Sally Hemings

Sally Hemings (* 1773, † 1835) was a slave of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, with whom he had a relationship.

Sally Hemings originally belonged to the wife of Jefferson, Martha Wayles, and was possibly even their half-sister. After the death of Martha and Jefferson's move in 1784 as an American diplomat to Paris he sent to his nine- year-old daughter Mary ( 1778-1804 ). This was accompanied on her trip by Sally Hemings. 1789 Jefferson returned to the U.S. and lived until his death in 1826 at Monticello. The claim that Jefferson with his slave had a relationship, and even children, still during the lifetime of Jefferson pamphleteer James T. Callender was already in 1802, situated in diffamatorischer intention. It was debated hotly for many years. A DNA analysis (performed by three independent laboratories and 1996 in Nature published) shows that one of the children of Sally Hemings descendant in the male line of Thomas Jefferson's grandfather, which makes it appear probable that Jefferson himself the father of Hemings ' children had. These were the only three slaves (next to Sally Hemings itself) that ever sacked Thomas Jefferson to freedom.