The Hemingses of Monticello, Part 4

Annette Gordon-Reed talks about her new book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, and answers questions at Monticello's Jefferson Library. This section: James and Sally Hemings return home from France with Thomas Jefferson; the death of Jefferson and the dispersal of Monticello's slaves.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Hemings
• Gordon-Reed
• Jefferson
• Monticello
• slave
• slavery
• freedom
• Paris
• France
• pay
• wages

[jppuertorico85]

@AllPeopleGifts By 1789, a 16 year old girl who had developed early, who was definitely of legal adult consenting age, was fair to look upon, who spoke French and grew up among white people and had acculturated to that life, wore the finest French fashions (Jefferson records buying her clothes) - how can you say that there was not a real genuine relationship between her and Jefferson. Not to mention that she was Jefferson's sister in law and could have resembled her now deceased sister as well

[jppuertorico85]

@AllPeopleGifts Btw...when Sally first arrived in Europe she was 14, it was 1787.  Abigail Adams meets her in London and writes to Jefferson that the girl looked 16. There is a difference between 14 and 16 year old girls, and for Adams to think her 16, she must have looked more developed. Adams repeatedly remarked about how immature she was, again indicating that she acted younger than her apparent age. There are also documents where people refer to Sally as fair to look upon.

[jppuertorico85]

@AllPeopleGifts Sally was born in 1773, she got pregnant in 1789. She would have been 16. 16 year old young women are quite capable of being viewed as adult women, especially in an 18th c. world where in Virginia, girls were marrying as young as 14.

[AllPeopleGifts]

Miniseries like 'Jefferson in Paris' & ‘Sally Hemings: American Scandal’ suck! They cast much too-old, much too-dark Mulattoes (Thandie Newton, Carmen Edjogo, etc.) to play the role of Sally Hemings, a 12-year old fair Quadroon. In addition, the screen play has Hemings (who again would have been a fearful 12 year old) as "the seductress" of "poor, helpless Jefferson" The disgusting role-reversed/dark-seductress false portrayal of Jefferson's sexual-abuse of Hemings ruin the entire miniseries

[AllPeopleGifts]

Forcible rape, sexual assault & sexual exploitation -- by plantation owners (& especially by overseers) against enslaved people of both genders -- was a very common practice used in the antebellum chattel-slavery era to create terror-based fear While Sally Hemings was NOT a Black or Mulatto enslaved person (she was a Quadroon enslaved person) -- like most enslaved-people of any race/ gender, sexual-terror & exploitation was used against her from childhood-on...by her captor