As a Founding Father, former president of the United States, and primary author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson has a beloved and lasting legacy in America. But when he died in 1826, at 83 years old, he had little to physically leave behind. Future generations would comment on the odd coincidence of his Independence Day death. And while he left a will, what happened after his death was insanely complicated. Ultimately, the contradiction between Jefferson's wishes and the reality of what occurred speaks to his complex legacy. Here's who inherited Thomas Jefferson's money after he died.
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00:00A disastrous lottery, the loss of an entire library, and the fate of one very controversial
00:05relationship. Thomas Jefferson may have once had control of the country, but who controlled
00:10his estate after he died? Keep watching to find out.
00:14Though Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day, settling the two presidents'
00:18estates could not have been more different. While both incurred significant amounts of
00:22debt in their lifetimes, John Adams died debt-free and owned 275 acres of land. Thanks to help
00:28from his son, John Adams died in a position where he could bequeath both land and books
00:32to Quincy, Massachusetts, to start a school.
00:35Things did not run so smoothly for Thomas Jefferson, and much of what he bequeathed
00:39in his will never made it to his intended recipients. Jefferson was in debt for most
00:43of his life due to several factors. Much of his income relied on agriculture, which was
00:48not his strongest skill set. Compound that with a lavish lifestyle and debts inherited
00:52from family and friends, and he wasn't the fountain of wealth one might imagine.
00:58Jefferson spent his last months scrambling to sort out his affairs. He knew that he'd
01:01been afforded lenience as a founder of the Constitution and former president. Should
01:05his debts be passed down to his daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, she would not receive
01:10the same consideration.
01:11So Jefferson and his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, devised a scheme to resolve their
01:15financial woes — a lottery.
01:18Though initially well-received, the lottery was halted when a group of well-meaning citizens
01:22from New York offered to raise the money instead. To their disappointment, the money
01:27raised didn't come close to the amount needed. In the meantime, the lottery had lost much
01:31of its steam. Ever the optimist, Jefferson died believing that the lottery would solve
01:36his dire financial situation. His daughter, Martha, said that he died tranquil, so strong
01:41was his hope for the lottery.
01:43The Saturday Evening Post recalled that he even wrote to his grandson,
01:46"...as these misfortunes have been held back for my last days, when few remain to me, I
01:50duly acknowledge that I have gone through a long life, with fewer circumstances of affliction
01:55than are the lots of most men."
01:58His optimism did not match reality, and the public's enthusiasm for the lottery dwindled.
02:02Eventually, his family members canceled the lottery entirely.
02:06After Jefferson's death, his daughter, Martha, inherited his debts, as he feared. In 1831,
02:11she sold his Monticello home, and the 130 enslaved people held in bondage there. Eventually,
02:17his grandson took on paying back his grandfather's debts, the last payment occurring 50 years
02:21after Jefferson's death.
02:24Thomas Jefferson, who penned the sentiment,
02:26"...all men are created equal," famously had an ambivalent relationship with the true meaning
02:30of the words. Smithsonian Magazine reports that Jefferson traded his early abolitionist
02:35beliefs for the profits that chattel slavery afforded him as the plantation owner. As George
02:39Washington was planning emancipation at Mount Vernon, having disavowed slavery, Smithsonian
02:44Magazine says that Jefferson mortgaged the enslaved people he held to build Monticello.
02:49Out of the 600 enslaved people held on his estate over his lifetime, Jefferson had only
02:54freed two before his death. According to The Washington Post, his will only freed five
02:58more.
03:00The auction block meant family separation for the rest of the enslaved people held at
03:03Monticello. Families were sold to as many as eight different buyers, and the families
03:08of the five freed people were not spared from separation, either.
03:11Joseph Fawcett, freed by Jefferson's will, worked for 10 years to buy the rest of his
03:15family's freedom. In the end, he was only able to save his wife, while his four children
03:20remained enslaved.
03:21"...looked at in full, you find a man whose life was made possible by slavery."
03:28The brothers Madison and Eston Hemmings were two of the enslaved people freed by Jefferson's
03:33will. According to The New York Times, historical records and DNA evidence point to Jefferson
03:38as their biological father. Much is unknown about the nature of the relationship between
03:42Jefferson and their mother, Sally Hemmings, an enslaved woman held at Monticello. Jefferson
03:47fathered her six children, starting from when she was 16 years old. The complexities of
03:51the relationship have been debated for a long time, and while there's a lot that remains
03:56unknown, we do know that Sally Hemmings negotiated for the freedom of her children.
04:01Hemmings accompanied Jefferson's family to Paris, experiencing legal freedom and the
04:04vibrant cultural, artistic, and intellectual milieu. Two years later, pregnant, she refused
04:09to return to Virginia unless Jefferson agreed to extraordinary privileges for herself and
04:14freedom for her future children. Her daughters, Beverly and Harriet, were allowed to leave
04:18Monticello four years before Jefferson's death. Though never officially freed, they slipped
04:23into white society undiscovered, but unable to mention their roots or heritage.
04:28I stood up and I proudly said, Thomas Jefferson is my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.
04:33And the teacher said, sit down and stop telling lies.
04:37Jefferson never freed Sally Hemmings. After Jefferson's death, his daughter Martha Jefferson
04:41Randolph unofficially freed her and allowed her to move to Charlottesville, Virginia,
04:44to live with her sons.
04:47In addition to the Monticello plantation, Thomas Jefferson owned and ran the Poplar
04:51Forest Plantation. He had inherited the 4,819 acres in Bedford County, Virginia, from his
04:58father-in-law in 1773. Used primarily for tobacco, overseers and roughly 100 enslaved
05:03persons held in bondage operated the plantation, which also served as a favorite retreat.
05:09Jefferson turned over the property to his grandson, Francis Willis Eppes, in 1822, at
05:13the time of Eppes' marriage. Later, upon hearing of his grandfather's financial difficulties,
05:18Eppes tried to return Poplar Forest, but Jefferson refused. Later, Jefferson's will officially
05:23bequeathed the plantation to Eppes. Two years later, Eppes sold Poplar Forest and relocated
05:28to Florida, establishing another plantation.
05:31Jefferson was renowned for his library, but his debts compromised his personal library's
05:34fate. His will expresses his desire to donate his books to the University of Virginia. However,
05:40to settle his debts posthumously, the contents of Monticello's library were sold at two estate
05:45sales, one in Washington, D.C., and another in Philadelphia.
05:49Francis Eppes followed suit and sold the Poplar Forest library in New York City in
05:531873. Thomas Jefferson's will seems to be a fitting final document for the former president.
05:59The contradiction between his wishes and the reality at hand speaks to his complex legacy.