Why did some of Sally Hemings's children identify themselves as white and others as black

Annette Gordon-Reed discusses 'passing' and the effect it had on lives and families. The interview was recorded in October 2008 at Monticello's Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies.

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• Annette
• Gordon-Reed
• Hemingses
• of
• Monticello
• Thomas
• Jefferson
• Sally
• Hemings
• James
• Martin
• Harriet
• Madion
• Eston
• Elizabeth
• Betty
• John
• Hemmings
• slavery
• race
• freedom
• plantation
• passing

[JeffersonMonticello]

Lawyers are highly trained at analytical thinking and research, two key skills in the study of history.

[angel7publications]

Perhaps the need to be seen as a whoel and equal human being and having choices in life was the overwhelming factor in their deciding to pass. I am certain it could not have been easy leaving family behind. From where we sit, it is impossible to image the dynamics involved in having to make such a horrendous choice.However right or wrong, many had to make it.

[bbgurl22ful]

I dont see why their children should have been considered black at all. They were only 1/8 black. I am 1/8 white and I would never ever consider myself white.

[DSkeptic86]

@SPIDERHULK101 lol, AMEN!

[DSkeptic86]

@bbgurl22ful Simple! Because the black gene is the dominant gene while the white gene is recessive. Period.

[NetjerAshe]

@bbgurl22ful Back in the day the one drop rule was for the black people, back in the day you could be white as snow but if you had any black in you they considered you a black, this is because the white man coudnt keep his dick out of the slaves, but far as equality that was out the question!!

[alfamail2016]

@bondurango the 1 drop rule did't apply until 1924

[MegaMonday12]

If you define someone with 7/8 White and 1/8 African as Black, it just gave you that many more folks to enslave, including your own children.

[bondurango]

@Rockstafeller

In America, black IS "synonymous" with slavery because there were never ANY white slaves (indentured servitude was not synonymous because it was not indefinite). The one drop rule made you black if you had ANY Black African ancestry regardless of whether you had a slave history. So, if it didn't make slave synonymous with black it was only because slavery was banned. But it did make black "synonymous" with slave in an indefinite, Jim Crow world "synonymous" with slavery.

[Rockstafeller]

@bondurango Slave is not synonymous with Black!!! One drop rule showed up in LATE 1890S!!!!

[Rockstafeller]

@angel7publications PASS? They WERE 7/8 White. So they just claimed their place.

[jppuertorico85]

@JeffersonMonticello Dr. Gordon-Reed is amazing! Her legal background is indispensable in unraveling the story of the Hemings Family.