Mr. Cadenhead - 7th Grade Social Studies –Jefferson and Hemingsp. 1 of 2

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Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings (adapted by Mr. Cadenhead from
  • Creed: An idea or set of beliefs that guides the actions of a person or group
  • Contradictory: involving information that disagrees with other information
  • Monticello: Jefferson’s mountaintop plantation home in Virginia
  • Minister: a person who represents his or her own government while living in a foreign country
  • Passed: lived as a white person, denying African American ancestry
  • DNA: a substance that carries genetic information in the cells of humans
  • Descendent: someone who is related to a person or group of people who lived in the past

Thomas Jefferson and African Americans; a complicated relationship: To say that Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with African Americans is a complicated one is to state the obvious. On the one hand, his words have inspired people throughout the world and across history to fight for freedom and civil rights. On August 28th 1963, in his famous speech on the Washington DC Mall, Martin Luther King quoted Thomas Jefferson: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”
On the other hand, Jefferson had insulted African Americans in his 1781 collection of essays “Notes on the State of Virginia” stating that blacks were “inferior” to whites and hoping that, if slavery ever ended, African Americans would be forced to leave the United States rather than live alongside their former white masters.
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: Few men who knew Jefferson when he was alive realized that he was having secret, long-term relationship with one of his African-American slaves; a woman named Sally Hemings with whom he had six children.
Sally Hemings, born in 1773 in Virginia, worked on the Monticello plantation of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings most likely began sometime after 1782, the year Jefferson’s wife Martha Jefferson died. Ironically, Sally Hemings was in fact Martha Jefferson's half-sister. Sally's mother, Betty Hemings, was a slave owned by Jefferson's father-in-law, John Wayles, who was the father of Sally.
Sally Hemings arrived at Monticello when she was about three years old and Thomas Jefferson was 33. As a child and young teenager, Hemings performed the duties of a household servant. After Martha Jefferson's death in 1782, Hemings became a companion for one of Jefferson's younger daughters, Mary. / Jefferson in Paris: Jefferson traveled to Paris in 1784 to serve as the American minister to France. Jefferson’s daughter Mary joined him in Paris in the summer of 1787. The 14-year-old Hemings came with her. Hemings spent the next two years living with the Jeffersons in Paris, along with her brother, James, who served as Jefferson's personal servant. It was most likely during this time that Jefferson and Hemings began their relationship.
Hemings was entitled to her freedom under French law, and may have considered staying in France after Jefferson returned to America. However, she ended up returning to Virginia with Jefferson in 1789. According to one of her youngest sons, Madison Hemings (who published his memoirs in 1873), Jefferson convinced Sally to return to America by promising her special treatment in Monticello (Jeffersons’ Virginia home) and promising to free her children when they reached the age of 21.
Rumors and Scandal: Very little is known about Sally Hemings’ life at Monticello. Another slave at Monticello described her as "mighty near white … very (pretty) with long straight hair down her back". The rumored relationship between Jefferson and his beautiful young servant began to circulate during the 1790s in both Virginia and Washington, D.C. The fact that Hemings' light-skinned children bore a strong resemblance to Jefferson only increased the speculation. However, nothing was ever proven during Jefferson’s lifetime and he never admitted the truth.
The Hemings-Jefferson Children: As promised, Jefferson freed all of Hemings' children at the age of 21. Ironically, however, he never freed Hemings herself until two years after his own death. Little is known of the lives of the children Jefferson had with Sally Hemings. One of Jefferson’s sons, a light-skinned man named Beverly, moved to Washington, D.C., where he passed as a white man. In this way he was able to avoid some of the racial prejudice he would have experienced as African American living in America in the early 1800’s. A second son, Eston changed his last name to Jefferson and also passed as white while living in Wisconsin. A third son Madison Hemings (who may have had darker skin), continued to live as a black man in Virginia and later in Ohio.
DNA settles the debate: In the centuries that followed Jefferson’s death, rumors never completely died away that Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings’ children. However, nothing was proven until 1998 when it became possible to analyze the DNA of male descendants of Sally Hemings. The evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Jefferson was the father of Hemings' six children.
Short Response: Part 1: Independent work (do in class):
  • Question #1:Tables 3, 4 &5: The article describes Jefferson’s relationship with African Americans as “complicated”. Do you agree? Why or why not? ( Explain your answer usingtwoexamples from the text and at least 2 of the following vocabulary: contradictory; creed; descended)
  • Question 2: Tables 1 & 2: Until 1998, nobody knew the full story of the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. Do you agree that this story is an important part of American History? Why or why not? (Explain your answer usingtwoexamples from the text and at least 2 of the following vocabulary: creed; passed; descended; contradictory; DNA; Monticello)

6 point Grading Rubric /
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 Claim: 1 Points:
Claim is clearly stated
 Evidence #1 (1 Pt) First relevant detail from the article in his/her own words (not copied from text)
Evidence #2 (1 pt)
2nd relevant detail
____ Flo-test(well-written and easy to read):
(1-3 pts.)
/ Part 2: Extra Credit: Complete both questions from today's handout

6 point Grading Rubric /
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 Claim: 1 Points:
Claim is clearly stated
 Evidence #1 (1 Pt) First relevant detail from the article in his/her own words (not copied from text)
Evidence #2 (1 pt)
2nd relevant detail
____ Flo-test(well-written and easy to read):
(1-3 pts.)
Total ___ pts.(1-6)
Alternative Choice (instead of short response questions): Using three or more of the above vocabulary words, write 3-Stanza hip hop poem telling the story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.