Elizabeth Hemings
(c. 1735–1807)
BIRTH
c. 1735
PLACE
Unknown
DEATH
1807
PLACE
Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia
FAMILY
MOTHER
Sally Hemings
(1773-1835)
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
RELIGION NOT DOCUMENTED
DENOMINATION NOT DOCUMENTED
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
Elizabeth “Betty” Hemings was an enslaved woman in Virginia and mother of Sally Hemings. She was the matriarch of an extensive family at Monticello. John Wayles, who enslaved her, is identified by Sally’s son Madison as Sally’s father; this was not a marriage.
EARLY LIFE
Monticello's research, drawing on her grandson Madison Hemings's account, describes Elizabeth's father as an English sea captain surnamed Hemings and her mother as an enslaved African woman. Neither parent's full name has been securely established, so the parent name fields remain empty. Her exact birthplace is also unverified.
CAREER
DEATH
Elizabeth Hemings died in 1807 in the cabin she occupied at Monticello. Her exact birth location and her mother's identity remain uncertain; Monticello historians consider Parthena a possibility, not an established identification.
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
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