Isaac Jefferson - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Isaac Jefferson, also likely known as Isaac Granger (1775 - ca. 1850) was a valued, enslaved

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

artisan

Artisan

An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...

of U.S. President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

; he crafted and repaired products as a tinsmith

Tinsmith

A tinsmith, or tinner or tinker or tinplate worker, is a person who makes and repairs things made of light-coloured metal, particularly tinware...

, blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

, and nailer at Monticello

Monticello

Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...

.

Although Thomas Jefferson gave Isaac and his family to his daughter Maria and her husband John Wayles Eppes

John Wayles Eppes

John Wayles Eppes was an attorney, a United States Representative and a Senator from Virginia. One of the planter class, he married his first cousin Maria Jefferson, the youngest surviving daughter of Martha Wayles Skelton and Thomas Jefferson...

in 1797 as a wedding gift, Isaac Jefferson/Granger appeared to gain his freedom by 1822, according to his memoir. In the 1840 census he was recorded as Isaac Granger, a free man working in Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...

. The Rev. Charles Campbell interviewed him there and published his memoir under the name of Isaac Jefferson in 1847. Granger/Jefferson describes Thomas Jefferson as a master, and his part in the lives of his slaves.

Early life

Born into slavery in 1775, Isaac was the third son of Ursula and Great George. His father rose in the hierarchy from foreman of labor to become overseer

Overseer

Rob Overseer is an English DJ/producer, born in Leeds whose works have been included in soundtracks for Animatrix, Snatch, Any Given Sunday and The Girl Next Door, as well as video games like Need for Speed: Underground, NFL Gameday 2004, several Matchstick Productions ski films, and Stuntman,...

of Monticello in 1797, the only slave to reach that position under Thomas Jefferson. He was paid an annual wage of £20. In 1773 Jefferson had purchased Isaac's mother Ursula, and she became a highly trusted domestic servant. She served as a pastry cook and laundress, with duties including meat preservation and the bottling of cider. Isaac's older brothers were George and Bagwell.

Isaac spent his childhood on the plantation near his parents. His early tasks included carrying fuel, lighting fires, and opening gates. Because Jefferson took Great George, Ursula and their family with him to Williamsburg

Williamsburg, Virginia

Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...

and Richmond

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

when he was elected governor

Governor of Virginia

The governor of Virginia serves as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia for a four-year term. The position is currently held by Republican Bob McDonnell, who was inaugurated on January 16, 2010, as the 71st governor of Virginia....

, the boy Isaac witnessed dramatic events during the Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

. He later recounted vivid memories of 1781, including Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold V was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army but later defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces...

's raid on Richmond and seeing the internment camp for captured slaves at Yorktown

Yorktown, Virginia

Yorktown is a census-designated place in York County, Virginia, United States. The population was 220 in the 2000 census. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1634....

Service at Monticello

Probably about 1790 at the age of 15, Isaac began his apprentice training in the metalworking trades. As president, Jefferson took Isaac as part of his household to Philadelphia, where the youth was apprenticed for several years to a tinsmith

Tinsmith

A tinsmith, or tinner or tinker or tinplate worker, is a person who makes and repairs things made of light-coloured metal, particularly tinware...

. This was a skilled and valued trade. Isaac Jefferson's account is the only source for this aspect of his working life. He learned to make graters, pepper boxes and tin cups, about four dozen a day.

After the household's return to Monticello, the president set up a tin shop, but Isaac said that it did not succeed economically. Training as a blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

under his older brother Little George, Isaac added to his skills. Sometime after 1794, he became a nailer as well, and was assigned to both nail making and smithing.

Marriage and family

By 1796, Isaac had a wife named Iris and a son Joyce. He was working extra hours in the blacksmith shop making chain traces, for which Jefferson gave him three pence a pair. According to Jefferson's records, Isaac was a most productive nailer. In the first three months of that year, he made 507 pounds of nails in 47 days, wasting the least amount of nail rod in the process. He earned the highest daily return for his master: the equivalent of eighty-five cents a day.

Moving from Monticello

In October 1797, Thomas Jefferson gave Isaac, his wife Iris, and their sons Joyce and Squire to his daughter Maria and John Wayles Eppes

John Wayles Eppes

as part of their marriage settlement. This was customary practice in those years by planters

Planters

Planters is an American snack food company, a division of Kraft Foods, best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentile for a 1916 contest to design the company's brand icon...

who had sufficient slave holdings. He also gave them the 14-year-old slave Betsy Hemmings

Mary Hemings

Mary Hemings, also known as Mary Hemings Bell , was born into slavery, most likely in Charles City County, Virginia, as the oldest child of Elizabeth Hemings, a mixed-race slave held by John Wayles...

.

Jefferson's grandson Thomas Mann Randolph needed a blacksmith and hired Isaac from Eppes. Isaac and his young family moved from Buckingham County to the Randolph plantation of Edgehill

Edgehill

Edgehill or Edghill may refer to:*Edgehill College, an independent school situated in Bideford, Devon, England*Edgehill, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States*Ella Mary Edghill, British translator...

in Albemarle County in 1798. Their daughter, Maria, was born soon after. As some of Isaac's memories suggest that he lived at Monticello during Jefferson's retirement years, he may have accompanied Martha Jefferson Randolph

Martha Jefferson Randolph

Martha Washington Jefferson Randolph was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. She was born in Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia and was named in honor of her mother and of Martha Washington, wife of...

and her children there in 1809, when she moved to help her father.

In 1799 and 1800, Isaac's parents and brother Little George all died within a few months of each other. While ill, the family members consulted a black conjurer living in Buckingham County. (This showed the persistence of African traditions within the slave community.) Shortly after Great George's death, Thomas Jefferson gave Isaac $11, the value of "his moiety of a colt left him by his father."

In 1812 an Isaac belonging to Thomas Mann Randolph ran away and was caught and imprisoned in Bath County

Bath County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 5,048 people, 2,053 households, and 1,451 families residing in the county. The population density was 10 people per square mile . There were 2,896 housing units at an average density of 5 per square mile...

. It is unknown whether this was Isaac the blacksmith. Randolph had records of owning at least one other Isaac in this period.

Freedom and memoir

How Isaac gained his freedom is unknown. His memoir recounts that he left Albemarle County

Albemarle County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 79,236 people, 31,876 households, and 21,070 families residing in the county. The population density was 110 people per square mile . There were 33,720 housing units at an average density of 47 per square mile...

about four years before Jefferson's death, or around 1822. He met and talked to the French general, the Marquis de Lafayette

Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette , often known as simply Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer born in Chavaniac, in the province of Auvergne in south central France...

, in Richmond in 1824.

Recent research by staff at Monticello discovered that Isaac Jefferson may have taken the name Isaac Granger in freedom, or used it before that in the slave community. Someone else may have later mistakenly assigned him the name of Jefferson. In the 1840 census of Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg, Virginia

, a free black man was listed as Isaac Granger, and his family members and age match what is known of Isaac Jefferson. In 1847, Granger was working as a free man in Petersburg as a blacksmith, at the age of seventy-two.

His recollections, taken down by the Rev. Charles Campbell and published as a memoir that year, do not say whether he took the surname Jefferson by choice or whether a white man imposed it, as was the case with his fellow Monticello slave Israel Jefferson

Israel Jefferson

Israel Jefferson, known as Israel Gillette before the 1840s , was born a slave at Monticello, the plantation estate of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States...

. His memoir was published again in 1951 by the historian Rayford Logan. Isaac recounted details about the relationship of Thomas Jefferson and the Hemings (or Hemmings) family. Isaac claimed that Sally Hemings

Sally Hemings

Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...

and at least some of her siblings "was old Mr. Wayles’ children”, referring to Jefferson's father-in-law John Wayles

John Wayles

John Wayles was a planter, slave trader and lawyer in the Virginia Colony. He is historically best known as the father-in-law of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States....

. This adds weight to other historic testimony that Sally Hemings was the half sister of the president's wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson

Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson

Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, born Martha Wayles was the wife of Thomas Jefferson, who was the third President of the United States. It was her second marriage, as her first husband had died young...

. The memoir describes the integral role which the Betty Hemings

Betty Hemings

Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings was an American enslaved woman of mixed race, who in 1761 became the concubine of the planter John Wayles of Virginia. He had become a widower for the third time. He had six children with her over a 12-year period...

family played as domestic servants, skilled artisans and craftsmen, and staff who ran the president's mansion.

The fate of Isaac's wife Iris and their two sons is unknown. In 1847 at the time of his memoir, Isaac was married to his second wife. Rev. Charles Campbell wrote that Isaac Jefferson died "a few years after these his recollections were taken down. He bore a good character."

The Monticello staff found another reference to the Granger surname in Monticello and related records: in the 1870 census of Albemarle County, an Archy Granger and his family were living at Edgehill Plantation, then owned by Thomas Jefferson Randolph

Thomas Jefferson Randolph

Thomas Jefferson Randolph of Albemarle County was a planter and politician who served in the Virginia House of Delegates, was rector of the University of Virginia, and was a colonel in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War...

, Thomas Jefferson's grandson. They worked for Randolph's sister Septimia Randolph Meikleham.

Thomas J. Randolph had purchased Archy from Monticello after his grandfather Jefferson's death in 1826, when most slaves were sold to pay off debts of the estate. Archy Granger matches in age plantation records of Archy, the son of Bagwell and Minerva of Monticello. (He was thus the grandson of Great George and Ursula.) In addition, Randolph family letters document an Archy Granger and his family at their plantation of Edgehill. He appears to have been the nephew of Isaac (Jefferson) Granger.

External links