Indeed, Thomas Jefferson Randolph wrote:
If he [President Jefferson] visited home for a week, he came to my father’s to breakfast and would not leave untill [sic] every member of the family accompanied him. When he left home my father preferring to reside on his own farm carried his family back. Previous to the close of his presidency he wrote to my mother to say he had never lived at home without her and never could and she must prepare for a final removal.58
We know from numerous other documents that Martha did return to Monticello virtually every time her father ventured home, and that upon his retirement she did move back to the mountain to be with him. If Sally Hemings were the secret passion of his life, why would Thomas Jefferson on every occasion insist that his daughter and grandchildren accompany him to Monticello?
We must also consider the moral character of Martha Jefferson Randolph, whose reputation by all accounts rivaled that of her father. If she knew or believed that her father was bedding a servant woman, would she have wanted to accompany him back to Monticello on every visit? Would she have brought her own children and exposed them to such an environment? None of this makes any sense.
Speaking of the grandchildren, Edmund Bacon tells us that “Mr. Jefferson was perfectly devoted to his grandchildren, and they to him.”59 All of the evidence supports that conclusion. Perhaps Thomas Jefferson could have counted on Martha to respect his privacy by not venturing into certain parts of the mansion and knocking before entering, but few men engaged in an illicit sexual relationship would make special efforts to voluntarily fill their home with inquisitive children. It makes no sense at all—if one believes the Callender allegations.
Was it possible that such a relationship could have lasted for decades without Martha or anyone else being suspicious? That’s really the wrong question, as we must ask whether a man of Thomas Jefferson’s intellect and judgment—a man constantly concerned about preserving his reputation—would have believed that the relationship definitely would (not just “might”) remain secret; and that is a much higher standard.
On this topic, Professor Brodie is certainly correct when she writes: “only the most naïve of men could have believed that he could continue to keep a liaison with the slave girl secret, especially from his daughters.”60 And given his investment in his own reputation, and his deep love for his daughters and grandchildren, I believe it is inconceivable that Thomas Jefferson would have engaged in such a relationship.
Professor Gordon-Reed appears to recognize that Jefferson’s love for his family is an impediment to her theory of a romance with Sally Hemings. She deals with this, in essence, by saying that the fact that Jefferson was bright does not mean he loved his family any more than any other slave owner, and there were other slave owners who had sex with slaves. Ergo, she implies, this issue is irrelevant. She writes:
The third prong of the character defense purports to debunk the Jefferson-Hemings liaison by citing Jefferson’s love for his children and grandchildren as having been too great to have allowed for such involvement. The first thing to observe about this assertion is that it is not a fact in the sense that Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States or that he was the founder of the University of Virginia could be considered facts. It is a value judgment. A person making this assertion is revealing his or her own values more than Thomas Jefferson’s.61
Is this really true? It may be easier to establish the realities of Thomas Jefferson’s election as President or his role in the establishment of the university, but whether he was telling the truth or lying when he professed his love to his family is a factual issue rather than one involving the values of observers.62 If we asked whether it was a good thing that Thomas Jefferson loved his family, that would be a value judgment. But Professor Gordon-Reed continues:
One need not have a detailed knowledge of the character of every master who ever owned a slave to know that there were slave masters who had slave mistresses and who at the same time loved their white children deeply. One could argue that Thomas Jefferson was not every slave master. But are we to consider Jefferson’s capacity to love as greater than what we would expect from an average person just because he had the ability to express his love through his many elegantly written letters to his family? Thomas Jefferson was a genius, but there is no reason to believe that his genius made the character, depth, and nature of his love for his family any greater than those of a person of more modest capabilities.63
Put simply, the reason we recognize Thomas Jefferson’s immense love for his children and grandchildren is not because we have taken measure of his intelligence, but because we have numerous accounts of not merely his expressions of love but his physical demonstrations of that feeling. This has nothing to do with assuming that, simply because he was intelligent and articulate, Thomas Jefferson must have loved his grandchildren. The hard evidence of that love is abundant, and for most of us it is compelling. It comes from numerous sources in addition to the letters of Thomas Jefferson. It is extremely difficult to reconcile Jefferson’s love for his children and his belief that the sexual exploitation of slaves was particularly harmful to the master’s children with the idea that he pressured Martha to bring her family to Monticello while he carried on a sexual relationship with Sally Hemings.
Jefferson’s Treatment of Madison and Eston Hemings
Every account of Jefferson and his children and grandchildren emphasizes his deep love and open affection showed towards all of them. And yet, all of the available evidence—including Madison Hemings’ alleged statements printed in the Pike County Republican, and Jefferson’s extensive Memorandum Books (which include only a single reference to Madison and Eston out of many thousands of entries)—suggests that he showed no affection at all towards his alleged “colored children.” His only son by his wife Martha died in infancy, all of Sally’s children were apparently seven-eighths (88%) white by blood, and all but one or two were reportedly white enough in their physical appearance to pass for white; so it is difficult to understand why Jefferson almost totally ignored Madison and Eston if they were, in fact, his own sons. Was he so ashamed of his relationship with Sally over all the decades that he could not bear to look at his own children? He clearly had a very close relationship with several members of the Hemings family. Was the Sally Hemings who allegedly confronted and dominated Thomas Jefferson in Paris so timid once she returned to Monticello that she would tolerate her children being ignored by their father? None of this makes any sense.
To be sure, one might understand Jefferson’s being discreet in showing affection to Madison and Eston in front of visitors to Monticello, but surely there would have been occasions, even if only in the privacy of Sally’s room, that he could hold them on his knee and show them the love he exhibited to his other relatives and allegedly felt for their mother. While not conclusive, Thomas Jefferson’s lack of visible affection for Sally’s children must be considered yet another strong piece of evidence for the proposition that he was not their father. Indeed, there does not appear to be another explanation that can easily be reconciled with what we know about Thomas Jefferson and his love for his children.
Jefferson’s Age and Health
Although reliable data are difficult to find, the best estimate is that the life expectancy for an American male during the years Sally Hemings was producing children was about thirty-five or thirty-six years.64 Modern medical marvels that prolong quality of life for added decades did not exist, and life was generally harsh. Viagra did not become available until 1998. Thomas Jefferson lived a better life than most, and for the era he was a remarkably healthy man.
But even Jefferson suffered from a variety of medical problems as he grew older, including both debilitating rheumatism and intense migraine headaches that often lasted for weeks. Professor Ellis notes that in April 1776, Jefferson was prevented from returning to Philadelphia for more than a month because of incapacitating headaches, and that this was “a lifelong affliction that fla
red up whenever he felt unduly pressured.”65
On January 1, 1784, Jefferson wrote to James Madison from Annapolis that he had been in “very ill health since I have been here and am getting rather lower than otherwise.”66 Two months later, he came down with an attack of migraine headaches that lasted six weeks and limited his ability to read or write.67
Shortly after arriving in Paris in 1784, Jefferson came down with a severe cold that he wrote James Monroe had kept him “confined” for nearly six months.68 Another bout with “very violent”69 migraines struck him shortly after he returned to America, on May 1, 1790, and lasted more than two months.70 On May 28, 1790, Dr. George Buchanan wrote to Jefferson:
Mr. Sterett has just arrived from New York, and upon enquiring after your health, he informed me that you had been confined for some weeks past with a periodical headache, which would not yield to Bark, and that you had declined the use of that remedy for some time, in hopes that it would have a better effect when again repeated.—It frequently happens, Sir in periodical affections that the Bark fails, and the disease requires something more powerfully antispasmodick to prevent its return.71
The following year, Jefferson complained of “the almost constant headache with which I had been persecuted thro the whole winter and spring.”72 This problem, which plagued him the rest of his life, was “very painful and sometimes rendered him almost immobile.”73
About four months before Sally Hemings is estimated to have conceived her daughter Harriet I,74 Jefferson began a letter to Secretary of State Edmund Randolph: “Your favor of Aug. 28 finds me in bed, under a paroxysm of the Rheumatism which has now kept me for ten days in constant torment, and presents no hope of abatement.”75
Three weeks later, Jefferson added in a letter to Thomas Divers: “I have no prospect of getting on a horse for a month to come.”76 Jefferson’s health was so poor that it contributed to a three-month period during which “little ploughing was done” at Monticello, despite “fine” weather.77
Three months after the predicted date of conception of Harriet I, Jefferson wrote to James Madison: “My health is entirely broken down within the last eight months; my age requires that I should place my affairs in a clear state. … ”78
On October 7, 1802, he complained in a letter to Martha of “an excessive soreness all over, and a deafness and ringing in the head.”79 Eleven days later he wrote to Martha and Maria about his “rheumatic,” noting that it had “confined me to the house some days. … ”80
Five months before Eston Hemings is estimated to have been conceived by Sally Hemings and an unidentified male carrying the Jefferson Y chromosome, President Jefferson wrote Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin that his migraines were so painful that he was “shut up in a dark room from early in the forenoon til night.”81 He complained to Martha that “neither Calomel nor bark have as yet made the least impression” on the headaches.82 Professor Malone tells us the headaches “lasted from nine to five everyday at first, and he was not wholly recovered for about three weeks.”83 Malone attributes the headaches in part to the “great stress of mind” under which the President was suffering during that period.84
Three months later, the pain from rheumatism in the President’s leg was so intense that he again sought medical assistance. A letter from Doctor Thomas Patterson, received by Jefferson on July 14, 1807—about six weeks before Eston’s estimated conception date—recommended the use of a vinegar-soaked bandage as “a proper remedy for your leg, as it would support the vessels & promote absorption.”85
Former Monticello slave Isaac Jefferson provided this account:
About the time when my Old Master begun to wear spectacles, he was took with a swellin’ in his legs; used to bathe ’em and bandage ’em; said it was settin’ too much. When he’d git up and walk it wouldn’t [sic?86] hurt him. Isaac and John Hemings nursed him two months; had to car[t] him about on a han’barrow.87
Jefferson described an attack of rheumatism the following year as being so painful that he could “scarcely walk, and that with pain.”88
None of this proves that Thomas Jefferson could not have fathered one or more of Sally Hemings’ children. But it is relevant to our inquiry, and along with the other data we have, it greatly reduces the probability that Thomas Jefferson was more likely than his much younger brother or nephews (or someone else) to have fathered Eston Hemings.
Would Thomas Jefferson Have Entrusted His Reputation to the Discretion of Sally Hemings?
The only accounts we have of Sally Hemings as she traveled to Paris tell us she was exceptionally immature and lacked the judgment of an eight-year-old child. As the servant to Jefferson’s daughters, she was presumably in their presence for hours at a time, day after day. Again, the issue is not whether Thomas Jefferson would have believed that such a child might be able to preserve his confidences, but whether he would be certain that he could entrust his cherished reputation to her discretion.
Imagine for a moment life at the Abbaye Royale de Panthemont. Sally Hemings is a young slave girl, far from home, required to wait hand and foot on Jefferson’s daughters as they and their wealthy schoolmates enjoy the finer things of life. If she was wise enough (and bold enough) to confront the U.S. Minister to France and demand a “treaty,” surely she would realize that by raising her status from lowly servant to “Daddy’s mistress” in the eyes of Patsy and Polly, her social standing would improve. De facto “stepmother” is a much more powerful position than slave or servant.
Thomas Jefferson had a very close relationship with some of the Hemings men who served as his slaves. He clearly trusted them, gave them considerable discretion, and on occasion even borrowed money from at least one of them. But he was also cognizant that servants who overheard his conversations could be sources of rumors and gossip. William Howard Adams writes in The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson:
One of the new Parisian fashions that Jefferson immediately adopted—and later introduced at Monticello and in Washington—was the use of small, individual serving tables placed between guests in dining rooms, eliminating the need for servants in the room during the meal. Years later in Washington, Margaret Bayard Smith recalled Jefferson’s remark “that much of the domestic and even public discord was produced by the mutilated and misconstructed repetition of free conversations at dinner tables, by these mute but not inattentive listeners.”89
Was Sally Hemings Thomas Jefferson’s “Type”?
About the only thing we know about Sally Hemings is that she was “handsome” and “mighty near white.” Certainly she might have been sexually attractive even at age fourteen or fifteen to many adult men. At one point, both Jefferson’s secretary William Short and his close friend James Madison had romantic interests in teenaged girls much younger than themselves.90 But there is no evidence that Thomas Jefferson’s tastes in women were in that direction.
Indeed, all of the women that we know Jefferson as an adult found sexually appealing were married or widowed, mature, and—above all else—highly accomplished and talented.91 In an era filled with impediments to the serious education of women, Jefferson was drawn to urbane, sophisticated, and above all talented women. His wife Martha, a mature widow, was an accomplished musician.92 Maria Cosway had been elected to the Florence Academy of Fine Arts at the age of nineteen, and had exhibited nearly two dozen paintings at London’s Royal Academy. She was accomplished on the pianoforte and harp, had a beautiful singing voice, and was a music composer—as well as being an accomplished linguist.93 Angelica Church was also worldly, witty, and likely far more talented than had been Martha Wayles. Even Elizabeth Walker, the wife of Jefferson’s friend John Walker, towards whom Jefferson later admitted having made inappropriate advances while a young bachelor, was a mature married woman.
Andrew Burstein notes that Jefferson had an “intellectual approach” to sexual behavior.94 Professor Ellis refers to his “romantic innocence”95 and “conspicuous gallantry”96 towards women. Assessing Jefferson’s lengthy co
rrespondence with the beautiful and talented Maria Cosway, Ellis finds it “abundantly clear that Jefferson preferred to meet his lovers in the rarefied region of his mind rather than the physical world of his bedchamber,”97 and concludes “his deepest urges were more self-protective and sentimental than sexual.”98
Since we have almost no information about Sally in Paris, we cannot say much about her with certainty. But the description attributed to Captain Ramsay, and echoed through the experienced eye of Abigail Adams, is so far from the kind of woman Thomas Jefferson was ever known to find attractive that the Callender allegations are yet further problematic. As a slave, there is little reason to believe that young Sally had any formal education or was especially accomplished as an artist, musician, or the like. Indeed, it is noteworthy that witnesses like Edmund Bacon and Isaac Jefferson, who described Sally’s relatives by praising their talents, made not a single suggestion that Sally Hemings had any special talents and focused instead on her “handsome” appearance and the fact that she had once traveled to Paris. The most reasonable reading of Madison Hemings’ 1873 statement strongly suggests that, even as an adult, Sally Hemings could neither read nor write English, much less other languages.99 And unlike the paternity statements attributed to Madison, his words bearing on Sally’s attainments could have stemmed from direct, first-hand knowledge.
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