A toast to our guest, Mr. James Thompson Callender,
distinguished scribe for the Richmond Recorder,
whom we hope he'll aid us in Mr.
Jefferson's bid for the Presidency.
Mr.
Callender.
Delicious!
Is that strapping young
lad your son?
Yes sir, he is.
And I see you’re
plump with another.
Is the boy's father
also servant?
And so they speak of
Monticello’s fair skinned slaves, auburn
blonde
and red hair abounding, such mixed beauty
no doubt created by …
the Hemings family.
Ah, but then I must commend you on
acquiring such a rare family and for
allowing this dusky beauty to function
as mistress of Monticello.
I would favor the withholding of any
embarrassment with regard to your family
and friends for consideration of it
postmaster in this your home state of Virginia.
Mr. Callender, I find it hard to believe that
you would attempt to blackmail me in my
own home.
Well, you are a candidate for
the Presidency of the United States, sir,
a delicate business with regard to
reputation.
It is well known that the man
whom it delighted the people to honor
keeps and for many years has kept as his
concubine one of his slaves.
By this
wench Sally, our President has had several
children.
Sir, all this because you would not
appoint this man as postmaster.
These charges will be ignored.
In Paris, my mother became Mr.
Jefferson's concubine, and when he was
called to return home, she was with child
by him.
According to Sally's son Madison:
There were four of us living in Monticello,
the
children of Thomas Jefferson and Sally
Hemings: the three of us boys - Beverley
Eston, and myself Madison - and one
sister, Harriet.
Did Mr. Jefferson have
children with any other slave woman
besides your mother?
No, only our mother.
We was the only ones.
Did Mr. Jefferson
ever show you any partiality or fatherly affection?
He didn't favor us like he did
his white children and grandchildren, but
we was well treated.
Didn’t have to do
any field work or any other hard labor.
My sister Harriet was put to weaving and
spinning and such in the little factory
on the home plantation, and I was put to
the carpenter trade.
My brother Eston
and me was more of the African blood, but
my brother Beverly, you couldn't hardly
tell him from white.
So these are the sole and only legacy from
Thomas Jefferson?
No sir, our legacy
was our freedom, long before emancipation.
By the age of 21, we could pick up and
leave; wasn't slaves no more.
This was written in
the will of our father, in solemn promise
to our mother.
All her children will be
free - I will set them free - and so it was done.
