Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings was an enslaved woman born in 1773, likely the daughter of an enslaved mother and possibly her owner's son, John Wayles. After her family was transferred to Thomas Jefferson and his wife, Martha, Hemings lived at the Jefferson estate, Monticello, where she worked in various roles, including seamstress and nursemaid. Hemings' life took a significant turn when she traveled to France with Jefferson's daughter, where her exact circumstances remain unclear. Upon returning to Monticello, she bore at least six children, four of whom survived infancy.
Speculation about Hemings' relationship with Jefferson arose during his presidency, with many historians believing he fathered her children, although the nature of their relationship—whether consensual or coercive—remains debated. Hemings and her children were eventually granted freedom, with her descendants continuing to seek acknowledgment from Jefferson's family. Hemings' story highlights the complex and often troubling intersections of race, identity, and the legacy of slavery in early America, providing insight into the contradictions of a nation that espoused liberty while upholding slavery.
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Sally Hemings
- Born: 1773
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Died: 1835
- Place of death: Charlottesville, Virginia
Slave
A house slave in one of the most famous Revolutionary era homes, Hemings has become famous as the woman who many believe gave birth to Thomas Jefferson’s children. Although she was known for her quiet dignity as a constant companion to the Jefferson family, her story and that of her descendants illustrates the complexity of race relations in American history.
Area of achievement: Social issues
Early Life
Sally Hemings was born into slavery in 1773 to Elizabeth “Betty” Hemings. Her father’s identity was not officially recorded but it might have been her owner, John Wayles. One year later, the small Hemings family was transferred along with other property to Wayles’s daughter and son-in-law, Martha and Thomas Jefferson, after Wayles’s death. In 1776, the year Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, Hemings and her mother moved to the Jeffersons’ home, Monticello, where they probably stayed in one of the estate’s small buildings designated as slave quarters.
In 1787, Hemings moved with the Jeffersons’ daughter Mary to Eppington, Virginia, where they lived with Mary’s aunt. That year, Hemings, who was fourteen years old, and nine-year-old Mary traveled to France to join Jefferson, who was in Europe on behalf of the new United States of America. The traveling party first stopped in London, where Mary and Hemings stayed with United States ambassador and future president John Adams and his wife, Abigail, before moving on to Paris, where Jefferson resided. While in France, Mary and her sister Martha attended boarding school; Hemings’s place of residence at this time is unknown.
The Jeffersons and Hemings returned to Monticello in December, 1789, where Hemings continued to serve the household. In her capacity as a house servant, Hemings worked as a seamstress, nursemaid, ladies’ attendant, and performed other duties as required.
Life’s Work
Although it is sometimes omitted from discussions of America’s Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Hemings became a matter of public speculation during his presidency because of assertions by a disillusioned former friend. Jefferson’s many political opponents spread the rumors about the third president in the attempt to prevent him from winning a second term. Jefferson, who was normally a prolific writer and speaker, appears to have remained silent on the issue and on other politically motivated attacks focused on his extended family.
During her life as Jefferson’s slave, Hemings bore at least six children, four of whom survived childhood: Beverly, Eston, Harriet, and Madison Hemings. Because of their light skin, at least three of her children were able to “pass” as white and only Madison raised his own family as African American although he maintained that he was the son of Thomas Jefferson.
Hemings’s children were freed as young adults; Eston and Madison were freed according to Jefferson’s instructions in his will, while Beverly and Harriet had been allowed to leave Monticello before Jefferson’s death. Jefferson’s daughter Martha unofficially freed Hemings, allowing her to leave the Jeffersons and to live with Eston and Madison in Charlottesville, Virginia, until her death sometime in 1835. Because Hemings was not officially free, she was able to remain in Virginia in spite of a state law that required freed slaves to leave the state within a year of their release from slavery. While Jefferson freed other slaves, the Hemings children were the only intact sibling group to receive their freedom.
Although there are no official records from either Jefferson or Hemings, who might have been illiterate, many historians believe that Hemings’s children were fathered by Jefferson. Genetic tests on Jefferson’s and Hemings’s descendants proved that the families are related, although late twentieth century scientific methods could not definitively name the father of Hemings’s offspring. Because Hemings belonged to Jefferson, the idea that he fathered at least some of her children is credible. Further muddying the waters, no evidence has been found to indicate whether the relationship was consensual or how long it might have lasted.
Significance
Hemings’s relationship with Jefferson provides a window into the contradictions and troubled history of early America. While Jefferson is celebrated for bringing about liberation for some Americans, his legacy is intertwined with the cruel legacy of slavery. In a quiet way, Hemings permanently influenced the cultural discussion of race and American identity. Her descendants continued to press for recognition by their Jefferson cousins two centuries after Jefferson’s death.
Bibliography
French, Scot A., and Edward L. Ayers. “The Strange Career of Thomas Jefferson: Race and Slavery in American Memory, 1943-1993.” In Jeffersonian Legacies, edited by Peter S. Onuf. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993. French and Ayers examine the philosophy of Jefferson, a slave owner who controversially spoke against slavery, and its imprint on American views of race and the first American leaders.
Gordon-Reed, Annette. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. New York: Norton, 2008. This source examines the close relationships between the Jefferson and the Hemings families, who lived together in very different circumstances at Monticello.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997. Analyzes the evidence concerning the relationship between Jefferson and Hemings to evaluate the legacy of Hemings’s descendants.
Lewis, Jan E., and Peter S. Onuf, eds. Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999. This collection of essays details historians’ views of the contemporary evidence concerning Hemings and Jefferson and the context of oral histories in both families.
Ruffin, Frances E. Sally Hemings. New York: PowerKids Press, 2002. Written for young readers, this source describes Hemings’s life as a slave in the Jefferson household.