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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Sally Hemings: sex slave or Presidential lover?

Would you consider Sally Hemings a sex slave to American President Thomas Jefferson?

"Sally Hemings (c. 1773 – 1835) was an American slave owned by Thomas Jefferson, believed to be the mother of several children belonging to him. She was also reportedly the illegitimate half-sister of Jefferson's deceased wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson...Sally Hemings lived at Monticello while Jefferson was alive." --New World Encyclopedia

There is no official portrait of Sally, but this portrait of Jefferson is on the U.S. White House website.

Author Barbara Chase-Riboud wrote about the relationship between Hemings and Jefferson in a book published in 1979. "Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, had a mistress for thirty-eight years, whom he loved and lived with until he died, the beautiful and elusive Sally Hemings." --jacket cover of book, Sally Hemings: a novel by Barbara Chase-Riboud.

It is believed that at the age of 15, Hemings began a sexual relationship with Jefferson when he was on official government business in Paris, France. Jefferson never freed Hemings or her children.

Monticello, Jefferson's home in Virginia
The following critic of Jefferson is posted at enotes.com:
"His phrase 'all men are created equal' is seen as inconsistent with his beliefs about specific groups. According to Charles A. Miller, while Jefferson felt all humans were morally equal, he believed that blacks, Native Americans, and women were not culturally, physically, or intellectually equal to white males. The fact that he owned slaves himself while professing a deep abhorrence of the institution is equally troubling to modern day scholars." (http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/jefferson-thomas)

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