Dear Ms. Annette Gordon-Reed,

I wanted to commend you on your thorough investigation of my family’s history. Actually, I am quite embarrassed that you know my family and my history better than myself. Yet, while I am flattered by your comprehensive account of my background and my life, I do have some thoughts to add and I would appreciate it if you would so kindly take the time to consider my opinions.

I actually did take some time to read Mr. Jefferson’s notes from a while ago, and I was quite surprised to see the deliberately harsh ways in which he described my peers, the slaves with which I grew up. It is true I thought something special of Mr. Jefferson. He was full of promises about Monticello and a life that sounded far superior to the freedom that Paris had promised. Because I had thought him to be a good man, the ways in which he described Virginia and its slaves deeply saddened me. I know he thinks highly of me, but it is still only in comparison to the slaves, which is not much at all.

Yet, at the same time, because there is some white in me and because I am a woman, I have some leverage over the slaves he speaks about. You say that I was only sought after because I was beautiful, because I was partly white. Yet, that pains me to think that although I am a slave, the same rules that oppress others benefit me. But like all others, I view myself with dignity. Though an enslaved woman, I view myself as a mother—I view myself as someone deserving of grander things than circumstances would allow. Yes, I believed I deserved better than the life that came with freedom in Paris, I deserved Monticello, Mr. Jefferson, his promises.

Am I mistaken for thinking this way?

All the best,
S. Hemings

Questions:

1) In Chapter 16, Annette Gordon-Reed writes, “As scholars have noted, the ‘slave’ in America has been constructed as male.” How does Sally Hemings’ account of her identity as a mixed-race enslaved female complicate the social construction of slave? Why did Hemings’ identity occupy such a liminal space? How is Hemings’ account different from that of other female slaves?

2) In Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson describes African Americans in very racialized terms, claiming white or any mixture of white is more beautiful and preferable to being fully black. In what ways did Jefferson racialize Sally Hemings and his relationship with her?