Madison Hemings - Children

Children

Madison and Mary Hemings were the parents of 10 surviving children. According to his memoir, their daughter Sarah (named for his mother) and an unnamed son who died in infancy were born in Virginia; nine more children were born in Ohio. He had a quiet life as a modestly successful free black farmer and carpenter.

• Sarah, married Mr. Byrd. (Her descendants later reported that some family members' identified as white and families became fragmented as a result, even when living in southern Ohio.

Their three Ohio-born sons were:

• Thomas Eston (named for Madison's father and his brother Eston), enlisted with the US Colored Troops; died in the Civil War.
• William Beverly (named for brother Beverley), enlisted as a white man in the Civil War; died unmarried in a veterans' hospital in 1910.
• James Madison (named after his father), moved to Colorado and was said to have identified as white. He was not known to have married.

His six younger daughters were

• Julia (who died before 1870),
• Harriet (named for his sister),
• Mary Ann (named after Mary's mother),
• Catherine,
• Jane, and
• Ellen Wayles (named for Madison's maternal white great-grandmother)

In his memoir, Hemings said their son Thomas Eston Hemings died in Andersonville prison during the American Civil War, after having fought on the Union side with the United States Colored Troops. Their son William Beverly also served in Union ranks, where he was with the 73rd Ohio Infantry, having been accepted as white at enlistment.