Sally Hemings, American Founder
By Rob Huckins
Full disclosure: this was not the Independence Day piece I planned on writing. In fact, this is replacing an academic retrospective I finished this week on Thomas Jefferson and his creation of our most important (arguably) document, The Declaration of Independence. During the writing of that piece it became clear there was another context from which to derive meaning from this most important American holiday.
That Jefferson wrote a document professing independence while owning dozens of slaves on a vast and profitable plantation is obvious to most students of American history. He was not the only slaveowner of his time, a fact which renders this dichotomy less shocking (but still worthwhile to ponder) that some would wish. Nor does this personal failing of Jefferson negate the merits of his historic literary creation, as the document unofficially serves as our nation’s birth certificate, essentially laying out in relatively short order what it means to be an American. George Washington gave us our identity, Alexander Hamilton created our economy, James Madison gave us our government. Jefferson gave us our society, for better or worse, and helped shape (literally and figuratively) the land in which we live today.
But despite this literary turn of genius and political (and social) call to arms, Jefferson’s work left out a great many Americans by keeping the document vague. He didn’t reinforce anyone in particular; he simply didn’t mention anyone specifically (other than slaves and King George III).
As evidenced by the changes made to the document by the elite group of editors (Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were two of them) this was not entirely unintentional. Allowing Jefferson’s original “property” to stay in place of “pursuit of happiness” would have invoked a needless standoff with Southern states, unhelpful at a time where unified support against Great Britain was required for any chance at success, conflicting social norms be damned. Ironically, Jefferson’s accusations against King George III and the monarch allegedly forcing the “sin” of slavery upon the colonies were toned down to merely mention the trade in passing, avoiding the lofty notion that America did not actually participate in its proliferation, which it most certainly did.
The founding of America is a time period rich with lessons about who we were then and insight into what it means to be an American today, a comparison that offers much for our own reflection. But reading The Declaration of Independence is as valuable for what it says as what it omits. Like many other elite members of colonial America, Jefferson owned a substantial number of slaves who collectively enabled the profitability of vast tracts of land that otherwise would have been untenable as commercial enterprises. Virginia, it should be noted, was started as a literal business venture by the Virginia Company. The goal was to make money. Jefferson, of course, still managed to die with a massive amount of debt despite his free labor all those years (his lavish spending on a seemingly endless list of personal interests didn’t help, certainly).
These times are well known for their great men but it is only recently that the women who supported and advised these men have received notable attention, people like Martha Washington and Abigail Adams, women whose contributions would otherwise have gone unknown if not for piles of documents revealed from personal collections over decades of study, culled to form compelling narratives by dedicated historians and journalists.
Sally Hemings deserves to be among these incredible women, mentioned prominently in the conversation along with our great but lesser known American founders, those who established the foundation upon which our nation has managed to prosper (for better and worse) going into its third century.
Born three years prior to the publication of Jefferson’s momentous document, Hemings was just fourteen years old when Jefferson and his family had her accompany them on a trip to France. Jefferson’s wife Martha Wayles had already been deceased for five years at the time of this voyage and Hemings’ favor with Jefferson was noticeable to those close to him even then (Adams and his wife noted the affection Jefferson had for the young caretaker of his daughters Martha and Mary). Sally Hemings was the daughter of Elizabeth Hemming (a slave) and John Wayles, Jefferson’s father-in-law. This made Sally a half sister to Jefferson’s wife Martha, a strange connection to be sure but one which loses some notoriety once one realizes just how closely related many people were during this time of less travel and more parochial relations.
The relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings has been one of controversy since they were both still alive (the first official linking of the two publicly came in 1802, the second year of Jefferson’s presidency when journalist James Callendar wrote of the President’s “concubine” in a Richmond publication), as prominent figures in Jefferson’s own era questioned the relations he had with his own slaves during his various endeavors for public office.
The significant age difference (30 years) between Jefferson and Hemings contributes to this eyebrow-raising relationship, as well, something impossible to ignore even when considering the lackadaisical attitude toward older men having relations with younger women during Jefferson’s time. It should be noted that while the age difference between the two invites inevitable accusations of sexual exploitation and coercion on the part of Jefferson toward his “property”, we do know Hemings did not bear any children until she was in her twenties, a surprisingly advanced age for this time period. But Jefferson was a slave owner and Hemings was, unquestionably, his property. About this there is no debate. The question becomes then, what type of relationship did the two have?
In 1998, it was determined through DNA testing that Jefferson was in all likelihood the father of four of Hemings’ children, a revelation which was not incredibly shocking to historians or descendants of Jefferson and Hemings, a group of relatives well aware of their own heritage even if it was spoken in hushed tones in private circles.
Sally bore four children by Jefferson: William Beverly (1798), Harriet (1801), James Madison (1805) and Thomas Eston (1808). The names alone would indicate that Jefferson certainly viewed these offspring as different from his other slaves, their distinctive names so obvious it defies logic and common sense to think otherwise.
But the role of Hemings in American history goes deeper than just having uniquely named kids from a prominent Founder. Jefferson dies in 1826 (the very same day as fellow Founder and good friend John Adams) while Hemings lives for nearly another decade (she died in 1835; her burial site remains unknown to historians along with there being no known portrait of her in existence anywhere).
Her story is truly remarkable, in large part for bearing witness to a remarkable period in our history where the role of slavery in America was undergoing significant transition even though official abolition was still decades away. Hemings was born property and would remain so for years until Jefferson’s daughter Martha (Hemings’ half sister, incidentally) would unofficially release her from slavery by giving Hemings “her time”, a phrase which meant unofficial freedom, enabling Hemings to remain in Virginia for the duration of her life.
Curiously, of the four children Hemings had with Jefferson, three of them passed for white as adults or outright changed their surname to Jefferson entirely, laying any doubt of their heritage to rest. For the record, Jefferson never made any public admission of his children with Hemings or of his relationship with her in general. Privately, however, Jefferson’s kin experienced remarkably different roles on Monticello, performing jobs which were both easier and of higher status overall, demonstrating perhaps Jefferson’s acknowledgment that while times dictated one form of public behavior, his own feelings toward his offspring were at least detectably different in private.
What then, does Sally Hemings mean to America? What does she represent? In many ways, everything. And everyone. She descends from a prominent American lineage that produced the wife (her half sister Martha) to one of the most important founders of the longest running democracy in the world. Her connection with Jefferson would not be known if not for her own children’s testimony and accounts to historians and journalists after her own passing. Hemings, in many ways, is America. Her lineage continued after Jefferson’s death and certainly after her own.
Without Sally, there would be no “Monticello Hemingses”, the closest thing to a union between the world of bondage and liberty one will find during this time period. Jefferson’s connection with Hemings perhaps illustrates best the complicated relationship between our nation’s stated ideals of freedom and the reality of our racial strife undercutting the foundation of our formation. Without slave labor, our country doesn’t exist in its current form. Without slavery, our population would look much different and less richer overall.
America’s “original sin” is just that, an enormous historical stain that is as inescapable as it is defining for our nation’s true legacy. The fact that many want to “move on” and “get past” this era in our history is testament to its power and influence, in part because it denies our heritage true innocence and justification, allowing instead debate and imperfection when considering its stated ideals.
Jefferson owned slaves. Many during his time did. These people helped found our nation while espousing ideals of equality and liberty, themes which run through our cultural DNA to this day. Eventually, our nation’s existence depended solely on a war based upon the very existence of slavery. That war determined the decades which followed for better and worse. It’s who we are as a nation. But Jefferson and his ilk were not most people.
In many ways, Sally Hemings represents all this and more, both through her own life and through the lives of her many descendants, most of whom went on to live full and worthwhile lives. Three of her grandsons enlisted in the Union army and fought in the Civil War while many others worked as artisans or became involved in politics or education. Records show that other descendants of Hemings struggled in finding postwar employment and experienced much of the same discrimination and lack of economic opportunity endured by many of color during this time, forced to repeat family patterns by working as servants, laborers or overseeing small farms. This, in many ways, has been the American experience and the Hemings lineage lived these various societal threads moreso than any other American family bearing a claim on founding heritage like the Jefferson name.
Sally Hemings belongs in the same sentence as Abigail Adams, Martha Washington, Betsy Ross, Molly Pitcher, Phillis Wheatley, Mercy Otis Warren and the many other women who occupy a rightful place in the formation of our nation’s history, a record which is undergoing much further and richer study because of the efforts of historians and journalists alike.
On this Independence Day, it is appropriate to read The Declaration of Independence and marvel at its scope and significance, its utter ambition and grandness of scale in what it attempted to encapsulate. But the document came during a time in American history which was as contradictory as it was revolutionary, an era where many of its champions were also contributing directly to the preservation of a deplorable and inhuman institution. Jefferson’s legacy is not harmed by this admission but rather earns greater authenticity, as does our nation’s history as a whole by giving Hemings her due place in the national hierarchy.
The blood of the Founders (literally and figuratively) was necessary to the success of America, in wartime and the peace. But they didn’t do it alone. Quite the contrary. Their success was dependent on a vast number of lesser known and heralded individuals whose contributions risked remaining unknown for generations to come if not for the work of interested and dedicated historians and journalists.
When the news of Jefferson’s DNA being linked with descendants of Hemings, all but confirming what many prominent historians and descendants had known for decades, the controversy hit the Monticello contingent hard. Some wanted access to burial grounds on the estate while others didn’t care either way. They knew where they came from without any tests. No official burial rights would change that. Almost two decades later, the two sides have largely melded into one collective group of people that mostly accepts the complicated and rich heritage of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, two people whose children, grandchildren and great grandchildren forged perhaps the greatest embodiment of every failure and success America has ever experienced and strived to correct.
Once in opposition, these family lines have made relative peace with one another, largely coming to terms with what both sides either ignored, fought against or struggled to accept since the early nineteenth century. Jefferson has earned history’s highest regard while Hemings has largely been sidelined outside of a few subpar films and a small pool of fine academic writings. Hemings deserves better. We all do. We are all descendants of Jefferson in many ways. We live in the nation he helped forge. We are, in equal turn, all descendants of Sally Hemings, too.
