Sally Hemings

In the SALLY Project the union of Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father, and Sally Hemings, slave woman, serves as a lens for examining contemporary valuations: black/white, youth/age, male/female among others. The SALLY Project brings together makers from multiple disciplines intrigued by women whose lives and accomplishments have been forgotten, or overshadowed. The SALLY Project showcases the work of those with a fierce commitment to collaboration and shared access to creativity.

Sarah ‘Sally’ Hemings and Thomas Jefferson had six children together. While a teenager in France with Jefferson’s family, Hemings had a chance at full freedom, but returned to America with Jefferson in 1791 when he was 47 years old. While in Paris, Hemings negotiated with Jefferson that she would return enslaved to his plantation Monticello in exchange for “extraordinary privileges” for herself and freedom for her unborn children. Four children survived to adulthood, and are mentioned in Jefferson’s plantation records:  Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston Hemings. In 1820, Jefferson freed Beverly and Harriet who then left Monticello. Jefferson freed Madison and Eston in his will, and both left Monticello in 1826. Jefferson did not grant freedom to any other enslaved family unit. Though Sally Hemings was “given her time” after Jefferson’s death, she was never legally freed. Hemings died in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1835. The location of her grave is unknown.