{"id":55152,"date":"2017-11-15T01:39:23","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T01:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=55152"},"modified":"2017-11-15T01:39:23","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T01:39:23","slug":"always-remember-youre-a-madison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=55152","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Always remember: You\u2019re a Madison\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Always remember: You\u2019re a Madison\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a>
\n2017-11-14<\/p>\n

Krissah Thompson<\/strong><\/a>, Feature Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nAt Montpelier<\/a>, four women with ties to the estate pose with the saliva<\/a> vials they used to test their DNA<\/a>. From left, Mary Alexander, descended from Madison\u2019s<\/a> slave Paul Jennings; Bettye Kearse; Conny Graft, descended from Madison\u2019s sister; and Leontyne Peck. (Eduardo Montes-Bradley\/Montpelier Foundation)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Oral history said she was descended from a president and an enslaved woman. But what would her DNA<\/a> say?<\/em><\/p>\n

ORANGE, Va.<\/a> \u2014 In her mind\u2019s eye, Bettye Kearse could see her ancestor walking the worn path that led from the big house to the slave quarters.<\/p>\n

She thought of that path each time she pulled up the long, winding driveway leading to Montpelier<\/a>, the rural Virginia<\/a> plantation that was once home to President James Madison<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I came here was in 1992, and the moment I actually got on the grounds I felt I belonged,\u201d said Kearse, a retired pediatrician who lives in the Boston area.<\/p>\n

As an African American descendant of slaves, her feelings about the Founding Father<\/a>, as a man and a historical figure, are decidedly ambivalent. But she has come to love his home. From the time she was a child, her mother had told her the family\u2019s known history began on Madison\u2019s property \u2014 and that they were, in fact, descendants of the president and an enslaved cook named Coreen. During each of her visits to Montpelier, Kearse felt the weight of her mother\u2019s daunting request that she carry their story through oral history, following in the West African tradition of griots<\/a>, or storytellers…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nJames Madison<\/a>, 4th president of the United States created 1835. (Library of Congress)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

…In 1834, two years before James Madison died, Betsey was purchased in Tennessee<\/a> as a \u201ccompanion\u201d for Emanuel \u2014 the first documented reference to Kearse\u2019s fore\u00adfather and foremother. In 1848, a slave owner named Jeptha Billingsley brought Emanuel and Betsey to Central Texas<\/a>. They apparently had the last name Madison before emancipation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All that Kearse\u2019s generation knows about the couple comes from the bill of sale and details in Billingsley\u2019s will. Betsey was a \u201clight mulatto<\/a> complexion Negro woman,\u201d born around 1815. Emanuel was \u201ca Negro man of dark complexion,\u201d somewhere between six and 10 years Betsey\u2019s senior. They had at least 11 children. Nine lived to adulthood…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oral history said she was descended from a president and an enslaved woman. But what would her DNA say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2039,459,8,6940,20,693],"tags":[27628,27629,27633,11440,27630,27631,27632,2875,2581],"class_list":["post-55152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-health-medicine","category-history","category-media-archive","category-slavery","category-usa","category-virginia","tag-bettye-kearse","tag-conny-graft","tag-james-madison","tag-krissah-thompson","tag-leontyne-peck","tag-mary-alexander","tag-montpelier","tag-the-washington-post","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55153,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55152\/revisions\/55153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}