When Thomas met Sally: Jeffersonian Democracy?

"There are no known images of Sally Hemings and only four known descriptions of her appearance or demeanor" according the the Jefferson Monticello site. "Sally Hemings left no known written accounts. It is not known if she was literate." Oh, but we can dream, can't we? Think Sean Young, the deep, dark and delicious replicant Rachel of Bladerunner, as "the other," soulmate to a widowed Thomas Jefferson.

"Dear Roger L. Simon and Jim Nolte," we twittered this afternoon:

My fantasy: Hollywood film, with British production values, of Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemings affair as true romance.

"Interesting idea, Sissy," Roger responded:

How would you do?

Consulting with Tuck, we came up with this:

Hubby Tuck thinks Sally must have been a rock for wavering Thomas ... had lost his beloved wife, financial problems ...

Maybe crazy, but I'm thinking Bladerunner. Tuck is thinking Dickens's Little Doritt. Woman from outside the tribe saves him.

It's the Darwinian thing of new blood giving life to dying bloodline. Or something.

"Could have aspects of both," responds Roger. More from Tuck:

It'd be nice to see that relationship humanized so that we could get over the constant carping about racism and the whole stupid business. Nobody knows what went on.

I think of the John Adams series and how that brought history to life. It would be extremely sensitive. A lot of people would be offended.

Yup. The usual suspects among our friends on the left side of the aisle who substitute accusations of racism for engagement in debate come to mind.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[goomp]

As one who lost his loved soul mate nearly 18 years ago, I can think that sex or color had little to do with the relationship. Kindness and understanding are the same when the skin is peeled off.

[Tully]

What goomp said. If the sketchy records are correct, Sally Hemings was the half-sister of Jefferson's deceased wife and herself three-quarters white, so if I were writing the script she'd be the (much younger) spitting image of his beloved Martha.

[DJMoore]

Any such story must deal with the fact that Thomas did not free Sally, although in his will he freed other members of his family, and in fact kept more than a hundred slaves — a huge discrepancy with our modern understanding of his written support of liberty.

I am asking this question out of pure ignorance: is it possible that, at the time, it might have been to Sally's advantage to remain in Thomas' family, even as a slave?

[Maureen]

She was legally free as soon as she got to Paris. (By French law, anyway.) But it's not like you can abandon your hostage children.

Thomas Jefferson was a creep. It was incest as well as sleeping with a woman who was legally in his power. Anybody claiming it was a love story just makes both partners creepy together. If Jefferson was nerdy enough not to think of it that way, and if they wove an illusion for themselves that it was consensual, that's creepier still.

I suppose it would sell, though. The Gothic romance crowd loves creepy vampires sleeping with their woman-slaves who weally weally wuv them and make them feel better (after being raped), so this would go over well with them.

[Tully]

Incest? No. She was no blood relation to him. And she had no "hostage children" during the time they were in Paris.

[DJMoore]

According to Wikipedia (and undisputed as far as I can tell), Sally was the half-sister of TJ's wife, Martha, and bore a close resemblance to her.

The story is that Sally was fifteen when TJ called his nine year old daughter Maria to Paris, and Sally was chosen to attend her. This is apparently when Thomas became closely acquainted with Sally.

So, no, not incest; instead, it still looks like a creepy attempt to have an affair with a much younger version of his dead wife.

This is as clear an example as I know of the difference between the great words and deeds of great men and their deeply flawed personal lives.

And I still don't understand TJ's failure to free Sally in his will, as I would expect him to do if he had any real affection for her. It makes me wonder if he wasn't keeping Sally a slave, but perhaps was keeping Martha bound to him, even through their deaths.

I don't know, but again, any dramatization that fails to deal with this is bound to be unsatisfying, to say the least.

[daisy]

No, there was nothing creepy about it. It was not uncommon for a widower to marry a sister in law then. Jefferson did not free Sally but he freed her children. Freed slaves had to leave Virginia immediately back then so it's possible that he couldn't stand the thought of not having her by his side. I don't know if you could call it love probably more like Cliff Roberts in Obsession.