24. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
The Sally Hemings – Thomas Jefferson liaison first appeared in the public eye in 1802, after James T. Callendar made the accusations in print. Callendar was irked that he had been denied a position as a Postmaster (then political spoil) and had threatened to reveal what he called their illicit relationship. Jefferson ignored the accusations publicly and privately, despite the “revelation” that he had fathered several children by Sally, whom he had brought to Paris in company with his daughter Martha, in order to have her trained in the art of French cooking. Since Callendar’s accusations the story has never faded, making it the longest-running sex and political scandal in American history.
In the 21st century DNA analysis demonstrated that the Hemings and Jefferson lines were mixed, but without definitive proof that it had been because of a relationship between Sally and Thomas. The argument remains a spirited one, with those determined to denigrate Jefferson (and the other founders who were also slaveholders) as amoral hypocrites. Sally Hemings is to them proof positive. Others have argued that Jefferson’s younger brother, Randolph, is a more likely candidate as the father of Sally Hemings’ children. Yet Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson have become a couple in the minds of many, to be used as a means of judgment whether that judgment is informed or not.
