Born in 1770 at Monticello, Hannah moved with her family to Poplar Forest as a teenager. There she met and married Solomon. Like others who married within the plantation community, Hannah established a new household with her husband. Jefferson likely rewarded the couple with a pot and a bed.

The fate of Solomon is unclear, but he was no longer living at Poplar Forest by the mid-1790's. He left behind his wife and three young children.

By 1810, Hannah married Hall, a plantation blacksmith and hogkeeper. The couple lived together with her five younger children. Hannah's last child was born in 1812.

Hannah worked in the fields and probably spent some of her time spinning flax and wool into yarn. Her mother, Cate, trained girls to spin, and Hannah might have learned that skill at an early age. By 1811, she served as Jefferson's housekeeper, preparing the house for his visits, cooking and washing for him, and greeting visitors in his absence. She may have lived in the dependency wing while Jefferson and his family visited.

Hannah could read and write, skills that she probably shared with other slaves. Archaeologists discovered pieces of a writing slate at a slave quarter, suggesting that at least one resident was literate. A single surviving letter written in 1818 from Hannah to Jefferson describes the state of the house and sends wishes for his health.

Hannah also expressed her Christian faith in the letter, one of the few hints that survive of the spiritual beliefs of people living at Poplar Forest. An African Meeting House stood nearby, and Poplar Forest residents might have attended services there on Sunday.

While Hannah's letter points to the importance of Christianity in her life, other Poplar Forest slaves maintained spiritual and healing practices derived from Africa. When Hall became ill in 1819, he believed that only a conjurer could cure him. Hannah's brother Phill used medicine from a "negroe doctor" provided by a fellow slave.  Both men probably died that year.

Hannah's life is last recorded in an 1821 provision list. Whether she lived beyond the sale of her son William and the breakup of the community following Jefferson's death is 1826 is unclear.