My Name Is James Madison Hemings

This story is told in the voice of James Madison Hemings, born a slave to Sally Hemings, the enslaved mistress of Thomas Jefferson. Madison, as he was called, reflects back on his childhood, and what it was like to be the son of a famous father, but still a slave on his father’s plantation. We learn in the Author’s Note that the book was inspired by James Madison Hemings’s 1873 newspaper interview in which he told his family’s story. As the author notes, he was the only one of Sally Hemings’ children to go public about it. The author also drew from the historical account by Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello, which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Gordon-Reed’s book reveals that Sally Hemings was show more one-fourth white, and was the half-sister of Jefferson’s wife Martha, who died in 1782 at age 34. Martha and Jefferson had two daughters; Sally served as the enslaved maid of their two daughters.

On May 17, 1784, the Confederation Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson as a Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Versailles, directing him to join Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in Paris where he would eventually become the senior Minister in France. Jefferson’s wife was already dead, so he wanted his daughters to follow him, and Sally came along as a companion, purportedly for the girls. But Jefferson’s daughters were sent away to attend a boarding school outside of Paris. Jefferson, in his early forties, apparently began to have sexual relations with 14-year-old Sally. [It is only fair to note that “the age of consent in eighteenth-century Virginia was ten.” Of course, “consent” when you are virtually a child and moreover are owned by someone as a slave is a different matter.] By the time Jefferson was ready to return to the U.S., Sally was pregnant.

As Madison grew up he learned that Jefferson was his father although he was never to speak of it. But indeed, as the author notes, the truth was “self-evident” - in a deliberate reference to Jefferson’s words about freedom in the Declaration of Independence - from Sally’s children’s fair skin and resemblance to Jefferson. Although they were enslaved, the children did receive “somewhat special treatment,” because they were able to avoid working in the fields and do other jobs instead. Madison even learned how to read and write. “And yet,” the author writes in Madison’s voice, “my name was written in my father’s ‘Farm Book’ - the ledger where he recorded all his property. My brothers’ and sister’s names were also there, alongside the names of all the people he owned, right amongst the pages listing sheep and hogs.”

Sally Hemings was 53 at the time Jefferson died. It was thought her fate thereafter was laid out in oral requests by Jefferson, still loathe to mention her specifically in any document. Jefferson’s daughter Martha, who possibly had a great resentment for Sally ever since Jefferson took her as his “concubine,” granted Sally her “time” 8 years after Jefferson’s death. ["Granting time" was a way to confer a sort of freedom without formal emancipation, which would force the person to leave the state. Martha did however permit Sally at least to leave Monticello after Jefferson died to go live with their sons in Charlottesville.]. Why did Martha wait 8 years? It is unclear. Thomas Jefferson did free all of Sally Hemings's children as he had allegedly promised her he would: Beverly and Harriet were allowed to leave Monticello in 1822; and Madison and Eston were released in Jefferson's 1826 will.

Terry Widener uses acrylic illustrations with soft colors to depict the Hemingses and their life at Monticello.

Evaluation: This books for readers 5 and over may never see the light of day in states that want school children shielded from the truth about slavery, especially with respect to the Founding Fathers. But where it is allowed, it will encourage readers to think about all the questions it raises, including about the hypocrisy of the man who wrote in 1776, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." show less

I'm a fan of Winter's books, and I like that this one fleshes out Thomas Jefferson's inconsistencies with regards to slavery. It also places in stark relief the terrible position of being a slave and a child of the Master of the house. Father and owner is a pretty awful thing to think about.

Some of the illustrations in this book are amazingly beautiful, and the tone of the writing is spot-on. This is a great biography of Hemings, and a pretty sober look at his slavery for kids. The ending had a really great "fuck Jefferson and remember that America was and is fucked up" thing going.

Presented as historical fiction, (as detailed in an author’s note) this first person narrative of the son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings was inspired by and partially based on an 1873 newspaper interview in which Madison Hemings made the claim of his heritage. The author also used the recent groundbreaking work of Annette Gordon-Reed to imagine what Madison Hemings’ life must have been like. He begins his story this way: “Slavery: when one human being owns another human being. To the owner, the enslaved person is often no more than a piece of property–a sheep, a horse, a ‘slave.’” That his master was his father, he reveals early on: “We dared not reveal we knew he was our father. This truth, self-evident…was show more never to be spoken of.” He does not reveal, however, until the final page of the book just who is father is. The use of the word “self-evident” is a chilling reminder of the words penned by Jefferson that make this complicated aspect of American history so difficult to understand. This book, however, is a start, opening the door to equally complex race relations, which face America today. For older students, link this book with Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s novel Jefferson’s Sons. show less

My name is James Madison Hemings, is "historical fiction" based on an interview that was given by James Madison Hemings that revealed he was the illegitimate child of Thomas Jefferson. Heming's mother was born into slavery and had four children by Jefferson. Although the children knew that their father was also their master they were never allowed to speak of it. I love how this book tells Heming's story from the first person. As the reader you feel his emotions of confusion, like any child Heming questions if his father would be "proud of him." Although Jefferson is famous for writing that "all men are created equal" We see that he lived a life of contradictions.

I am truly shocked at the end of this book. I was picking up on hints as I read on and looked at all of the pictures, but I did NOT expect James' father to be Thomas Jefferson. I didn't think it would have been a president at all, let alone one that signed the Declaration of Independence. I don't really understand why he had so many slaves if he believed all men were created equal, but that's not what this review section is about. I think this was a very different view into the life of slavery, and what it meant to be a slave that was half white. I would absolutely read this to my children.

James Madison Hemmings was born a slave. His mother was black and his father was their white master. This story shows how confusing that time period was to children of white men who were their masters. Hemings and his siblings were not even allowed to tell their master that they knew he was their father. The book gives a detailed account of James' feelings and experiences while he was a slave. It ends with the name of his father, an important person in history. I really like this book because it kept me interested as a reader when it hinted that the father was someone very important but did not tell us until the end. I also learned more about this historical man who was Hemings's father, because I had prior background knowledge on him show more but was surprised to learn he had a bunch of illegitimate children. show less