Sunday, July 04, 1999

Hemings descendant wants to be welcomed by Jeffersons

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BY JULIE IRWIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Priscilla Lanier and son Shawn Lanier are descendents of Thomas Jefferson's slave mistress. (Michael E. Keating photo) ZOOM

        To many Americans, the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings is a historical soap opera, made all the more complicated by recent evidence that Jefferson likely fathered at least one of Sally Hemings' children.

        To the Laniers of Golf Manor, it's just family.

        Priscilla Lanier, who teaches students with multiple disabilities at Jacobs Center in Winton Place, is the great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of Ms. Hemings. And although the DNA evidence for her family is incomplete, she also believes she has a similar relationship with the country's third president.

        The Monticello Association — which includes the descendants of Jefferson's two daughters — has not decided to admit the Hemings' clan and extend to them privileges, such as burial plots at the Virginia plantation. But Ms. Lanier thinks it's the right thing to do.

All family
        “I feel we're all family and, regardless, that isn't going to change. But maybe we can change the way people feel about race,” says Ms. Lanier, 48. “We're not trying to take over the world. I don't want to be buried in the cemetery, but I want the right to be buried there if that's what I choose.”

ON THE WEB

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation's Web site carries a collection of articles on the Hemings-Jefferson relationship, including a biography of Sally Hemings, information on the DNA testing and media accounts. Address: http://monticello.org/Matters/people/ hemings_resource.html

        Ms. Lanier knew since she was a child that her family was related to Sally Hemings, the slave who accompanied Thomas Jefferson to Paris when he served as ambassador to France and later was in charge of his chamber and wardrobe. But it wasn't until the 1980s, when her cousin began doing genealogical research, that Ms. Lanier learned of the link to Jefferson.

        Her sons, Shawn and Shannon “went to school and told their teachers, and (the teachers) came to me and said your sons are telling fabrications,” Ms. Lanier says. “I said about what, and they said about being descended from Thomas Jefferson. And I said it's true.”

No DNA proof
        The DNA evidence proves that Sally Hemings' son Eston was fathered by a member of the Jefferson family, and the late president's close relationship with her convinces many people that he was the father.

        The research requires an unbroken line of male descendants, and several generations descended from Madison Hemings — Eston's brother and Ms. Lanier's ancestor — were all women, so a similar link between the two families cannot be proved. But Madison Hemings said in an 1873 interview that his mother had told him Jefferson was his father.

        “The day I found out, it didn't make me any different,” Ms. Lanier says. “It just makes it neat to know who you are and walk on the same ground your ancestors did. But there's also pain because of what (the slaves) went through.”

        The Monticello Association is conducting more research before it decides on the Hemings' clan's petition.

        “They said, "We need more proof.' But we don't have any proof,” Ms. Lanier says. “They didn't take pictures back then. You weren't allowed to write, even though Sally and her kids could read and write. They had to keep it secret.”

Passing for white
        Eston Hemings had a white father, grandfather and great-grandfather, and his light-colored skin later enabled him to pass for white and disappear into white society. Two of Sally Hemings' other children also lived their adult lives as white. .

        Madison Hemings, though also light-skinned, remained a member of the black community.

        The thought of relatives rejecting their family because of race troubles Ms. Lanier.

        “There's so much hurt and pain for family members choosing to pass for white,” she says. “They didn't want to associate with the families who wanted to be true to who they are. There are kids walking around today with the same blood as me who don't know they're related to me because of race divisions.”

        The association invited Hemings family members to its annual meeting for the first time this year. Shannon Lanier, 19, and a student at Kent State University, attended along with his uncle and two cousins.

        Ms. Lanier was unable to go, but she hopes to attend next year. She has been to Monticello twice — five years ago as a tourist and two years ago at a reunion for the descendants of the slaves who worked there.

        Perhaps next year it will be — officially — as the descendant of those slaves' owner.

       

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