to adulthood.
  • Despite living closely with the Jefferson family, Sally never accompanied him to the White House.
• Jefferson's relationship with Sally was not a secret among contemporaries; the press broke the story in 1802. Jefferson’s daughter Patsy stepped in to manage public perception.

6. Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph: Daughter, Hostess, and Preserver of Legacy

• Patsy, described as “cultured…an accomplished dancer, harpsichord player and horsewoman,” married her cousin Thomas Randolph, with whom she had 12 children.
• As Jefferson’s unofficial First Lady, Patsy occasionally stayed at the White House and served as his hostess; in 1806, she gave birth to the first child ever born in the White House.
• Patsy’s deep devotion to her father included overseeing his household, supporting his image after scandals, and running both Monticello and her own estate during hard times.
• After Jefferson’s death, Patsy (facing debts) was forced to sell Monticello and its enslaved people.

7. The End of an Era: Emancipation, Family Ties, and Future Episodes

• Sally Hemings’s children Beverly and Harriet left Monticello and blended into white society; sons Madison and Eston were freed by Jefferson’s will.
• After Jefferson’s death, Patsy informally ensured Sally’s freedom and stated in her will that her children were to formalize it, but Sally died before it was needed.
• Both Sally Hemings and Patsy died within a year of one another, closing a unique chapter in American life—but Sharon hints at deeper stories in the Hemings lineage, promising to continue their tale in a future episode.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Martha’s role at Monticello:
  “By the time Martha was a 22 year old widow…she would have been a total catch for anyone who came courting. Enter Thomas Jefferson.” (04:49)

• Description of Martha’s homecoming to Monticello:
  “When he and Martha reached Monticello in a January snowstorm, the house was silent…[they] toasted to their new, only partially furnished home with a bit of wine they had left from their journey and had song and merriment and laughter.” (06:53)

• On the women’s burdens:
  “Martha had very difficult pregnancies…each one left her in poorer health, as did a bout with smallpox and untreated diabetes. The physical strain of being pregnant weakened Martha so much.” (09:45)

• Martha’s final words and Jefferson’s response:

  • Martha (copied lines): “Time weighs too fast. Every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity Life follows my pen. The days and hours of it are flying over our heads like clouds of windy day, never to return.” (10:54)
  • Jefferson (addition): “And every time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, Every absence which follows it are preludes to that eternal separation which we are shortly to make.” (14:28)

• On Sally Hemings’s situation and negotiation:

  • “In France, she was free. Well, if she returned to Virginia, she would be re-enslaved. So she refused to return with him. To induce her to do so, he promised her extraordinary privileges and made a solemn pledge that her children should be freed at the age of 21 years.” — Sharon, quoting Madison Hemings (21:15)

• Patsy's role after the scandal:
  “When the newspaper scandal about his illegitimate children broke, Patsy's presence and the presence of her young children helped to reinforce Jefferson's image as a devoted family man with a stable domestic life. And it worked.” (29:15)

• On the tangled web of relationships:
  “Ah, what tangled webs we weave, right? There is so much more to the story, though. I need to tell you way more about the Hemings family, so join me in the next episode.” (33:31)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Martha Jefferson’s early life and marriage: 02:31–07:14
• Monticello, music, and family life: 07:15–09:40
• Martha’s pregnancies, illnesses, and death: 09:41–11:18; 14:25–16:00
• Jefferson’s Paris years, Maria Cosway, and Angelica Schuyler: 16:01–17:56
• Introduction of Sally Hemings and her background: 17:57–19:15
• Sally in France and negotiation for herself and children: 19:16–22:15
• Sally’s life at Monticello, Jefferson’s presidency, Patsy’s role as First Lady: 26:10–29:14
• Patsy’s later life and the end of Monticello: 29:15–31:30
• Sally Hemings’ children’s fates and conclusion: 31:31–33:31

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Conclusion

This episode provides a nuanced, empathetic look at the women of Monticello—free and enslaved—emphasizing their agency, struggles, and influence on American history. Sharon McMahon sensitively navigates the complexities of privilege, power, and family, challenging listeners to see beyond simple narratives and readying them for a deeper dive into the Hemings family story in the next episode.

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Transcript

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Hello friends. Welcome. We've been talking about America's first Ladies.

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And the people and events that defied their times. Today we're going to learn just a.

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Little about the women who were an indispensable part of of Thomas Jefferson's life, his political career and eventually his Presidency. I'm Sharon McMahon and here's where it gets interesting the first part of today's story may feel eerily familiar if you've already listened to my episode on Martha Washington, because not so surprisingly, the lives and customs of young women from wealthy families in colonial America didn't differ all that much from each other. Nor did their names. Just to make sure things stay extra super confusing for another couple of podcast episodes, because Thomas Jefferson's wife was also named Martha in 1720, Martha Wales Skelton was 22 years old, though no portraits of her were painted during her lifetime. She was said by acquaintances to be a natural beauty with large hazel eyes, a slender build, and rich auburn hair. She was a widow. Four years earlier, at age 18, she had married another man. Another man who was a young and promising lawyer, but he died after an accident when he was only 24. Martha was a mother at the time of her husband's death, Martha had given birth to a son who she named John. But sadly, the boy died a few years after his father, around the age of three. She was also a very wealthy woman. Martha was born into wealth. She was born at the Forest, which was a large plantation near Williamsburg, Virginia in 1748. Her parents were John Wales and his first of three wives, also named, you guessed it, Martha, although she wasn't called Patsy. Patsy's mother was from an extremely prominent family in Virginia at the time, but she died when Martha was only three weeks old. Martha's father, John remarried two more times though, and in the end he outlived all of his wives and eventually took on a mistress, an enslaved woman in the household whose name was Elizabeth Hemings, with whom he fathered six more children. Because Martha grew up with wealth and prominence, she was likely educated at home by traveling tutors in literature, poetry, French and religion. It's also probable that she received training in music, because we know that she was an accomplished pianist. When she was old enough, Martha probably took on a managerial role at the Forest. She was the oldest of her siblings and she outlived her stepmothers. She would have been entrusted with learning how to run a plantation and its many enslaved workers, making household staples like soap and candles and butter, and overseeing social events at the main house. Which means that by the time Martha was a 22 year old widow, beautiful fellow, fabulously wealthy from birth and also from inheriting her husband's plantation and land, she would have been a total catch for anyone who came courting. Enter Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was Martha's third cousin, and the two may have bonded over their shared love of music and literature. They were married on New Year's Day in 1772 at the Forest Plantation, and Jefferson took Martha straight away to his new home in Charlottesville, Virginia, some 130 miles away. The home was called Monticello, which means little mountain in Italian. Jefferson would spend most of his adult life designing, changing and working on Monticello, his grand home that sat at the top of a little Virginia mountain. He was quoted as saying, architecture is my delight, and putting up and pulling down one of my favorite amusements. When he and Martha reached Monticello in a January snowstorm, the house was silent. There was no fire in the hearth, no food prepared, and everyone was asleep. At the late hour, they toasted to their new, only partially furnished home with a bit of wine they had left from their journey and had song and merriment and laughter. At Monticello in the couple's early years, they would often make music together. Jefferson played the violin, and Martha accompanied him on a beautiful pianoforte that her husband had ordered for her. An officer who visited the Jeffersons at Monticello noted, you will find in the house an elegant harpsichord, pianoforte and some violence. The latter he performs well upon himself. The former his lady touches very skillfully and who is in all respects a very agreeable, sensible and accomplished lady. As part of Martha's dowry, Thomas received much of her inherited property, including the Elk Hill plantation that she had lived at when she was previously married, plus the estate's enslaved people, many of whom moved to Monticello to complete the construction of their residence, landscaping the estate's several thousand acres. They would also go on to cultivate Thomas Jefferson's land into a successful tobacco and wheat plantation. When Martha's father died, Martha and Thomas Jefferson also inherited the Wales land and enslaved people. Betty Hemings, John Wales's mistress and the mother of Martha Jefferson's half siblings, was moved to Monticello with her children. So Martha had inherited land from her previous husband, and now she had inherited land from her father, and she also was part of the Monticello estate. This is a very, very wealthy family. Not only did they inherit land, they also inherited many, many enslaved people to work the land. One biographer described Thomas Jefferson's marriage to Martha as the happiest time of his life. Over their 10 years of marriage, Martha gave birth to six children. Of the six that were born, only two daughters, Patsy and Polly, lived past their early years. Two more daughters, Jane and Lucy, as well as an unnamed son, died as babies. And her last child, another daughter named Lucy, died at the age of two. From whooping cough. I mentioned her death in my episode about Abigail Adams. And yes, Thomas Jefferson and Martha Jefferson had two daughters named Lucy Elizabeth. It wasn't that uncommon of a practice. Martha had very difficult pregnancies, though each one left her in poorer health, as did about with smallpox and untreated diabetes. The physical strain of being pregnant weakened Martha so much. The Thomas Jefferson put a hold on many of his political aspirations while he served in the Virginia House of Delegates and then as the Governor of Virginia, he traveled to and from Philadelphia to help draft the Declaration of Independence. He declined an appointment by the Continental Congress as a commissioner to France. Shortly before her death In September of 1782, Martha copied the following lines from a novel writing Time weighs too fast. Every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity Life follows my pen. The days and hours of it are flying over our heads like clouds of windy day, never to return. More Everything presses on.

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This transcribed verse is one of just four documents in Martha's own handwriting that we have today. After her death, Jefferson burned all of the correspondence he had between himself and Martha. The incomplete quotation on Martha's paper was finished by Jefferson himself. Transforming the page into a bittersweet love letter between husband and wife, he added, and every time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, Every absence which follows it are preludes to that eternal separation which we are shortly to make. The exact cause of Martha's death is not recorded, but Jefferson wrote a letter to his friend and mentioned that she had never recovered from the birth of her last child. Lucy Elizabeth was born on May 8, and Martha died in September. Jefferson wrote about his grief and said, a single event wiped away all my plans and left me a blank which I have not the spirits to fill up. While she was alive, Martha, perhaps remembering her own childhood with stepmothers, asked Jefferson to never remarry because she could not bear the thought of someone else raising her children. It was a wish he would honor. Shortly after Martha's death, the Continental Congress again asked Jefferson to go to France to assist the work being done by John Adams and Ben Franklin. This time, Jefferson agreed. He set sail in the summer of 1784, and I referenced Thomas Jefferson's voyage to France in my previous episode about Abigail Adams. But while he was in Paris, Jefferson met a woman named Maria Cosway. Maria was an accomplished Italian English musician and she was also married. They spent time in each other's company every day over a period of six weeks. And Jefferson was in love. We're not sure just how romantic their relationship got. Jefferson was a fair bit more discreet than Benjamin Franklin was. But eventually Maria returned to London with her husband and after that back to Italy. The pair exchanged letters for the rest of their lives. It was to Maria that Jefferson wrote one of his most famous letters, a 4,000 word love letter called the dialogue of the head versus the heart. It was mailed off to Maria in October of 1786. In it, Jefferson describes his head, the practical struggling with his heart, the romantic. For reference, the Declaration of Independence, of which Jefferson was the primary writer, is under 1500 words. That is how much he enjoyed the company of married Maria. Fun fact though, it was through Maria Cosway that Thomas Jefferson met Angelica Schuyler while she was in Paris. Of course, Angelica Schuyler married. Her married last name was Church. And while Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were rivals, Thomas Jefferson took a liking to Angelica and they remained friends, also writing letters to each other for many years. Thomas Jefferson often signed them, your affectionate friend, Thomas Jefferson. When Jefferson had set sail for Paris, he brought his oldest daughter Patsy with him. And then, as I mentioned in my previous episode, he left his two remaining daughters, Paulie and Lucy, back with family. And it was during that time that his second daughter Lucy passed away. And while Jefferson was pining after Maria, he decided to send for his younger daughter, Polly. And accompanying Polly on the voyage across the sea was Sally Hemings, the enslaved maid, who was the youngest half sister of his late wife, Martha. Like Martha, Sally spent her childhood at her father's estate, the Forest. She was born in 1773. The youngest child of John Wales was Martha's father and Elizabeth Hemings, the woman he enslaved. She, like her mother and siblings before her, was born into enslavement. And so of course, while Martha and Sally were raised in the same homestead, their upbringings were completely different. Sally was not educated by European tutors. She was doing domestic work in the home even as a child. Sally's mother, Elizabeth, who went by Betty, was the daughter of an African born enslaved woman and a British sea captain, which made Betty half African and half white. And Sally, who had a white father, was a quarter African. But regardless of their white paternity, children who were born to enslaved women inherited their mother's status as slaves. By the time Jefferson sent for his daughter Polly, Sally Hemings was a teenager. She was somewhere between the ages of 14 and 16 years old. Letters between Jefferson and Abigail Adams show that Jefferson originally arranged for Polly to be accompanied by her nurse who was an older enslaved woman. But Adams wrote to Jefferson saying the old nurse whom you expected to have attended her was sick and unable to come. Sally Heming spent two years in Paris with the Jefferson family. In France, she was a free person because slavery was illegal. She earned a wage for her services to the family. Jefferson paid her $2 a month. In contrast, his French servants were paid a wage of around 8 to $12 a month. Most historians agree that it was while in France that Jefferson and Sally Hemings began a sexual relationship. But sexual relationship is a tricky term to use when we're talking about consent between a 44 year old white master and a 15 year old enslaved girl. Even if Sally did consent to the relationship, their age difference and the power dynamics between them would have influenced that consent. Sally didn't have the liberty to assert or vocalize her non consent and in 1789, Sally agreed to return to enslavement at Monticello only after negotiating with Jefferson. Her son, Madison Hemings later said this in France, she was free. Well, if she returned to Virginia, she would be re enslaved. So she refused to return with him. To induce her to do so, he promised her extraordinary privileges and made a solemn pledge that her children should be freed. At the age of 21 years. In consequence of his promises, on which she implicitly relied, she returned with him to Virginia.

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So Sally Hemings had her freedom in France, and Thomas Jefferson made her extraordinary promises in an effort to get her to be re enslaved in Virginia. Over the next 32 years, Sally had six children, raising four of them to adulthood. A son named Beverly, a daughter named Harriet, a son named Madison, and a son named Eston, all believed to have been fathered by Thomas Jefferson. And while Sally never accompanied Jefferson to the White House, three of their children were born during his eight years as president. At that time, it was accepted that wealthy plantation owners often had sexual relationships with their enslaved women, although white society expected that these relationships would be kept discreet. So in 1802, when a newspaper ran a story about President Jefferson's relationship with Sally and the fact that he had children out of wedlock, it was up to his daughter Patsy to take charge of her father's image. While in Paris with her father and Sally, Patsy had grown tall and slim, with red hair and freckles. She was a cultured woman, well educated and experienced in the arts. And in 1789, she was brought out into Paris society at the court of Louis xiv. Like her mother before her, Patsy was an accomplished dancer, harpsichord player and horsewoman. In February of 1790, Patsy returned to Virginia and married Thomas Randolph. Thomas was her second cousin and he had recently graduated from the University of Edinburgh. She moved into Randolph's Virginia plantation, Edge Hill, which was near Monticello, where she spent her childhood. The couple had 12 children together, with only one daughter dying in infancy. That was very unusual. Patsy, unlike her mother, did not have trouble with her pregnancies and remained healthy after each one. Patsy took the education of her children very seriously, establishing a school at Edgehill to educate them. She was also very devoted to her father and would make frequent visits to Monticello with her children. By the time Jefferson was elected President of the United States in 1801, he had been a widower for for almost 20 years. For a while, he often invited Dolley Madison, Secretary of State James Madison's young wife, to serve as his escort. Officially, Martha Jefferson's name is on the White House's list of first ladies, but it was Patsy who supported her father in many official and unofficial ways during his eight years in office. She was not present for either of his inaugurations in the new capital city of Washington, D.C. in 1801 and 1805. But she made two lengthy visits, one in the winter of 1802 and the second in the winter of 1806. During her second visit to the White House, she gave birth on January 17, 1806, to her eighth child, James Madison Randolph. James was the first baby to be born in the White House. And now it seems a little absurd that we would have babies born in the White House, but that was very much the case during this time in history. Patsy didn't live continuously at the White House while her father was president. Her husband did, though. Thomas Randolph and her sister Polly's husband Jack lived with Thomas Jefferson in the White House while they both served their terms as congressmen from Virginia. During her father's presidency and throughout his retirement, Patsy acted as his hostess when the newspaper scandal about his illegitimate children broke. Patsy's presence and the presence of her young children helped to reinforce Jefferson's image as a devoted family man with a stage stable domestic life. They went out together to be seen often to religious services held in the hall of Congress. And it worked. Jefferson held on to his popularity and was elected to a second term. After her father retired from public life in 1809, Patsy and her family moved to Monticello. She stayed on as mistress of Monticello even while her husband Thomas served in Richmond as governor of Virginia. The two Thomases, Thomas Randolph and Thomas Jefferson, kept up a friendly, close relationship during the early years of Randolph's marriage to Patsy. But Randolph's behaviors became erratic after he served in the War of 1812, and he became withdrawn from Patsy, his children and his father in law. Both of the Thomases, Jefferson and Randolph, began to have financial difficulties too, and it was a strain on Patsy, who was trying to manage both Edge Hill and Monticello. Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, with Patsy at his side. Shortly before his death, he remarked that his last pang of life was parting with her. And of course, John Adams famously died on the same day. Due to all the debt that her father left behind, Patsy was forced to sell Monticello in 1831, including the enslaved people she inherited from her father. She lived with her children for the rest of her life, estranged from her husband, who had become prone to violent outbursts when he drank. Four years before Jefferson died, Sally Hemings, two oldest children, Beverly and Harriet, were allowed to leave Monticello without being legally freed. It was reported later that they both passed into white society and were not discovered to have been enslaved at Monticello or even suspected to have African blood. Sally Hemings was unofficially freed or given her time by Patsy when her father passed away and Jefferson's will freed her younger children, Madison and Eston. Sally Madison and Eston were listed as free people in both the 1830 and the 1833 censuses. In 1834, Patsy dictated an informal addendum to her will. It instructed her children to officially give her half Aunt Sally Hemings her freedom. In the end, the addendum was moot. Sally died in 1835, a year before Patsy's unexpected death at age 64. Ah, what tangled webs we weave, right? There is so much more to the story, though. I need to tell you way more about the Hemings family, so join me in the next episode. I have some very fascinating details to share. I'll see you next time. Thank you so much for listening to.

[Sharon McMahon]

Here'S where it gets interesting. If you enjoyed today's episode, would you consider sharing or subscribing to this show that helps podcasters out so much? I'm just your host and executive producer, Sharon McMahon. Our supervising producer is Melanie Buck Parks and our audio producer is Craig Thompson. We'll see you soon.

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