sally hemings was part of an inheritance. it's important to remember that slaves were property, and they could be inherited through marriage, as well as being bought and sold. so when jefferson married his wife, martha in 1772, she was the daughter of a wealthy slave trader, called john wayles. it was through him that jefferson inherited 135 slaves, and sally hemings was one of those slaves. we know so little about her. there are only four references, descriptions, of her that exist. jefferson himself never wrote about her explicitly. so she remains this very mysterious figure, but i think it is important to emphasize that she was related to jefferson's wife. she was marked the wayles-jefferson's half-sister. and she may have even resembled jefferson's wife. in 1784, jefferson took up a post in paris as essentially a trade ambassador. he was trying to forge treaties with the french and other countries. so that the new u.s. could survive in the wake of the american revolution. but he wanted to have his daughters with him. he w

i had it in my mind that i would write a biography about them in a little bit about sally hemings. i am sick of sally stop but then realized that was crazy. you have to talk about sally hemings and all of this and i do that in this chapter in three chapters. and i bring him home to the third part of the book which is called on the mountain which technically is not on the mountain because jefferson comes home from france and he thinks he is going back. the story is the fallacy came home she is going to have a baby and jefferson's baby and she does not want her child to be a slave. and the story is that jefferson promised her, basically in a nut shell that everything is going to be okay and your children will be free. come back. think about the difference between james and sally. jefferson was supposed to return to france he was coming home on a leave of absence so james could have had a shot at coming back to paris. sally would not have. jefferson is taking his daughter's home. he was very worried about her she was coming into womanhood in a different country. she has become a young

african-americans living today who can trace their genealogy back to thomas jefferson and one of his slaves sally hemings before him having slaves he was a youngster but what changes play very shouldn't be this even slaves right now in this day after it of them. the subtle ways to get out. get out laid trying to kill the show. the first president of the united states george washington started owning slaves when he was just eleven years old by the time of his death he had over three hundred even signed into law the infamous fugitive slave act which allowed slave owners to track down escapees all over the country think anything that's owned by a slave owner should be changed yeah it should be because this is times two thousand and definitely they've had enough time to do it while washington didn't go to war to defend slavery and i think concepts is very important in these tough situations george washington's faces on the one dollar bill he's often referred to as the father of our country slavery didn't just exist in the south it existed all across the united states getting rid of everything related to slav

you sort of imagine jefferson putting that in a document, asking the legislature to allow sally hemings to stay in the state and then saying, also, here is how i'm -- it would have been an admission they had been living together for 38 and he wasn't going to do that. so she moves into charlottesville. she is listed on a census in 1830 as a free white woman, and then in 1833 they do a special census to ask free blacks if they want to go back to africa. she says no, and she is listed there as a free negro woman at that point. so it was informal freedom. sons, and then she dies in 1835. >> i have two questions that are virtually identical about teddy roosevelt. do you think that edith roosevelt was very influential? the next question is do you think theodore roosevelt would have been so successful as president if he had not been married to edith. who is good on this? >> i think she was very influential to him. he loved her very, very much. i think it was a situation where -- but it was a traditional kind of thing. i mean it was not like she was there making policy or anything like that, bu

african-americans living today who can trace their genealogy back to thomas jefferson and one of his slaves sally hemings before him. having slaves it was a. change it slavery shouldn't be this even slaves right now in this state after all of them but. that's not the way to get out. of that out trying to kill the shop. the first president of the united states george washington started owning slaves when he was just eleven years old by the time of his death he had over three hundred even signed into law the infamous fugitive slave act which allowed slave owners to track down escapees all over the country anything that's owned by a slave owner should be changed yeah it should be because this is times two thousand they have only they've had enough time to do it well washington didn't go to war to defend slavery and i think concerts is very important in these tough situations george washington's faces on the one dollar bill he's often referred to as the father of our country slavery didn't just exist in the south it existed all across the united states getting rid of everything related to slavery opens up an

his hand on that pen that was the same hand that caressed the breasts and thighs of his slave, sally hemings. different time, different morality, but how could he reconcile writing these noble words, "all men are created equal," when he bedded a young woman over whom he had total domination and she had to do what he wanted her to do? they had these children together, how do you reconcile those opposites in your mind? i don't know but it is that conflict in the intelligence and decision making of the people in power that we have to constantly question. and so i have a different view of the constitution i mean i didn't even know when i was growing up that it protected slavery, and that many of the founders were slave owners. slavery is woven like a dark thread through our history and our founding fathers were culpable. and the point of it is that change has to come from people like us who don't take for granted or take with finality what those in power tell us and who fight for the justice and the liberty and the equality that is mentioned in the declaration. to me the declaration is the much

thomas jefferson when you told sally hemings you would release their children, was there honor?ake is less of a crime. he you 0 wrote the declaration or information did you intend black people to have freedom over the barrett. did you think they'd be happy being more than just half human? when you proposed sending slaves back to africa, did black body feel like tools? did the scar on their chest include an ex-ry racing date -- expiration date? how many brown bodies do you have to bull does before you can call it progress, mr. washington, jefferson, malfed disson, monroe, jackson, when you put your hand on the bible and swore to protect the country, let's be hobbit who you were talking about. on the first independence day fireworks sed the sky aflame, don't forget where we were watching from. when you remember jefferson's genius, don't forget the slaves who built the shelfs in his library. when you sing that this country was founded on freedom don't forth the shackles drags against the ground my entire life. i've been taught how perfect the country was but nobody told me about th

there's a book distributed that i'm interested in reading next year with thomas jefferson and sally hemings. it talks about that relationship, what it was come somewhat tedious read the intricacies of what the relationship was and how did it move forward. thomas jefferson was one of our founding fathers, and as an african-american his belief in either freeing sally and his relationship with slates at the time, so that is a book of particular interest to me. and if i have the time they never like to try to be -- a third book which deals with its called in the black, a history of african-americans on wall street, which is our, i serve on a financial service committee and i'm from new york, and so it is important i think, think about the investment taking place on wall street that becomes to misinformed, and there had been some pioneers, many of which know it talks about and no one knows, and neither myself. i want to make sure i became familiar with who they are, what sacrifices they made and so i'm looking to do this book in the black, history of african-american on wall street i think that