Biography
Sally Hemings was an enslaved woman, inherited by the third President of the United States Thomas Jefferson. Sally is one of the most famous—and least known—African American women in U.
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Sally Hemings was an enslaved woman, inherited by the third President of the United States Thomas Jefferson. Sally is one of the most famous—and least known—African American women in U.S. history. For more than 200 years, her name has been linked to Thomas Jefferson as his “concubine,” obscuring the facts of her life and her identity. Like countless enslaved women, Sally Hemings bore children fathered by her owner. Female slaves had no legal right to refuse unwanted sexual advances. Sally was the child of an enslaved woman and her owner, as were five of her siblings. Regardless of their white paternity, children born to enslaved women inherited their mothers’ status as slaves.
At 14, Sally was living in Paris, as a free woman, when Thomas Jefferson persuaded her to return to Monticello with him. She refused to come back, but eventually, begrudgingly agreed, and only did so upon negotiating “extraordinary privileges” for herself and freedom for her future children. She moved to Monticello with Jefferson at just 16 years old. Over the next 32 years, Sally raised four children, all fathered by Thomas Jefferson—Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston—and prepared them for their eventual emancipation. Only decades after their negotiation, Jefferson freed all of Sally’s children. Sally herself never received legal freedom in Virginia.
Sally Hemings should be known today, not just as Jefferson’s coerced concubine, but as an enslaved woman who – at the age of 16 – negotiated with one of the most powerful men in the nation (who denied her humanity and privacy) to improve her own condition and achieve freedom for her children.
- Lifespan
- 1775-1835
- Nationality
- American
- Occupations
- Enslaved woman
- Era
- Early United States
- Born
- 1775 Needs source
- Died
- 1835 Needs source
- Tags
- American, Early United States, Enslaved woman
- Themes
- Global History