Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings

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Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
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Chronologythe Jefferson-Hemings Relationship

• (adapted from Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses
  of Monticello. New York W. W. Norton.)
• 1735 Elizabeth Hemings (EH) (mother of Sally
  Hemings) is born she is a slave of the Eppes
  family in VA
• 1746 Martha Eppes marries John Wayles
• 1748 Martha Wayles is born (future wife of
  Thomas Jefferson) Martha Eppes dies and leaves
  EH the property of John Wayles
• 1762-70 EH gives birth to five children by John
  Wayles (her master)
• 1772 Martha Wayles marries Thomas Jefferson (TJ)
• 1773 Sally Hemings born (the last child of EH
  and John Wayles)
• NB Sally Hemings (SH), therefore, is the half
  sister of Martha Jefferson, TJs wife!

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Chronologythe Jefferson-Hemings Relationship

• 1782 Martha Jefferson dies at Monticello
  Jefferson promises Martha on her deathbed that he
  will never marry again Sally Hemings present.
• 1784 TJ and James Hemings (Sallys older
  brother, also Marthas half-brother) go to Paris,
  France
• 1787 SH joins TJ and her brother James in Paris
  her assignment is to tend to TJs youngest
  daughter, but SH also works as TJs chambermaid.
• 1789 When SH balks at returning to America (she
  would be freed, under French law, if she had
  staid in Paris), TJ promises her a good life and
  freedom of their children when they become
  adults. JH and SH return to Monticello in
  December.
• 1790 SH gives birth to her first child (with
  TJ). The infant dies.

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Chronologythe Jefferson-Hemings Relationship

• 1793 Thomas Jefferson puts his agreement to free
  James Hemings in writing JH becomes legally free
  in 1796 JH later turns down TJs request to
  become chef at the White House in 1801, JH
  commits suicide.
• 1795 Harriet Hemings I, daughter of SH and TJ is
  born at Monticello. Harriet dies in 1797.
• NB All of SH and TJs children, therefore, are
  cousins as well as siblings of TJs white
  children with his wife Martha
• 1798 William Beverly Hemings, son of SH and TJ
  is born at
• 1799 first published allusions to TJ and SHs
  relationship appear in the press
• 1800 SH and TJs daughter Harriet II born at
  Monticello
• 1802 James Callender exposes the relationship
  between SH and TJ.
• 1805 James Madison Hemings, 2nd son of SH and TJ
  is born at Monticello.

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Chronologythe Jefferson-Hemings Relationship

• 1807 Elizabeth Hemings, Sallys mother, dies at
  Monticello (she remained a slave)
• 1808 Thomas Eston Hemings, the last child of SH
  and TJ, is born at Monticello.
• 1809 TJ retires from public life stays at
  Monticello
• 1810-26 SH and TJs children learn various
  trades at Monticello
• 1822 Beverly and Harriet freed they leave
  Monticello to live as white people.
• 1826 TJ drafts a will that formally frees his
  sons Madison and Eston Hemings. TJ dies on July
  4, 1776
• SH, Madison, and Eston move to Charlottesville,
  VA.
• 1831 Monticello, along with many of TJs slaves,
  is sold at auction to pay for TJs large debt.
• No date of SHs death is officially recorded.
  Madison claimed she died in 1835, though some
  other reports of travelers to Charlottesville
  claim to have seen her as late as 1837.

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Jeffersons Blood. PBS Frontline Documentary

• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jeff
  erson/view/

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In his own words Thomas Jefferson on Slavery
and Race

• Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
  (Paris, 1785 private edition London, 1787).
• Query 14 Laws (see handout!)

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Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings in Paris

• Jefferson in Paris. Director, James Ivory. 1995

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William Wells Brown, Clotel, or, The Presidents
Daughter A Narrative of Slave Life in the United
States. 1853.

• Questions
• What is the relationship between fiction and
  non-fiction in Browns novel, i.e. how does Brown
  combine a fictional story with the facts and
  reality of slavery? (fiction founded in truth)
• What is the significance/function of Browns
  autobiographical account? How does the fictional
  account return to specific paradigms set up in
  the autobiographical narrative (e.g. the selling
  of blood relatives by white masters)?
• Why does Brown choose to write fiction, rather
  than non-fiction anti-slavery tracts?
• How does he cast/re-cast the stock figure of the
  tragic mulatta and other figures?

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William Wells Brown, Clotel, or, The Presidents
Daughter A Narrative of Slave Life in the United
States. 1853.

• QuestionsContinued
• Does the formal difficulty of the novel (e.g. its
  lack of unity) have a correlative in the ideas
  that are conveyed?
• How does the novel play with the meanings of
  freedom?
• In how far does the important theme of the
  separation of families comment on 19th-century
  ideals of domesticity, family values, marriage,
  virtue, etc.?
• How does Brown use but also undermine the
  discourse of sentimentalism in 19th-century
  culture and fiction?
• What does the novel say about the ways in which
  slavery undermines the important notion of
  republican virtue? How does it topple/deconstruct
  the ideals of a nation built on virtue,
  sentiment, education, Republican womanhood,
  religion, authority of the people, etc.?