Jefferson's Chef

When Thomas Jefferson left his well-ordered Monticello Plantation for Paris in 1784 to negotiate trade treaties for America, he took the enslaved James Hemings with him as his manservant. Having taught Hemings to read and play the violin at Monticello, Jefferson now has him trained in the finest of French cuisine. Living in Paris, where the French had abolished slavery, Hemings discovers an independence, a skill, and a romance beyond his imagination. Torn between family and freedom as the French Revolution erupts, Hemings makes a choice that changes Jefferson and America.

This imagines biography is based on extensive research into Hemings’ life, including letters, diaries, Jefferson’s farm accounts, and other primary materials, as well as the well documented historical accounts of Jefferson’s life. Combining the political and personal, “Jefferson’s Chef James Hemings – From Slavery to Freedom” creates a unique and intimate portrait of two exceptional men and discloses why Hemings was the only one of Jefferson’s hundreds of slaves who was unconditionally freed during Jefferson’s lifetime.