The Selling of Sally Hemings

Oregon Magazine ^ | September 14, 2003 | Thomas Lipscomb

[WaterDragon]

The myth of Sally Hemings is for sale again. There has always been something about Thomas Jefferson’s lovely black slave Sally Hemings that drives otherwise rational people nuts. From the pages of The New York Times to prize-winning historians, the spewings of pseudo-science and psychic friends network nattering have been truly monumental.

[Verginius Rufus]

Callender wrote about Sally and her children as if they were very dark complexioned, but he had never been to Monticello. I think the main agenda nowadays is to put down Jefferson. Obviously there were many slaveholders who had children by their slave women; whether Jefferson was one of them, who knows? It does serve to divert attention to the things he should be honored for, like the Declaration of Independence or instigating the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Madison Hemings couldn't know for sure if TJ was his father; in the newspaper story he reported that TJ never treated him as a son. He may have told the truth that his mother said TJ was his father, or perhaps he or she wanted to latch on to the famous name rather than one of his obscure relatives.

[cyborg]

It does serve to divert attention to the things he should be honored for, like the Declaration of Independence or instigating the Lewis and Clark expedition.


*** Didn't the media just report that schools do not teach anything positive about American history? Yeah all this is in the end is an attempt to distract people from things more important.

[Verginius Rufus]

Agreed that some people try to embroider their family history. W. J. Cash in his classic The Mind of the South cites a family history which claimed that their German immigrant ancestor, a dirt farmer in the backwoods of South Carolina, was the grandson of the German emperor.

I don't think the Sally Hemings issue is entirely because of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal--some people would be pushing it for other reasons. But it certainly did appear in the fall of 1998 that the publicity being given to the DNA evidence about Sally's descendants was partly designed to help Bill Clinton.

One important difference is that Jefferson was a widower when the alleged liaison took place...he wasn't guilty of adultery.

[WaterDragon]

In my opinion, calling Clinton a 'black' president is an insult to black Americans.

[cyborg]

:sigh: Klintoon is called a black president by Toni Morrison (?) I believe it was her. I was going to say something really nasty but I won't. Not going to go there. Why does Klintoon have such appeal to the ladies? He makes me ill with that face.

[exit82]

I haven't confused Washington with Jefferson at all. Everything I said is documented and true.

I also used a phrase"in the context of the times". Slaves were considered property at the time. I don't know that he mortgaged them, but if you say he did, that's plausible to me. But that was a common occurence then in an agricultural economy, where the cash flow for the plantation was tied into the harvest and selling of the crops.

There's no question that he treated his slaves decently. The record of the slaves themselves is such. When he died in 1826, he left a tremendous debt. About two years later, everything had to be sold, including Monticello, to pay his creditors. His heirs sold the slaves as well--that was the way it was then.

The point is, he wasn't abusive to the slaves.I think on that we can both agree.

[truth_seeker]

"Recently a friend who is originally from Scotland told me she at least knows her race is 'pure.' LOL. How sad. She's not yet Americanized enough to understand the sterility of that view.


Pure Pict? Pure Celt? Pure Norse? How about some Anglo-Saxon-Jute-Frisian? A little Belgian? Oh, how about some Norman? I doubt the Roman's left without donating a seed, or three?

Not to mention some various strains thrown in, from the Scot's fine service around the Empire?

[steve-b]

Recently a friend who is originally from Scotland told me she at least knows her race is 'pure.'

I'm surprised that everybody is too sheepish to post the obvious joke. Have the mods make ewe all as gentle as lambs, or has the wool been pulled over your eyes?

[WaterDragon]

LOL!

[exit82]

Hey, Sarge, sorry I beat you to it. You get the next one,OK?

[uniquesongstress]

Actually you guys should know that sally was not 50 black and 50 white. She was actually only 1/4 black and 3/4 white. Her Grandmother was an african slave who had a child with her master old captain hemmings, her name was Elizabeth. When she and her mother where sold to Master Whalyes (T. Jefferson’s wife’s father) Elizabeth aka Betty has Sally with Master Whayles (making there children T.J’S Wife’s haif-siblings)Sally’s Grandmother 100% african
Sally’s Mother 1/2 black and 1/2 white
Sally 3/4 White 1/4 black
Her Children 7/8 white and 1/8 black