Granger was born around 1738. In January 1773, she was purchased in a bidding war and enslaved by Thomas Jefferson,[5] and she became a highly trusted domestic servant within Jefferson's household.[6]Martha Jefferson had specifically written that she was "very desirious to get a favorite house woman of the name Ursula."[7] Granger was purchased along with her sons and, later, her husband, George Granger Sr.[8] Her husband became referred to as "Great George," and was a farm foreman and Monticello's only African American
overseer.[9]
Granger fell ill[16] in late 1799 and died in the spring of 1800, aged 61 or 62.[17][18] Granger, her husband, and her son George Granger Jr. all died within months of each other in 1799 and 1800.[7]
Granger's youngest son,
Isaac, using the surname Jefferson, survived into the 1840s as a free man in
Petersburg, Virginia, and his recollections of life at Monticello were recorded.[19] Her granddaughter,
Ursula Granger Hughes, was named after her and briefly served as an enslaved
White House chef when Jefferson became president.[3] The last surviving recorded interview of a person enslaved by Thomas Jefferson was in 1949 with
Fountain Hughes, a descendant of Granger.[20][21]
Legacy
The excavated and restored first kitchen of Monticello, referred to as the "Granger/Hemings Kitchen," is exhibited with details about the life of Ursula Granger,
Sally Hemings, and "other enslaved cooks and chefs who helped create early American cuisine."[22]
^"From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, 4 February 1800," Founders Online, National Archives,
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-31-02-0304 . [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 31, 1 February 1799 – 31 May 1800, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. 359–361.]
^"To Thomas Jefferson from Martha Jefferson Randolph, 30 January 1800," Founders Online, National Archives,
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-31-02-0294 . [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 31, 1 February 1799 – 31 May 1800, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. 347–348.]
^"To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Mann Randolph, [ca. 19 April 1800]," Founders Online, National Archives,
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-31-02-0437 . [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 31, 1 February 1799 – 31 May 1800, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. 522–524.]