Fountain Hughes

Who was Fountain Hughes?

Fountain Hughes was born a slave in Charlottesville, Virginia in the United States and freed after the American Civil War in 1865. He worked as a laborer for most of his life, moving from Virginia to Baltimore, Maryland in 1881. He was interviewed in June 1949 about his life by the Library of Congress as part of the Federal Writers' Project.

He was a grandson of Wormley Hughes and Ursula Granger, and great-great-grandson of Betty Hemings, the slave matriarch at Monticello. Wormley Hughes and his family were owned by President Thomas Jefferson at the time of his death. The recorded interview is online through the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library.