I won’t claim to be unbiased on this subject, but I can be fair and present both sides of the argument. There is even a third view that Jefferson barely knew Sally and definitely didn’t know her in the biblical sense, which I will give the attention it deserves. Let’s start there.
When the claims that Thomas Jefferson fathered six children by Sally Hemings grew to a loud crescendo, the denials became louder still, mostly coming from the Jefferson family. Most of the evidence pointing to the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings came from the oral history passed down through the Hemings family and the recollections of Madison Hemings, published in the Pike County Republican, March 13, 1873. The section quoted below begins after Jefferson was appointed as Minister to France:
This Madison Hemings account has been assailed many times since printed. It was unacceptable to many that the author of the Declaration of Independence could have fathered several children by an enslaved woman, though it was perfectly legal at the time. An argument often made is that we shouldn’t judge historical figures by today’s standards. The standard of that time, incorporated into law by Partus Sequitur Ventrem, made the rape of enslaved women legal and ensured all children of the mother would also be enslaved. The fathers (especially the white ones) would have no responsibility for the children.
Thomas Jefferson advocated for “managed” procreation with the goal of Black women producing a child every two years to stay on target. He wrote George Washington a letter suggesting he invest in enslaved people and about the greater value of a child-bearing woman vs. a field hand.
“I consider a woman who brings a child every two years as more profitable than the best man of the farm; what she produces is an addition to the capital, while his labors disappear in mere consumption.” — Thomas Jefferson.”
When Henry Wiencek wrote his 2010 book, “Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and his Slaves, he wrote about Jefferson’s focus on profitability and forced breeding. That was countered by Annette Gordon-Reed, a Black historian who points out Wieneck’s “hatred for Jefferson” while apologizing for Jefferson in her 2012 article in Slate Magazine, “Thomas Jefferson Was Not a Monster.” Jefferson apologists come in every race and gender.
A story appeared in print in 1802 in the Richmond Recorder when another Jefferson hater, James Callender, wrote about the then President and his enslaved mistress.
“IT is well known that the man, whom it delighteth the people to honor, keeps, and for many years past has kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves,” the story began. “Her name is SALLY.”
Callender noted earlier references in 1800 and 1801 in the Gazette of the United States. The relationship was a subject of gossip among Virginia gentlemen and described in a 1794 letter from his then friend John Adams to his son John Quincy Adams. Jefferson’s defenders said little in response because Jefferson himself never denied the claims. The woman he didn’t acknowledge was widely known as “Dashing Sally” and “Dusky Sally,” her room was next to Jefferson’s with a connecting doorway. Many tried and failed to make the case that Jefferson wasn’t home at Monticello during some of the times their children were conceived. They pointed to his younger brother Randolph or nephew Isham as possible doers of the deeds. Neither was in Paris with Sally and Thomas when their first child was conceived. That child died during childbirth, so to the deniers, that conception never happened; similar to the words of a recent President, “he barely knew her.” Hemings deniers also point to a child not proven to have come from Hemings but definitely shown not to be a Jefferson according to DNA is proof that Jefferson never touched Sally.
Moving on to those who advocate a great romance that lasted 38 years, they acknowledge Jefferson and Hemings were involved intimately. They created a myth of passion and love when legally and practically, Sally could never refuse. They point to Sally’s opportunity to attain freedom; she could have sought relief from the French courts where enslavement wasn’t allowed (the French were certainly profiting from slavery in their Haitian colony, though). Sally would have had to believe that the courts would have taken her side against one of the most powerful men in the world. This was possible but was it likely? We’ll never know because Sally agreed with Thomas that if she returned, their children would be freed at age twenty-one, a promise Jefferson didn’t keep, allowing two to leave without freeing them, one at age twenty-four. Another was released when twenty-two, only after Jefferson died, and the last child wasn’t yet twenty-one when freed in Jefferson’s will, so we’ll never know if he would have kept the promise even once.
To be fair to Jefferson. He did allow their daughter Harriet to leave while twenty-one and gave her fifty dollars. Still, letting someone go without chasing them isn’t nearly the same as freeing them without documentation. Beverly and Harriet would have had to look over their shoulders the rest of their lives for the slave patrols. They pretended to be white, marrying white spouses, taking their chances of being discovered or producing children too dark to explain easily.
There are multiple works of fiction; in literature and on the big and little screens where Jefferson and Hemings were portrayed as a loving couple. Hopefully, the basis for your knowledge didn’t come from “Sally Hemings- An American Scandal,” a four-hour mini-series indicating they were lovers. Here is the summary:
Barbara Chase-Riboud wrote “Sally Hemings” and weaved a romantic tale around known history. To one needing to believe, it must sound quite convincing. Like many others, Chase-Riboud points to the fact that Sally could have remained in Paris if she wanted to; why else would she have returned with Jefferson if not for love? My question would be, why would she ever have suggested she’d stay in Paris and not return with a man she was so much in love with?
I’ve provided sources for any wishing to chase down the rabbit holes, suggesting Jefferson barely knew Hemings or their relationship was willing. The truth is that Sally couldn’t consent; she had no legal right to refuse; she could only submit to rape, pretending willingness for the sake of her extended family that could be sold off or worse at a whim.
Girls were indeed presumed to be women earlier in those days. But if children weren’t of legal age until twenty-one for the purpose of freeing them, the fourteen-year-old Hemings couldn’t be deemed an adult when Jefferson took her to Paris. I don’t know when the rapes started; she could have been fifteen or possibly sixteen when it began. The only term that accurately describes what happened between them at any age is rape.
There’s a term for Sally and Thomas’s arrangement regarding their children; it’s called blackmail. She announced her intention to stay in France and be free, and he held her family over her head to induce her to return. It may feel strange to think of the third President of the United States as a rapist. That didn’t make him different than hundreds of other plantation owners throughout the South. Jefferson happens to be one where the hypocrisy between his actions and words. This might be one of those examples that makes some people feel bad that they’d rather not learn. Jefferson was performing (legal) rape, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise. Well, I can think of one.
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This post was previously published on Black History Month 365.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism | Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box | The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men |
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