There exist some very intriguing history in regards to racially mixed families and their treatment during the period;
In 1773, the year after Jefferson married the young widow
Martha Wayles Skelton, her father died. She and Jefferson inherited his estate, including 11,000 acres, 135 slaves, and £4,000 of debt. With this inheritance,
Jefferson became deeply involved with interracial families and financial burden. As a widower, his father-in-law
John Wayles had taken his
mulatto slave
Betty Hemings as a
concubine and had six children with her during his last 12 years.[SUP]
[22][/SUP] The Wayles-Hemings children were three-quarters English and one-quarter African in ancestry; they were half-siblings to Martha Wayles Jefferson and her sister. Betty Hemings and her 10 mixed-race children (as she had four children before being with Wayles), were among the slaves who were moved to Monticello. Betty's youngest child,
Sally Hemings, was an infant in 1773. The Betty Hemings descendants were trained and assigned to
domestic service and highly skilled artisan positions at Monticello; none worked in the fields.
Over the years, some served Jefferson directly for decades as personal valets and butlers.
But what about those salves that were not moved to Monticello? And of all the slaves Jefferson inherited did any of them maintain the sir name, Beale? This new theory presents many intriguing possibilities as to Thomas J. Beale and just exactly how the Harts may have arrived at Thomas Jefferson Beale?
PS: Bear in mind that with his inheritance that Jefferson assumed control over a lot of slaves that were already of mixed races, this including Sally Hemmings who was already 3/4 European, which explains her white features and lighter complexion.
