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Mary Hemings was born a slave, most likely in Charles City County, Virginia, and was the oldest child of Elizabeth Hemings, a slave owned by John Wayles. After the death of John Wayles, Mary and her family became the property of Thomas Jefferson, who had married Martha Wayles Skelton, a daughter of John Wayles.

Mary Hemings had six children. The first four children were Daniel Farley, Molly, Joseph Fossett, and Betsy Hemmings. William Fossett, a white workman at Monticello, was the father of Joseph Fossett. The fathers of the other three children are unknown. Thomas Bell, Mary’s common-law husband, was the father of her last two children, Robert Washington Bell and Sally Jefferson Bell.

In 1780, after he was elected Governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson moved his family and a number of his slaves, including Mary Hemings, to Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia. The following year he relocated his household to the new capital, Richmond. When Benedict Arnold’s forces raided Richmond searching (unsuccessfully) for Thomas Jefferson, they took Mary Hemings and other slaves owned by Jefferson as Prisoners of War. They were freed later that year by General Washington’s forces during the Siege of Yorktown.

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson went to France, serving first as a trade commissioner and later as Minister to France. During Jefferson’s absence from Virginia, Mary Hemings, upon her request, was leased to Thomas Bell, a wealthy Charlottesville merchant and friend of Jefferson.

When Mary Hemings left Monticello, she took her younger children Betsy and Joseph with her to Charlottesville where she lived openly as Bell’s common-law wife, and had two children by him. Upon Jefferson’s return from France, Mary requested to be sold to Bell. Jefferson informed his superintendent to "dispose of Mary according to her desire, with such of her younger children as she chose." . She chose the Bell children, and Betsy and Joseph returned to Monticello in bondage. Jefferson had previously given Mary’s other children, Daniel Farley and Molly, to his sister and daughter respectively.

Shortly after her sale to Thomas Bell, Bell freed Mary Hemings and the Bell children, acknowledging the paternity of his children. Mary Hemings, now known as Mary Hemings Bell, was the first Hemings to be manumitted. When Thomas Bell died in 1800, he left Mary and her Bell children a sizable estate, which included property on Charlottesville’s Main Street.

In a letter dated Keswick (Virginia) August 27,1828, Mary Eppes wrote the following to her mother Martha Jones Eppes, second wife of John Wayles Eppes: "P.S. Tell Mammy Bessie that I saw her mother, she looks very well and said that all of her relations were well also." "Mammy Bessie" was Mary Hemings' daughter, Betsy.

Though free, Mary Hemings remained in close communication with her enslaved family and was remembered by them many years after her death. Her grandson Peter Fossett, as an elderly man, recalled how, as a slave child, his grandmother gave him a suit of blue nankeen cloth and a red leather hat and shoes, which were grand, indeed, compared to the attire of other slave children. He also recalled seeing the spectacular arrival in 1824 of the Marquis de Lafayette at Monticello and the warm embrace between the two elderly Patriots, who had not seen each other in thirty five years.

At the end of the 19th century, another of Mary Hemings’ grandsons, Robert Scott, also recalled an experience that he had during Lafayette’s visit. In 1824 he lived with his free family on Charlottesville’s Main Street and recalled seeing Monticello’s horse drawn carriage pass in front of his house. He also remembered the color of Jefferson’s waistcoat and the positions of the other occupants – Lafayette, and ex-presidents James Madison, and James Monroe – in the carriage. ,

Mary Hemings had many distinguished descendants, but one of the most illustrious was William Monroe Trotter, prominent Boston Newspaper publisher, human rights activist, and a founder of the Niagara Movement, precursor of the NAACP. Trotter graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1895, becoming the first man of color to earn a Phi Beta Kappa key at Harvard, receiving it in his junior year. Trotter was a contemporary of fellow Harvard alumnus W.E.B. Du Bois. In 1896, Trotter earned a Masters Degree from Harvard, planning a career in international banking. But despite his outstanding credentials racism thwarted his efforts to pursue a career in that field.

In 2007, Mary Hemings was named a Patriot of the Daughters of the American Revolution by virtue of her POW status during the Revolutionary War, making her female descendants eligible to join that organization. Thus Mary Hemings became the first Monticello slave to be recognized by that organization.

Mary Hemings finished her days in Charlottesville, but her final resting place remains unknown.