Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings

Joined by Fate: Intertwined Biographies

by Del Sandeen

To say that Thomas Jefferson was complicated would be an understatement. A founding father and third American president, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. It said that "all men are created equal." Yet Jefferson owned slaves, including a woman named Sally Hemings with whom scholars believe he fathered several children. Some two hundred years after the birth of their first child, interest in Hemings and Jefferson has hardly died down. Movies, television shows, newspaper articles, and literature have been devoted to the pair. Jefferson's legacy has also suffered as details emerge about his ties to Hemings. Is he a man that Americans should respect? With the help of this fascinating book, readers will learn about the nature of Jefferson's connection to someone who was legally his property, and about his descendants, both black and white.

128 pages, Paperback

Published December 30, 2018

About the author

Del Sandeen lives in northeast Florida, where she works as a copy editor and writes speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, Nightlight podcast, and Gay Magazine. This Cursed House is her debut novel.

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should also probably be on a list of required reading for white people. I happened to read this about a month after I toured Monticello. I wanted to read more about the relationship between Hemings and Jefferson, but I didn’t think I’d finish the long academic books that have been written on the topic. This book was ~100 pages and was geared towards junior high students.

I thought this book was excellent. It does an exceptional job of showing the different schools of thought on this relationship. (There are 3 camps: 1) Jefferson didn’t father any of Hemings’ kids; 2) Jefferson fathered at least one, and maybe all, of Hemings’ kids; 3) we’re unsure whether Jefferson fathered one or any of Hemings’ kids and need more evidence in order to be sure).

The book contends that Sally Hemings’ children were “almost certainly” Thomas Jefferson’s, children, as well.

I also thought this book did an excellent job of conveying all the cultural and legal aspects around this situation. It points out how some of the relevant laws were created and what benefits certain laws assured. (For instance, the “one drop” federal law that said anyone with at least one drop of black blood should be considered black — that was basically a means to strengthen the capitalist economy and make sure more people would be enslaved.) I thought it was quite interesting that VA law at that time would have conflicted with federal law at that time—with VA law considering Hemings’ kids white and federal law considering Hemings’ kids black—but that didn’t even matter here, because VA law also said you inherit the slave status of your mother, so that made all of Hemings’ kids slaves *even though VA law would have said that they were white.*

The book also translated cultural norms of the time, stating, …”influential men routinely used women in the lower social classes for sexual gratification. During the context in which Jefferson and Hemings lived, that type of relationship between slaveholder and enslaved wasn’t at all unusual.” p103 Likewise, the book did a great job at explaining why Sally Hemings may have chosen to return to the US with Jefferson in 1789 rather than be a free woman in Paris (because she also would have been an unmarried mother with no money, thanks to Jefferson impregnating her out of wedlock).

I know that there are a number of lengthier, more detailed books on this topic, but I thought this presentation was excellent for a non-academic reader who just wants a solid footing on this topic. In addition to informing on the Hemings-Jefferson relationship in particular, the book was also a concise, horrifying, and tragic overview of how inhumane and life-changing the institution of slavery and the American concept of “race” have been.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this one as a new addition to my school library. I find it to be a good upper-grade resource that takes a look at the often unspoken history of Sally Hemmings a s a Jefferson slave. Sandeen does a good job of spelling out the controversy, rumors, and unanswered questions. There is one page partway through wehre the writing slips a little in its explanations, perhaps presuming a bit much on upper grade students --I made notes for any questions or discussions that might come up with my readers-- but by and large it covers the key points fairly objectively.

[Lisabeth]

Young adult book exploring the suspected relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.