Edith Hern Fossett

Edith “Edy” Hern Fossett was born enslaved on April 10, 1787, on Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. She grew up at Monticello and married Joseph Fossett, an enslaved man who worked as a nail maker and blacksmith.¹ 

In 1802, at fifteen years old, Edith went to the White House to train with French chef Honoré Julien. Jefferson brought Edy to the White House to replace Ursula Granger Hughes, another enslaved teenager who returned to Monticello. She was likely selected for this role because of her age, gender, and strong family ties to Monticello.² As an enslaved person, she was not paid a wage for her work. However, Jefferson did pay her a $2.00 gratuity each month.³ Edith’s husband, Joseph, stayed back at Monticello during the entirety of her White House tenure and they infrequently saw each other. In 1806, after receiving some distressing news, Joseph ran away from Monticello to see Edith at the White House. He was apprehended at the White House and sent back to Monticello.⁴ Edith gave birth to three children at the White House. Their first child was born in January 1803, but passed away shortly after birth. In January 1805 she gave birth to a son James and in October 1807 gave birth to a daughter, Maria. Maria and James stayed with Edith at the White House until Jefferson’s presidency ended in 1809 as she balanced her duties in the kitchen with raising her children. In the kitchen, she trained alongside her sister-in-law, Frances (Fanny) Gillette Hern.⁵ 

In 1809, Edith and her children returned to Monticello. She became the head cook at Monticello, working alongside Frances and cooking elaborate meals for Jefferson and guests during his retirement. In 1824, Massachusetts representative Daniel Webster described her cooking, “in half Virginian, half French style, in good taste and abundance.⁶ Edith and her husband had six more children together at Monticello. 

When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, there was an enormous debt to settle. Although her husband was freed in Jefferson’s will, Edith and two of her children were purchased at Jefferson’s January 1, 1827, estate sale for $505 by Joseph Fossett’s brother-in-law, Jesse Scott. In 1837, Joseph freed Edith, five of their children, and four of their grandchildren. The family chose to resettle in the free state of Ohio. Edith died on September 10, 1854, and was buried at Union Baptist Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.⁷