Home / Full timeline / Enslaved Black woman, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Jefferson begin an intimate relationship at Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. They eventually have multiple children together.
Enslaved Black woman, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Jefferson begin an intimate relationship at Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. They eventually have multiple children together.
1785
Sally Hemings was believed to have captured the heart of Thomas Jefferson, who at the time was a forty-five-year-old widower. Born in 1773, Hemings had arrived at Jefferson's Monticello plantation in 1775 as an enslaved woman. She accompanied his daughter to join him in France and was apparently educated and financially compensated during the three-year stay. Soon after she returned to Monticello, in 1789, Hemings gave birth to a son. Writings by Jefferson, Hemings's children, and Virginia's Richmond Recorder evidenced their intimate relationship and Jefferson's paternity to this and probably six other of Hemings's children. Hemings was discreetly freed by Jefferson's daughter after his death in 1826. Hemmings died in 1835.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.