James Hemings
James Hemings died in 1801.  It is not clear if he killed himself.  One idea was that he died from drinking too much.  Gordon-Reed says that head chefs who ran kitchens, like James Hemings did, could become alcoholics. This was because chefs were allowed to drink alcohol from the house kitchens. It was also because there was a lot of pressure in the job.  Other historians say that a black man, even a free black men, in the late 1700s and early 1800s had a very, very hard life.