Sally Hemings biography

Synopsis

Family Life

African-American slave Sally Hemings was believed to have been the mistress of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States. Born around 1773 in Virginia, Hemings was the youngest of six children born to Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings, a slave of African and European descent; her probable given name was Sarah. Sally Hemings's father was allegedly her mother's owner, John Wayles, a white lawyer and slave trader of English descent who had emigrated to Virginia. As Wayles was also the father of Martha Wayles (Skelton) Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's wife, Hemings and Martha Jefferson are believed to have been half-sisters.

After John Wayles's death, Hemings, along with her mother and siblings, moved to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's Virginia home, as part of Martha Jefferson's inheritance. Hemings arrived at Monticello when she was about three years old. As a child and young teenager, Hemings performed the duties of a household servant. After Martha Jefferson's death in 1782, Hemings became a companion for one of Jefferson's younger daughters, Mary.

Relationship with Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson traveled to Paris in 1784 to serve as the American minister to France. He took his eldest daughter, also named Martha, with him, while his two younger daughters, Mary and Lucy, stayed with their relatives, as did Hemings. After Lucy Jefferson died of whooping cough, Jefferson called Mary to Paris in the summer of 1787. The 14-year-old Hemings came with her. Hemings spent the next two years living with the Jeffersons in Paris, along with her brother, James, who served as Jefferson's personal servant. There is strong evidence to suggest that during this time, Jefferson and Hemings began a sexual relationship.

While Hemings was entitled to her freedom under French law, and for a time reportedly even considered staying in France after Jefferson's departure, she ended up returning to Virginia in 1789. According to one of her youngest sons, Madison Hemings (who published his memoirs in 1873), Jefferson convinced his mother to return to America by promising her privileged status in his household and pledging to free her children when they reached the age of 21. Shortly after Hemings arrived at Monticello, she gave birth to her first child. (The fate of this child is uncertain. Madison Hemings stated that it lived only a short time, but the descendants of a man named Thomas Woodson claim that Woodson was the first child born to Jefferson and Hemings, and that he left Monticello as a young boy after rumors of his parents' relationship began to spread.)