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Date Posted: 08:38:24 02/27/09 Fri
Author: JessieR
Subject: HollyC—I’m so glad you raised the issue of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, and I was thrilled to see QOTD take up the same topic! That kind of synchronicity amplifies these discussions in marvelous ways. I think Jefferson is so relevant to our exploration here, which is why I raised his example above in discussing how the public revelation of an interracial affair could be so damaging to a white man. I blabbed on so long in that post that I thought I’d best shut up and decline discussing the familial connections involving Sally, but they, too, are relevant. I’d also like to give a nod to Annette Gordon-Reed’s well-received book, The Hemingses of Monticello, that Joyce Mc mentioned on QOTD. It’s a substantive and scholarly investigation of the Wayles-Jefferson-Hemings family connections.>>> went way too long, inside>>>
In reply to: HollyC 's message, "Jessie, your analysis of why Ulysses left feels spot on to me. I think my strong response in regards to how could he truly care for her is based on some recent reading about the whole Jefferson/Hemings thing. Coincidentally, someone mentions a bit of that on QOTD today. Inside>>>" on 06:01:49 02/27/09 Fri

I should qualify all my comments by saying that there is no definitive DNA evidence that proves Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings’s children, nor is there categorical proof that John Wayles, the father of Jefferson’s beloved wife, Martha, was the father of Sally Hemings. The DNA evidence proves that a Jefferson fathered Sally’s children, but it could have been Thomas Jefferson’s brother. As for Wayles, there isn’t enough factual evidence to prove he fathered Sally. But the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming, including first-hand accounts that these white men “stamped their get,” to borrow DG’s phrasing, and most historians today believe Jefferson fathered several children with Sally Hemings, and that Sally was the half-sister of Martha Wayles Jefferson.

The intriguing, thing, then, and the point I think you find disturbing, is the possibility that Jefferson saw an “echo” of his wife in the face of Sally Hemings, and that he sought to satisfy his physical needs with a woman who couldn’t turn him down. As Joyce Mc notes over on QOTD, Sally was described as beautiful, and Jefferson, proclaimed widower that he was, had an eye for beautiful women. (Maria Cosway, anyone?). Sally was described as having long, straight hair, which was code for “white looking,” and Jefferson clearly states in his writings that white beauty is preferable to any other. (He made particular note of “flowing hair” in white women as an indicator of beauty).

So, was Jefferson predatory in his affair with Sally? Was it rape, since she did not consent to being enslaved in the first place? Was she receptive to his advances, only because it would benefit her situation? Or was there true affection between them, as there was between Jocasta and Ulysses? There is insufficient historical record to answer these questions, but we do know that Jefferson treated the children of this relationship differently, and far better, than other slave children at Monticello, and that he trained them to be free people rather than slaves. Was this his way of returning affection? Given the times, perhaps it was.

What may be really “creepy” about the Jefferson/Hemings liaison is that Jefferson, the Enlightenment scientist that he was, may have seen it as an experiment in social and biological engineering. Jefferson’s writings support the idea that the intermingling of whites with African Americans would create a kind of racial uplift that would improve the intellect of African Americans while making them more attractive, simply because they had more white racial characteristics. Perhaps he felt his relationship with Sally was one way to test his theory, and given that he trained their children to become tradesmen rather than slaves, and that several of these children could pass as white, he may have felt satisfied that his instincts were correct. But the fact that he never wrote about his relationship with Sally tells us this was not an experiment he wished to record as part of his intellectual legacy.

I tend to go on and on about Jefferson because he fascinates me no end. He was not only a man of gigantic contradictions, he was also a man who was keenly aware of them. Here is a guy who said that “commerce between master and slave is despotism,” but who depended upon slave labor to run Monticello. His writings are full of ideas for emancipation, but he freed very few slaves upon his death. His intellectual struggle to reconcile the sin of slavery with its economic benefits tells us that he was aware of how exploitive his behavior truly was, but like so many men of the period, he was unable to make the hard choices to stop it.

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Replies:

[> [> [> [> That's exactly it -the idea of an 'echo' of his wife's face - that I keep turning over in my mind. Who can ever know the real emotional dynamics of the situation, but like you I find the contradictions in Jefferson's thoughts and actions fascinating. I had an easier time reconciling the economic reasons he held on to slavery although it clashed with his ideals - as Carol P says its so easy to justify something that benefits you. But throw Sally into the mix and its mind boggling. So in the Phaedre as Hector's daughter subplot , frankly I don't care how Jo would feel *g*, I'm more focused on the injustice for Phaedre, And please 'go long' whenever you want, it was so interesting! -- HollyC, 14:04:03 02/27/09 Fri


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