Hemings was a slave, the half sister of Jefferson's wife. Over the years it has been debated if indeed Jefferson had an affair with Hemings. From the website www.monticello.org
"In September 1802, political journalist, James T. Callender, a disappointed office-seeker who had once been an ally of Jefferson, wrote in a Richmond newspaper that Jefferson had for many years "kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves." "Her name is Sally," Callender continued, adding that Jefferson had "several children" by her. Although there had been rumors of a sexual relationship between Jefferson and a slave before 1802, Callender's article spread the story widely. It was taken up by Jefferson's Federalist opponents and was published in many newspapers during the remainder of Jefferson's presidency."
Of course this will be denied over and over again for years, for centuries. Perhaps people just could not accept the possibility of Jefferson having an affair with a slave. Only until 1988 when DNA evidence showed that indeed Jefferson fathered Hemings' children.
Some information on Sally Hemings:
- Sally Hemings (1773-1835) was a slave at Monticello; she lived in Paris with Jefferson and two of his daughters from 1787 to 1789; and she had at least six children.
- Sally Hemings' duties included being a nursemaid-companion to Thomas Jefferson's daughter Maria (c. 1784-1787), lady's maid to daughters Martha and Maria (1787-1797), and chambermaid and seamstress (1790s-1827).
- There are no known images of Sally Hemings and only four known descriptions of her appearance or demeanor.
- Sally Hemings left no known written accounts. It is not known if she was literate.
- In the few scattered references to Sally Hemings in Thomas Jefferson's records and correspondence, there is nothing to distinguish her from other members of her family.
- Thomas Jefferson was at Monticello at the likely conception times of Sally Hemings' six known children. There are no records suggesting that she was elsewhere at these times, or records of any births at times that would exclude Jefferson paternity.
- There are no indications in contemporary accounts by people familiar with Monticello that Sally Hemings' children had different fathers.
- Sally Hemings' children were light-skinned, and three of them (daughter Harriet and sons Beverly and Eston) lived as members of white society as adults.
- According to contemporary accounts, some of Sally Hemings' children strongly resembled Thomas Jefferson.
- Thomas Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings' children: Beverly and Harriet were allowed to leave Monticello in 1822; Madison and Eston were released in Jefferson's 1826 will. Jefferson gave freedom to no other nuclear slave family.
- Thomas Jefferson did not free Sally Hemings. She was permitted to leave Monticello by his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph not long after Jefferson's death in 1826, and went to live with her sons Madison and Eston in Charlottesville.
- Several people close to Thomas Jefferson or the Monticello community believed that he was the father of Sally Hemings' children.
- Eston Hemings changed his name to Eston Hemings Jefferson in 1852.
- Madison Hemings stated in 1873 that he and his siblings Beverly, Harriet, and Eston were Thomas Jefferson's children.
- The descendants of Madison Hemings who have lived as African-Americans have passed a family history of descent from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings down through the generations.
- Eston Hemings' descendants, who have lived as whites, have passed down a family history of being related to Thomas Jefferson. In the 1940s, family members changed this history to state that an uncle of Jefferson's, rather than Jefferson himself, was their ancestor.
The source was an acknowledgment by the heirs of Jefferson. It shows that Jefferson indeed had an affair with Hemings. It took DNA testing for this statement to come to fruition.
Source:
| "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account." www.monticello.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. <http://www.monticello.org/site/ plantation-and-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-brief-account>. |
Photo from wikipedia.com
