History Forum / General / General Topics / December 2006

The Farm Book by Thomas Jefferson

With light notes and annotations by Sam Sloan

The Farm Book is the primary source for all studies about Thomas
Jefferson and his slaves. It is a notebook kept and maintained by
Thomas Jefferson from 1774 until his death in 1826. Unlike his letters
and correspondence which Thomas Jefferson clearly intended to be kept
for posterity, the Farm Book contained his private notes that he
probably never imagined would be scrutinized and studied by future
generations.

The "Farm Book" derives its name from those two words that were written
on the inside cover. The Farm Book starts with the genealogy of his
favorite horse, Caractacus. It then moves on to the first inventory of
the Slaves of Thomas Jefferson: "A Roll of the proper slaves of Thomas
Jefferson, Jan. 14. 1774." There are 29 slaves listed here.

After Thomas Jefferson had inherited slaves from his father, his
mother, his father-and-law and his wife, after they all died, the
number of his slaves grew to 187, the most famous of whom was Sally
Hemings, his presumed mistress.

The question of whether Thomas Jefferson really fathered children by
Sally Hemings remains controversial. However, putting that aside, a
little appreciated fact is that the majority of slaves of Thomas
Jefferson were not at Monticello but were at Poplar Forest, in what is
now Lynchburg, Virginia. After Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, the
slaves at Monticello were sold at auction and were widely disbursed,
with the exceptions only of Sally Hemings and her two remaining sons.
This was because the land around Monticello was not suitable for
cultivation. However, the slaves at Poplar Forest, where the best
farmland was, stayed right where they were. Their descendants are still
there today, where they attend Jefferson Forest High School.

The Farm Book, which groups slaves by their slave families, with
husband, wife and children grouped together, needs to be studied in
detail by anybody interested in the genealogy of these slave families.

Sam Sloan