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Hemings, Sally

Sarah “Sally” Hemings (1773–1835) was Thomas Jefferson's slave. Many scholars are in agreement that their relationship was sexual. The controversy around the pair lies largely in two points: whether their relationship was consensual, and whether Jefferson fathered Hemings' children.

Hemings was the daughter of John Wayles and Elizabeth Hemings. Wayles was also father to Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's wife, making Martha Jefferson and Sally Hemings half sisters. Martha Wayles Skelton and Thomas Jefferson wed in 1772. When John Wayles died in 1773, ownership of the Hemings family transferred to Thomas Jefferson.

After Martha Jefferson died in 1782, Thomas Jefferson accepted a diplomatic appointment in France and sailed for Paris in 1784. Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson, and Hemings's brother, James Hemings, accompanied Jefferson. Later, Jefferson sent for his younger daughter, Maria “Polly” Jefferson. Sally Hemings accompanied Polly on the journey to France, and the girls joined their family at the Hôtel de Langeac in Paris in 1787.

While in Paris, Hemings served as an attendant to the Jefferson daughters, but they spent weekdays at a boarding school. Jefferson's thorough bookkeeping does not indicate that he paid to board Hemings at the school, which suggests that she spent the weekdays at the hotel with Jefferson and her brother, providing ample time for Hemings and Jefferson to form a relationship. That their relationship began in Paris is suggested by Hemings's pregnant condition upon the family's return to Virginia in 1789. Hemings gave birth in 1790, but the child died shortly thereafter.

Evidence of Relationship

Recognizing the individual natures of Hemings and Jefferson, as well as understanding their situation in Paris, sheds light on their relationship. Both Hemings and Jefferson were described as attractive and charming people, with families united by blood and marriage as well as a long history of congeniality. Additionally, Hemings may have reminded Jefferson of his deceased wife, her half sister, both in likeness and personality. French law also dissolved the power of master over slave, and while Hemings could have filed for her freedom at any time, she did not. Family history indicates that Hemings refused to return to Monticello (Jefferson's Virginia home) with Jefferson unless he promised to free all of the children of their union. When faced with the choice between staying in France and gaining freedom for herself and her unborn child and returning to Virginia and slavery, Hemings chose to return with Jefferson.

Hemings gave birth to several children; four of them lived: William Beverly Hemings (1798), Harriet Hemings (1800), James Madison Hemings (1805), and Thomas Eston Hemings (1808). The estimated conception times of all of Hemings's children coincide with times that Jefferson was at Monticello. Despite the Hemings family tradition of naming children after their immediate relatives, all of Hemings's children bear names of people important to Thomas Jefferson.

All of Hemings's children gained their freedom. Beverly and Harriet left Monticello in 1822, “running away” with the consent and financial help of Jefferson. Jefferson granted Madison and Eston freedom in his 1826 will. Hemings's children were one-eighth black; under Virginia law, they were legally white. Beverly and Harriet Hemings disappeared into the white race when they found freedom. Eston eventually followed in their footsteps and passed into white society, changing his name to Thomas E.H. Jefferson. Madison Hemings is the only child of Sally Hemings who remained a member of the black race.

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