A Presidential Scandal:

A Presidential Scandal:. The Jefferson - Hemings Controversy. , Such relationships ranged from acknowledged affairs that...were familial in every sense but a legally recognized one to brutal acts of rape and sexual assault where slave owners showed the inhumanity for which slavery was notorious., Notorious in the Neighborhood, Joshua Rothman, 2003, In a Virginia newspaper in 1802, James Callender broke the story of Sally Hemings as Thomas Jefferson's "concubine" and the mother of a number of his children. Jefferson never responded to the accusation. His recognized family denied his paternity of Hemings's children, while his unrecognized family considered their connection to Jefferson an important family truth., I also know that his servant, Sally Hemmings, (mother to my old friend and former companion at Monticello, Madison Hemmings,) was employed as his chamber-maid, and that Mr. Jefferson was on the most intimate terms with her; that, in fact, she was his concubine., Israel Gillette Jefferson, Pike County (Ohio) Republican, 1873 , Former Monticello slave, ...the story of Black Sal is no farce-That [Jefferson] cohabits with her and has a number of children with her is a sacred truth., Elijah Fletcher, 1811 , As heard from Jefferson's neighbors during a visit to Monticello, Evidence, The historical evidence points to the truth of Madison Hemings's words about "my father, Thomas Jefferson." Although the dominant narrative long denied his paternity, since 1802, oral histories, published recollections, statistical data, and documents have identified Thomas Jefferson as the father of Sally Hemings's children. In 1998, a DNA study genetically linked one of Hemings's male descendants with the male line of the Jefferson family, adding to the wealth of evidence., "Concubine", In Sally Hemings's lifetime, the word "concubine" defined a woman who had sexual contact with a man to whom she was not married. A concubine had no legal or social standing, and her offspring could not inherit from their father. Madison Hemings used the word to describe the long-standing sexual encounters between his mother and father, as well as those of his grandmother, Elizabeth Hemings, and his grandfather, John Wayles. Israel Gillette called Sally Hemings a "concubine" in his recollections of life at Monticello. In his incendiary 1802 article, political journalist James Callender also used the term to describe Sally Hemings., Sex, Power, And Slavery, Was it rape? Was there any affection? Was compliance part of her agreement with Jefferson? Enslaved women had no legal right to consent. Their masters owned their labor, their bodies, and their children., Sally Hemings's descendants and historians have a range of opinions about the dynamic between Jefferson and Hemings, given the implications of ownership, age, consent, and dramatically unequal power between masters and enslaved women., The nature of Sally Hemings's sexual encounters with Thomas Jefferson will never be known. Madison Hemings said very little about what his mother thought of his father, only that she "implicitly relied" on Jefferson's promise. Hemings also said that he and his siblings "were the only children of [Jefferson's] by a slave woman.", This is a painful and complicated American story. Thomas Jefferson was one of our most important founding fathers, and also a lifelong slave owner who held Sally Hemings and their children in bondage. Sally Hemings should be known today, not just as Jefferson's concubine, but as an enslaved woman who-at the age of 16-negotiated with one of the most powerful men in the nation to improve her own condition and achieve freedom for her children., While there was much about the Hemingses that made them unique- Jefferson and Monticello-like other enslaved people, they were subject to all the insecurities and deprivations associated with that condition. It seems especially appropriate to tell one part of the story of slavery through life at a place that holds such symbolic importance for many Americans-Monticello. For it is there that we can find the absolute best, and the absolute worst, that we have been as Americans. We should not get too far into the twenty-first century without looking back at the Hemingses and their time to remember and to learn., The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Story, Annette Gordon-Reed, 2008, (Captions):, Virginian Luxuries, ca. 1825. This satirical image, depicting unknown masters and their slaves, illustrates the exploitive power of the master over their human property. , The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, In 1802, journalist James Callender accused Thomas Jefferson of having children with an enslaved woman named Sally. His article was the first public acknowledgement of Sally Hemings. , Library of Virginia, A Philosophic Cock, engraved by James Akin, 1804. This political cartoon mocked President Jefferson, the strutting rooster, with his concubine Sally Hemings (pictured as a hen)-at the same time denying her humanity and privacy. , American Antiquarian Society