Thomas Jefferson Randolph | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byCharles Willson Peale (1808) | |
| Member of theVirginia House of Delegates from theAlbemarle district | |
| In office December 5, 1842 – December 3, 1843 Serving with Sheldon F. Leake | |
| Preceded by | Valentine W. Southall |
| Succeeded by | Valentine W. Southall |
| In office December 5, 1836 – January 6, 1839 Serving with Alexander Rives | |
| Preceded by | Valentine W. Southall |
| Succeeded by | Valentine W. Southall |
| In office December 1, 1834 – December 6, 1835 Serving with Alexander Rives | |
| Preceded by | Valentine W. Southall |
| Succeeded by | Valentine W. Southall |
| In office December 5, 1831 – December 1, 1833 Serving with Rice W. Wood, Thomas W. Gilmer | |
| Preceded by | Thomas W. Gilmer |
| Succeeded by | Valentine W. Southall |
| Delegate fromAlbemarle County to theVirginia Convention of 1861 | |
| In office February 13, 1861 – December 6, 1861 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Rector of theUniversity of Virginia | |
| In office 1857–1864 | |
| Preceded by | Andrew Stevenson |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Lewis Preston |
| Delegate fromAlbemarle County to theVirginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 | |
| In office October 14, 1850 – August 1, 1851 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1792-09-12)September 12, 1792 |
| Died | October 7, 1875(1875-10-07) (aged 83) Edge Hill, Virginia, U.S. |
| Resting place | Monticello |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 13 (incl.Sarah) |
| Parents |
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| Profession | Politician, planter, lawyer, soldier |
| Known for | Eldest grandson and namesake ofThomas Jefferson |
| Signature | .png) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Confederate States |
| Branch/service |  Confederate army |
| Rank |  Colonel |
| Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Thomas Jefferson Randolph (September 12, 1792 – October 7, 1875) was a Virginiaplanter,soldier andpolitician who served multiple terms in theVirginia House of Delegates, as rector of theUniversity of Virginia, and as a colonel in theConfederate Army during theAmerican Civil War. The favorite grandson of PresidentThomas Jefferson, he helped manage Monticello near the end of his grandfather's life and was executor of his estate, and later also served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 and at theVirginia Secession Convention of 1861.
Thomas Jefferson Randolph was the eldest son ofThomas Mann Randolph Jr. (who later became Virginia's governor) andMartha Jefferson Randolph (a/k/a "Patsy"). His mother was the eldest daughter, and he was the eldest grandson ofUnited States PresidentThomas Jefferson. Born into theFirst Families of Virginia, Randolph was also alineal descendant ofPocahontas. He had an elder sister and seven other siblings who survived infancy. Randolph received a private education suitable to his class, and partly grew up at Monticello as well as his grandfather'sPoplar Forest plantation. His parents moved into Monticello in 1809,[1] but they would separate (this Randolph, his mother and siblings remaining at Monticello) because of his father's alcoholism.
When Jefferson was 15 (in 1807), his father sent him to Philadelphia for further studies, which Jefferson in part directed toward botany, other natural sciences and anatomy.[2]
Randolph soon became the family leader. In 1819, his alcoholic brother in law, Charles Bankhead (son of Jefferson's friend John Bankhead and married to his eldest sister Ann Cary Randolph), severely wounded Randolph at the Albemarle County courthouse, to Jefferson's consternation.[3] Jefferson died when Randolph was 34, and his father two years later.[2]
In 1815 Randolph married Jane Hollins Nicholas (1798–1871), daughter ofWilson Cary Nicholas, a former Congressman, Senator and like Jefferson and his son-in-law Virginia Governor. Soon, Nicholas became president of the new Richmond branch of theSecond Bank of the United States and helped Jefferson secure loans for nearly the next decade, but Jefferson also co-signed some of Nicholas' notes, which caused major problems following thePanic of 1819 and nationwide depression.[4] Jane Nicholas Randolph established and taught school on the Randolph's Edgehill estate from 1829 until 1850, when Randolph's youngest brotherGeorge Wythe Randolph left that main plantation house with his wife and moved to Richmond, Virginia.
Meanwhile, Thomas and Jane Randolph had thirteen children:
Since the late 20th century, some criticized Randolph for falsely telling historian Henry Randall that his unclePeter Carr (Thomas Jefferson's nephew) was the father ofSally Hemings' children (rather than his blood relatives, as was later found true). Randolph admitted some of Hemings' children strongly resembled the president. Now, most historians accept that Jefferson had a long relationship with Sally Hemings and fathered her six children.[citation needed] As mentioned below, Randolph had a complex relationship withslavery.
Aplanter and leading citizen of his native Albemarle County, like his father and grandfathers, Randolph operated plantations (including Monticello) using enslaved labor. On returning to Monticello in 1815 during a drought crisis, Randolph began to manage Monticello for his (separated) mother and grandfather.[1] In 1817 Jefferson leased another two of his quarter-farms,Tufton and Lego, to Randolph, who soon built a stone house and moved his growing family into the Tufton premises.[5][6]
Randolph had been close to his grandfather and was appointed executor of his estate in Thomas Jefferson's will, executed in 1826. As that year had begun, following the conclusion of his father's term as Virginia's 21st governor and escalation of problems with his creditors following mounting debts, Randolph managed to purchase his father's plantation atEdgehill at a foreclosure auction. Jefferson's main estate was also heavily encumbered by debt at his death on July 4 of that year (particularly after this Randolph's father-in-law Nicholas defaulted on his debts before 1823).[7] In fact, the principal of Jefferson's debts would not be extinguished until 1878 (after this Randolph's death), and Nicholas' marriage of approximately $70,000 became the bulk of the $100,000 plus shortfall in Jefferson's estate (plus his Monticello plantation would only bring $7100 when finally sold in 1831, though for years valued at over $70,000). In any event, Randolph ordered Monticello goods and property sold, including the 130 enslaved people owned by Jefferson. Thus, on January 19, 1827, about six month's after the former President's death, Randolph held an auction of the people Jefferson enslaved. The proceeds of the auction paid off about $35,000 of the debt's principal and another $12,840 of interest and expenses.[8]His mother withheld Sally Hemings from the auction and gave her "her time," which informally allowed her to live freely inCharlottesville, Virginia with her two younger sons.
Jefferson had formally freedMadison andEston in his will, after allowing their older sister and their older brother to "run away" in 1822. Then Mrs. Martha Randolph left Monticello after the furnishing auction and eventually went to live in Boston with her daughter (this Randolph's sister), only to return to Virginia to reconcile with her husband and attend his deathbed at Monticello in 1828. News about her penniless state at age 60 led the South Carolina and Louisiana legislatures to each present her with $10,000. She would live with Randolph and other children at various times before her own death in 1836 and burial at Monticello.[9]
In the 1850 federal census, Randolph owned 46 enslaved people in Albemarle county, ranging from 79- and 70-year-old women and a 75-year-old man to a nine-year-old boy and girls aged five, three and one year old.[10] Randolph repaired his fortunes in the 1850s, when he used the people he enslaved to build sections of theVirginia Central Railroad. All told Randolph used 32 enslaved people to build two stretches of railbed.[11] In the 1860 federal census, Randolph owned one 3-year-old girl who lived with 28 slaves owned by his son Thomas Jefferson Randolph Jr. in Frederickville in Albemarle County, and 34 slaves who lived with him (16 of them 5 years old or younger).[12]
Albemarle County voters elected Thomas Randolph as one of their delegates (part-time) to theVirginia House of Delegates multiple times,[13] but also refused to elect him multiple times, instead often electingValentine W. Southall, who would eventually rise to become speaker of that historic legislative body. During several of Thomas Randolph's legislative terms, he often served alongsideAlexander Rives, younger brother ofWilliam C. Rives, who was this Randolph's friend since their school days and who had frequently visited Monticello and built his plantation homeCastle Hill nearby after marrying a daughter of Thomas Walker who owned that plantation.[14]
AfterNat Turner's slave rebellion of 1831, Randolph introduced apost natiemancipation plan in the Virginia House of Delegates.[15] This would have provided for gradual emancipation of children born into slavery after July 3, 1840, requiring that they serve an apprenticeship, then leave the state upon coming of age. It was defeated 73 to 58.[16][17] By 1850, however, Randolph had largely dispensed with his grandfather's commitment to eliminating slavery from Virginia, and actively adopted a proslavery ideology.[18]
In 1850, Randolph was elected to theVirginia Constitutional Convention of 1850, as one of four delegates jointly elected from Albemarle and adjoiningNelson andAmherst Counties.[19][20]
In 1829, Randolph publishedMemoir, Correspondence and Miscellanies: from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson. It was the first collection of Jefferson's writings. Shortly thereafter, he became a member of the Board of Visitors at the nearbyUniversity of Virginia.[2] Links to other of Thomas Jefferson Randolph's works are below.
Randolph also allowed his wife and unmarried sisters to teach school at what had been the original house on his Edgehill estate beginning in 1829. His sister Cornelia Randolph (1799-1871) taught painting, drawing and sculpture there before the American Civil War, during which she moved to Alexandria, Virginia to live with female relatives.[21]
From 1857 to 1864, Randolph served as therector of the University of Virginia, succeedingAndrew Stevenson.[22]
Albemarle County voters also elected Randolph along with Southall andJames P. Holcombe as their delegates to the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861.[23] His youngest brother,George Wythe Randolph, a U.S. navy veteran who had formed an artillery militia unit in Richmond in 1859, became one of Richmond's delegates to the convention and spoke in favor of secession at that convention. G.W. Randolph also drew praise during the one battle his artillery fought nearYorktown, and became the Confederate States Army Secretary of War for eight months in 1862. He would resign for health reasons but win election to the Virginia Senate for the remaining years of the war, though he would late in the war run the federal blockade in order to seek medical treatment, visiting spas in England and Europe before returning in 1866. During theAmerican Civil War, this Randolph held a colonel's commission in theConfederate Army, but likely never fought. Most planters (as owners of more than 10 slaves) were excused from active service.
Continuing his activity in politics after the war, Randolph served as the temporary chairman of the1872 Democratic National Convention.[24]
Randolph survived his wife by several years. He died at Edgehill on October 7, 1875, following a carriage accident, and was buried beside her in the Monticello family graveyard.[2] HisTufton estate is now part of Monticello, and hosts theThomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.[6] Some of his (and his family's letters) are now held by the University of Virginia library.[25]
The historian Henry S. Randall, in an 1868 letter toJames Parton, also a historian, wrote that "The 'Dusky Sally Story'--the story that Mr. Jefferson kept one of his slaves, (Sally Hemings) as his mistress and had children by her, was once extensively believed by respectable men..."[26] According to Randall, after Thomas Jefferson had died, his oldest grandson Randolph talked with the historian and personally noted the strong resemblance of the Hemings' children to his grandfather, their master.[a]
In the 1850s, Randolph told the biographer Henry Randall that Jefferson's nephew Peter Carr had been the father of Hemings' children. He also said that his mother had told him that Jefferson had been absent for 15 months prior to the birth of one of Sally Hemings' children, so could not have been the father.[26][b][c] In 1998, the Carrs were disproved as possible fathers ofEston Hemings, Sally's youngest son, by the results of aY-DNA study of their male descendants; no genetic link existed between the Carr and Hemings lines for the descendants of Eston Hemings. The test results showed a match between the Jefferson male line and the descendant of Hemings, but they showed nothing about the descendants of Sally Hemings's other children.[30]
The historian Andrew Burstein has said, "[T]he white Jefferson descendants who established the family denial in the mid-nineteenth century cast responsibility for paternity on two Jefferson nephews (children of Jefferson's sister) whose DNA was not a match. So, as far as can be reconstructed, there are no Jeffersons other than the president who had the degree of physical access to Sally Hemings that he did."[31]
she [Hemings] had children which resembled Mr. Jefferson so closely that it was plain that they had his blood in their veins.... He said in one instance, a gentleman dining with Mr. Jefferson, looked so startled as he raised his eyes from the latter to the servant behind him, that his discovery of the resemblance was perfectly obvious to all.[26]
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