Hemings died in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1835. Four of Hemings' children survived into adulthood. Whether this should be described as rape remains a matter of controversy. Multiple lines of evidence, including modern DNA analyses, indicate that Jefferson impregnated Hemings over the span of many years, and historians now broadly agree that he was the father of her six children.

At some time during her 26 months in Paris, the widower Jefferson began having intimate relations with her.Īs attested by her son, Madison Hemings, Sally later agreed with Jefferson that she would return to Virginia and resume her life in slavery, as long as all their children would be freed when they came of age. There Sally was a legally free and paid servant as slavery was not legal in France. In 1787, when she was 14, Sally Hemings accompanied Jefferson and his daughter by Martha to Paris. Sally was half-sister to Jefferson's wife and was of approximately three quarters English descent. Sally's father, the owner of Betty, John Wayles, was also the father of Jefferson's wife, Martha. Hemings's mother was Betty Hemings, the daughter of an enslaved African woman and English Captain John Hemings. 1773 – 1835) was an enslaved woman with one-quarter African ancestry owned by president of the United States Thomas Jefferson, one of many he inherited from his father-in-law, John Wayles. Enslaved woman who had children by Thomas Jefferson

Annette gordon reed sally hemings