Thomas Jefferson not only wrote Declaration of Independence and served as president, he was also a farmer and gourmet. Which important figures in Jefferson's day to day made this lifestyle possible?

Answer 1

It was the enslaved people who were, by law, Jefferson's property, who enriched Jefferson's life and hobbies. Thomas Jefferson grew up in a white, wealthy and slaveholding Virginian family. As an adult, he bought several farm properties, among them the well known Monticello estate. He owned several hundred enslaved African and African American people, among them the Hemings family, who were the former property of his wife's family. Sally Hemings served as Jefferson's romantic and sexual companion for much of his later life (the consensuality of this relationship is still debated). Sally's brother, Peter, was a professionally trained chef and brewer who headed the culinary affairs of Jefferson's estates. Both of these enslaved individuals accompanied Jefferson in his years in Paris.