Maria Fossett
Cite this Page
"Maria Fossett," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/120.
- Position
- Unclear from Context Unclear from Context
- Years in President's House
- 1807 – 1809
- Legal Status
- Enslaved Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Presidency
- Thomas Jefferson
- Biography
- Maria Fossett was born to enslaved cook, Edith Hern Fossett, on October 27, 1807, at the White House. Her mother worked at the White House from 1802-1809, while her father, Joseph Fossett, was an enslaved blacksmith at Monticello. Details of Fossett’s childhood at the White House are unknown. Her brother, James, was also born at the White House in 1805. Fossett moved to Monticello in 1809 at the end of Jefferson’s presidency as her mother took over the Monticello kitchen.1 When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, Maria Fossett was part of a large estate sale. It is unknown who she was sold to and details of her later life remain unknown.2
- Thomas Jefferson, Farm Book, 1774-1824, page 128, [electronic edition]. Thomas Jefferson Papers: An Electronic Archive. Boston, Mass. : Massachusetts Historical Society, 2003. http://www.thomasjeffersonpapers.org/; Lina Mann, "Slavery and French Cuisine in Jefferson’s Working White House," The White House Historical Association, November 16, 2018, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/slavery-and-french-cuisine-in-jeffersons-working-white-house.
- Lucia Stanton, “Those Who Labor for My Happiness:" Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, (Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 2012), 202.
- Birthplace
- Washington, D.C., USA
- Unclear from Context
- Related Workers
- Edith Hern FossettKitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1802 – 1809
- James Fossett1805 – 1809