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1) A point on generalizing and slavery. The experiences of James and Sally Hemings, and others in the family, are fascinating. They tell us something about slavery, but in particular ways.
2) For example, one of the most poignant parts of Madison Hemings's recollection is when he says that he and his siblings were "always permitted to be with [their] mother." We know kids follow their mother everywhere they can. At 68, Hemings remembered that as important.
3) That tells us something about him and the workings of his family. It also suggests something about the other enslaved children at Monticello: they were NOT always allowed to be with their mothers as the Hemings children were.
We learn about a feature of slavery at Monticello (of slavery in general) -- how mothers and kids were separated daily, as mothers went to their tasks in the fields or in other venues-- by Hemings's memory that he and his siblings could be with their mother at their will.
5) His statement that they were "measurably happy" because they knew freedom would come when they were adults and they'd be able to leave slavery also prompts a reflection about reality of life for other kids who did not have emancipation to look forward to.
6) Slavery as a lifelong prospect to be transmitted to one's children, versus emancipation upon adulthood-- coterminous with the end of childhood-- presents a stark and tragic contrast. Reading Madison Hemings tells a great deal about harsh realities of slavery.
7) Madison Hemings’s statement about his & his siblings’ experiences & expectations links to their mother’s in Paris. Their freedom at adulthood presupposed their presence at Monticello until that time. They would not be separated by a transfer of ownership.
8) We think of separation in slavery mainly in terms of sale or potential to be sold. Attention should be paid to those drastic realities. But think of the daily separations, because of mothers’ work.
9) At Monticello, children and elderly women look after toddlers in the daytime while their mothers went to the fields.
10) Sally Hemings had a unique arrangement in that when her children were babies, and TJ was at home, a girl was actually moved into her household to help look after the child.
