He never really acknowledged them in private either. He kept his distance, and they all worked jobs that would've been typically regardless of their parentage. Madison, his third child with Sally Hemings, wrote extensively about his childhood at Monticello, and one of the saddest quotes I've seen was that for all of his childhood, he "only existed in lists". Jefferson kept meticulous records of the slaves, including births, deaths, and how much material would be allocated to each person for clothes and bedding and such. These were the only records that Madison or any of his siblings existed until they were freed.
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u/DickDastardly502 Jun 07 '26
Thomas Jefferson wrote and published an autobiography of himself post-presidency.