Julia Jefferson Westerinen was a proud Staten Islander, accomplished artist, teacher, talented saleswoman, and devoted mother. In her childhood, she dreamed of becoming a diplomat someday. It never happened, but late in her life, the revelation of her long-buried family secrets put Julia at the center of controversy for 200 years and brought her into the spotlight. Her diplomatic skills were put to the test.
The controversy concerned Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings. It is rumored that during his time in office, he had six children with Hemings, four of whom lived to adulthood, and that it was because of Hemings’ paternity that Jefferson emancipated them in his will. had a family (Jefferson did not free other slaves) and he owned over 600 slaves). The youngest of those children, Eston Hemings Jefferson, married and moved to Wisconsin, where he entered a white community and raised his children as white.
Historians have long dismissed these rumors as untrue, as have many of the descendants of Jefferson and his wife Martha. But the rumors remained. Then, in 1998, DNA testing revealed that Eston Hemings Jefferson’s descendants were indeed direct descendants of Jefferson and Hemings.
Julia Jefferson Westerinen, Eston’s great-great-granddaughter, discovered the truth about her ancestry at the age of 64.
Julia was born in 1934 in Evanston, Illinois. Her father, William McGill Jefferson, was an accountant who fought in World War II (he was 36 years old at the time of his enlistment and his fellow soldiers nicknamed him “Grandpa” ). William and his siblings knew from family lore that they were descendants of Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings. He and his brother decided to keep the knowledge secret. Instead, they told their children that they were descendants of one of Jefferson’s uncles, omitting any African American ancestry altogether.
Julia attended George School in Pennsylvania. She studied French believing that being fluent in the language would help her land a job in international relations.
After Julia graduated, her family moved to Elkton, Maryland, where Julia’s mother became head librarian at the Cecil County Library. Julia enrolled at the University of Delaware, where she majored in history.
At the age of 19, Julia met her future husband, Emil Westerinen, at a book club organized by her mother. “She took one look at my father and knew he was her future,” said her daughter Dorothy Westerinen.
Emil and Julia had five children in Elkton (one died shortly after birth). It was the era of the civil rights movement, and they lived in the South. “There was a lot of racial tension, but my parents said, ‘All people of color are equal. Don’t think of them as less than that,'” Dorothy said.
In 1968, the family moved to Grimes Hill. This was a welcome change for Julia. Already a talented artist, she took classes at the Art Student’s League. She worked with oil paint, pastels, charcoal, and ink. She excelled at portraiture. “She was able to capture people’s faces and souls on canvas. She had a magical feeling,” Dorothy said.
Julia herself had a winning smile and hazel eyes. Her daughter says, “Her face remained lineless and young-looking for most of her life, but she let her hair go gray from an early age because she felt no need to hide her age. I wasn’t interested in fashion, but I made sure to dress well.”
Julia earned money by painting portraits and had solo exhibitions at galleries in Manhattan. However, she wanted to teach, and she earned her master’s degree in education from Rutgers University.
It was around this time in 1974 that Julia first learned the truth about her ancestry. Historian Fawn Brody has published books such as: Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. One of Julia’s cousins read it and realized that the name Eston Jefferson was one of their ancestors. She contacted Fawn Brody.
Historians became interested in the relationship and investigated it further. She published her own findings in her magazine article, claiming that Julia and her cousins were actually descendants of the third president and his slave, Sally Hemings.
However, her evidence was circumstantial, and most Jefferson scholars and legitimate descendants categorically denied that Jefferson fathered any children with Sally. They continued to disprove the speculation when Annette Gordon-Reed published her seminal book on the subject in 1997. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy.
DNA testing changed everything. In 1998, scientist Dr. Eugene Foster examined Julia’s younger brother, John Weeks Jefferson. The results showing that John and Julia are the great-great-grandchildren of Jefferson and Hemings were shocking. “The news exploded,” Dorothy said. “There was a photographer outside the house.”
Oprah Winfrey flew Julia to Chicago to appear on her show. Oprah also invited descendants of Eston’s older brother, Madison Hemings, who married a black woman and lives as part of the African-American community, and whose descendants are black. Her Oprah show also featured author Lucien Truscott, one of Thomas Jefferson’s legitimate descendants.
Truscott invited descendants of the Hemming family, including Julia, to attend the Jefferson family reunion at Monticello. “He said, ‘You guys are my cousins.’ I want you to come,” Dorothy said.
But when Julia attended a reunion at Jefferson’s mansion in Virginia with her new black cousins, she realized that many other legitimate descendants of Jefferson were not as welcoming as Truscott. “We were not greeted politely by most of the people there,” Dorothy said. “It was really unpleasant. We had never experienced prejudice before, so it was very shocking.”
But there was a silver lining to that trip. Julia connected with her black cousin, Shay Banks Young. “They bonded right away,” Dorothy said. “They saw something in each other.”
Julia and Shay had a long discussion about race and what it means to be black in America. Julia spoke frankly about things she didn’t understand. “She was very open to learning about it and willing to correct and teach,” Dorothy said.
Julia and Shay soon realized that their conversations could enlighten others and embarked on a lecture series called “Conversations in Black and White.” They spoke on college campuses and on radio and television programs. “I think they helped shine a light on people’s unconscious attitudes toward race,” Dorothy said.
In later years, Julia took a job selling office furniture to corporate clients. This was a career that combined her eye for design with her excellent social skills. “She had a great talent for making people feel comfortable,” Dorothy said. “She became friends with everyone she sold furniture to.”
Apart from her role in this historical revelation and her decision to turn it into a learning experience for herself and others, Julia will be remembered for her kindness, generosity and hospitality. Probably. Her home was always open to anyone who needed a hot meal or a place to stay. “When my friends and my brother’s friends got into fights with their parents and got kicked out, her mother took them in right away, sometimes for months at a time,” Dorothy said. said. “She was a generous, loving, wonderful person. No matter what was going on, we always knew she was loved. I wish I could have had a mother like her.” I was lucky.”
Julia is survived by her children Jeff, Dorothy, Arthur, and Marshall, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.