Slave owned by Thomas Jefferson, mother to his shadow family
Children
6, including Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston
Parent(s)
Betty Hemings John Wayles
Relatives
Hemings family
Sarah "Sally" Hemings (c. 1773 – 1835) was a female slave with one-quarter African ancestry owned by president of the United States Thomas Jefferson, one of many he inherited from his father-in-law, John Wayles.
Hemings's mother was Betty Hemings,[1] the daughter of a female slave and an English captain, John Hemings. Sally's father, the owner of Betty, John Wayles, was also the father of Jefferson's wife, Martha. Therefore, Sally was half-sister to Jefferson's wife and was of approximately three quarters English descent. Martha died during her marriage in 1782. In 1787, when she was 14, Sally Hemings accompanied Jefferson's daughter, also named Martha, to Paris where they joined Thomas Jefferson. There Sally was a legally free and paid servant as slavery was not legal in France. At some time during her 26 months in Paris, the widower Jefferson began intimate relations with her.
As attested by her son, Madison Hemings, Sally later agreed with Jefferson that she would return to Virginia and resume her life in slavery, as long as all their children would be freed when they came of age. Multiple lines of evidence, including modern DNA analyses, indicate that Jefferson impregnated Hemings several times over years while they lived together on Jefferson's Monticello estate, and historians now broadly agree that he was the father of her six children.[2] Whether this should be described as rape remains a matter of controversy. Four of Hemings's children survived into adulthood and were freed as they came of age during Thomas Jefferson's life or in his will.[3] Hemings died in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1835 in the home of her freed sons.[4]
The historical question of whether Jefferson was the father of Hemings' children is the subject of the Jefferson–Hemings controversy. Following renewed historical analysis in the late 20th century, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation empaneled a commission of scholars and scientists who worked with a 1998–1999 genealogical DNA test that was published in 2000[5][6] that found a match between the Jefferson male line and a descendant of Hemings' youngest son, Eston Hemings. The Foundation's panel concluded that Jefferson fathered Eston and likely her other five children as well.[7] A rival society was then founded, the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, which commissioned another panel of scholars in 2001 that found that it has not been proven that Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings's children.[8]
In 2018, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation of Monticello announced its plans to have an exhibit titled Life of Sally Hemings, and affirmed that it was treating as a settled issue that Jefferson was the father of her known children.[9] The exhibit opened in June 2018.[2]
^Betty Hemings - Monticello Explorer
^ abStockman, Farah (June 16, 2018). "Monticello Is Done Avoiding Jefferson's Relationship With Sally Hemings". The New York Times. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
^Gordon-Reed 1997, p. 217
^"Sally Hemings". Monticello.org. Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
^Cite error: The named reference monticelloreport was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Link to report at Monticello.org
^Cite error: The named reference Brief was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Turner, Robert F., ed. (February 2011) [2001]. "The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission" (PDF). Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society / Carolina Academic Press. The question of whether Thomas Jefferson fathered one or more children by his slave Sally Hemings is an issue about which honorable people can and do disagree. After a careful review of all of the evidence, the commission agrees unanimously that the allegation is by no means proven; and we find it regrettable that public confusion about the 1998 DNA testing and other evidence has misled many people. With the exception of one member, whose views are set forth both below and in his more detailed appended dissent, our individual conclusions range from serious skepticism about the charge to a conviction that it is almost certainly false. [The one member concluded that it was more likely than not that Thomas Jefferson fathered Easton.]
^"Monticello Affirms Thomas Jefferson Fathered Children with Sally Hemings". Monticello.org. Thomas Jefferson Foundation. 2018. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
father-in-law, John Wayles. Hemings's mother was Betty Hemings, the daughter of a female slave and an English captain, John Hemings. Sally's father, the owner of...
With her owner, planter John Wayles, she had six children, including SallyHemings. These children were three-quarters white, and, following the condition...
Eston Hemings Jefferson (May 21, 1808 – January 3, 1856) was born into slavery at Monticello, the youngest son of SallyHemings, a mixed-race enslaved...
Jefferson was the father of SallyHemings' children is the subject of the Jefferson–Hemings controversy. At the age of 68, Hemings claimed the connection in...
believed to be the daughter of SallyHemings and the widower Thomas Jefferson. It is widely believed that Jefferson and Hemings had a 38-year secret relationship...
had children by his slave SallyHemings; according to scholarly consensus, Jefferson probably fathered six children with Hemings. Jefferson's writings and...
Jefferson's relationship with SallyHemings and was a bestseller. Together with articles about the issue and Jefferson-Hemings descendants in American Heritage...
Hemings children's paternity. Thomas Jefferson, though, was found by The Monticello Jefferson-Hemings Report (2000) to be the likely father of Sally Hemings'...
Madison Hemings, his uncle James and (future) mother Sally actively considered staying in France for freedom while they were in Paris. (SallyHemings had...
grandmother is Sarah (Sally) Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's mixed-race slave and half-sister to his late wife. John's father, Eston Hemings, was born a slave...
was the father of SallyHemings' children (rather than his blood relatives, as was later found true). Randolph admitted some of Hemings' children strongly...
adulthood. Through his female slave Betty Hemings, Wayles fathered six additional children, including SallyHemings, who was the mother of six children by...
Polly Jefferson Thandiwe Newton ..... SallyHemings (credited as Thandie Newton) Seth Gilliam ..... James Hemings Todd Boyce .... William Short Nigel Whitmey...
Mary Hemings Bell (1753-after 1834) was born into slavery, most likely in Charles City County, Virginia, as the oldest child of Elizabeth Hemings, a mixed-race...
The Hemings family lived in Virginia in the 1700s and 1800s. The family consisted of Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings and her children and other descendants....
a wedding gift, including Molly Hemings, the eldest daughter of Mary Hemings. Critta Hemings, sister of SallyHemings, helped Randolph care for the children...
long-standing relationship and children with Martha's half-sister, SallyHemings, a favored enslaved woman who was three-quarters white. Martha Wayles...
longstanding sexual relationship with SallyHemings. Even though the match is only with one of the Hemings' descendants, Eston Hemings, it's inconceivable that Jefferson...
Thomas Jefferson Dreams of SallyHemings is a 2016 historical fiction novel by American writer Stephen O'Connor. The novel depicts the relationship between...
Life" by Everclear. In 2000 Heinle played the part of Harriet Hemings in SallyHemings: An American Scandal, a short two part made for television film...
book SallyHemings: An American Scandal: The Struggle to Tell the Controversial Truth (2001). It recounts her work over 16 years to bring Hemings' story...
of SallyHemings mentioned in Jefferson's records, including Beverly, Harriet, Madison and Eston Hemings. Helen F.M. Leary (September 2001). "Sally Hemings's...
of the six children of SallyHemings mentioned in Jefferson's records, including Beverly, Harriet, Madison and Eston Hemings...Since then, a committee...
his relationship with his slave (and sister-in-law) SallyHemings. His other two children with Hemings were allowed to escape without pursuit. After his...
attached to the corner of a nude SallyHemings' portrait frame. The juxtaposition of the fully clothed Jefferson with Hemmings' nudity reinforces the unfair...
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