Sally Hemings

Sally Hemings, whose given name may have been Sarah, (c. 1773 – 1835) was an enslaved woman, inherited among many others by the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, from his father-in-law, John Wayles. Her mother was Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings. Her father was Wayles, the enslaver of Betty Hemings who owned her from the time of her birth. Wayles was also the father of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles, making Hemings the half-sister to Jefferson's wife. According to her son Madison, Hemings's maternal grandmother was an enslaved African woman whose name is not recorded and her maternal grandfather was John Hemings, an English captain. If true, Hemings was of 3/4 European and 1/4 African descent, making her a quadroon according to contemporary American racial classification. This aligns with recorded descriptions of her as "light colored" and "mighty near white . . . [with] long straight hair down her back." Madison's report of her lineage would also make her the third generation of women in her family to be impregnated by a free man during her enslavement and the second to be impregnated by the man she was enslaved to. In 1787, Hemings accompanied Jefferson's daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph to Paris, France, where they joined him. Hemings was legally free in France, because slavery was illegal there, but continued to serve as Jefferson's servant. Some time during Hemings's 26 months in Paris, Jefferson is believed to have begun intimate relations with her. She was an adolescent between the ages of 14 and 16. Jefferson was in his mid-40s and was a widower. As attested by her son, Madison Hemings, Hemings agreed with Jefferson to return to Virginia and resume her life in slavery. In exchange, Jefferson agreed to free her children when they came of age. Jefferson or his will...