22 Jul 2020

The sixth great grandson of Thomas Jefferson and his slave

From Afternoons, 3:10 pm on 22 July 2020

“All men are created equal.”

These are the words Thomas Jefferson penned in 1776 at the beginning of the American Revolution. Words that are enshrined in the United States Declaration of Independence.

Shannon LaNier grew up thinking these words applied to him, that racism doesn’t exist.

That is, he says, until the hard reality hit.

Left: Rembrandt Peale's Thomas Jefferson (1800); right: Shannon LaNier

Left: Rembrandt Peale's Thomas Jefferson (1800); right: Shannon LaNier Photo: Drew Gardner. Courtesy Smithsonian Magazine.

“How misinformed was I. We’ve come a long way, but we still have so far to go.”

LaNier is the a ninth generation descendant of Thomas Jefferson and enslaved black woman Sally Hemmings.

“It’s unfortunate that although Jefferson said ‘all men were created equal, he did not practise it, he did not fully believe it and when he wrote those words they did not include people of colour, women and non-land owning people that were not white men.”

LaNier says however, that there is now an opportunity to let the words represent what the United States should be.

Because LaNier’s 6th great grandmother, Sally Hemmings, was an enslaved woman, there is much more known about Jefferson than there is her.

Much of the documentation that did exist has since mysteriously disappeared.

“What we do know is that she was the half sister of Thomas Jefferson’s wife Martha, they had the same father. We do know she came from a family that had been mixed several times over due to slave masters having their way, or relationships, or whatever you would like to call it, with their slaves.”

Hemmings had at least six children to Jefferson, during the 38 years she was his slave.

At the age of 21, Jefferson freed all of Hemmings’ children and gave them trades. Her son Maddison, whom LaNier descends from, went to live in Ohio.

“You have to imagine that they were fair-skinned enough that they would be able to get jobs and some of the kids even passed as white, meaning they transitioned into white society instead of calling themselves black or recognising themselves as African American, they recognised and told people they were white.”

This allowed them the education, safety and freedoms that formerly enslaved people wouldn’t usually be afforded.

However, people who had passed into white society were often not able to acknowledge their black family if they passed them in the street out of fear of someone finding out, LaNier says.

“If someone found out they were lying and deceiving them, to try to receive basic human rights then they could put threats on their life, they could kill them, they could threaten their families.”

This also meant some people didn’t have children.

Jefferson and Hemming’s last-born child Eston decided to pass as white and went on to become very successful and wealthy in Wisconsin.

“It wasn’t till years later, generations later, that Julia Jefferson, who was a grown woman with children at this time, discovered that she was actually a descendant of Thomas Jefferson but not how she thought.”

She’d grown up her whole life thinking she was a white woman, only to find that she descended from Sally Hemmings, he says.

In 1999, a descendant of Jefferson’s wife invited LaNier to a family reunion.

It was difficult at first, but they’ve since gone through reconciliation and healing processes, he says.

“If we can do it after being separated after 200 years of slavery, maybe this country can as well, but first this country has to recognise what happened.”

In 2002 he wrote a book, documenting his journey across America meeting his family.

LaNier says it’s time the US start telling the full story of its history. Jefferson owned over 600 slaves, but people forget that part of his story, he says.

“Jefferson was a very complex man who had many flaws and this is just one of them; believing one thing and being a hypocrite, practising another.

“This country (the US) was built and founded on the backs of slaves who gave their blood, sweat and tears to make this country possible.”

LaNier says there’s never a wrong time to doing the right thing.

“We can’t move forward until we address the past.”

He says there’s still a long way to go before black people are given equal opportunities.

But it’s a breath of fresh air when people do stand up and are vocal against racism, he says.

“That’s what’s going to change the world, that’s what’s going to make the difference, when we come together and demand the change.”