, or a sally hemings. my great grandmother had a brother name peter. this is his death certificate. we see on the death certificate that his mother's maiden name was sally hemings. so if you are in the south and you are saying hemings, what does it sound like? hemins. her name was sally hemins. she was named after her now famous and, sally hemings. her father was peter hemings. a brother of sally hemings. which means that peter hemings was my three times great grandfather. we were doing high fives down there. i was so happy to make that discovery. and to find out that i am a hemings after all. historically speaking, thomas jefferson's father in law had relations with a woman named elizabeth hemings. they had several children together, including sally hemings and peter hemings. thomas jefferson had relations with sally hemings, they had several children together. thomas jefferson's son-in-law had relations with many hemings, whose ancestors are with us tonight. after his wife died, after thomas jefferson's

i discovered that in fact, i am descended from sally hemings are her family and hey sally henry's. my great-grandmother had a brother named peter. then we can see it. this is this is his death certificate. and we see here on the death certificate that his mother's maiden name was sally hammonds. so if you're in the south. and you're saying hem means what's it sound like? hemmens hemmens her name was sally hemmens. she was named after her famous aunt her now famous aunt. sally hemmings her father was peter hemmings a brother of sally hemings, which means that peter hemmings was my three times great-grandfather. we were doing high fives down there in kenwood. it i was so happy to make that discovery and to find out that i'm a hemis after all. historically speaking. what does this mean? thomas jefferson's father-in-law have relations with a woman named elizabeth hemmings. they had several children together including sally hemmings. and my three times great-grandfather peter hammonds. thomas jefferson had relations with sally hammonds. they had several children together. thomas jeffers

faucet, a blacksmith, was the son of mary hemings who was the older sister to james hemings and sally hemings. he grew up as a member of the hemings family, didn't have to do the same manual labor that some other enslaved people did on the plantation. but jefferson died in 1826, peter was only 11. all of a sudden, his life completely changed. families were broken up, 130 people were auctioned after jefferson's death. joseph was actually one of the people that were freed, but peter was not. he was sold to a master, a very cruel master who forbade him to read, who whipped him. it was a time of suffering for this young man who left monticello. he had tried to escape and was caught and brought back. eventually, joseph faucet, with the help of some friends, was able to buy his son's freedom. the whole family moved to ohio. peter faucet became a reverend, he became a caterer and had a successful business. he worked with the underground railroad. years later, it was a 1900, he was 85 at this time, he was invited back to monticello. by this time, the jefferson had long since lost the house, the levy

and yet, in the last month of his life, he signs a will freeing the remaining sons of sally hemings, and also sends an appeal petition to the virginia legislature for them to be allowed to remain in virginia. and that he insisted that free african americans stay and be waived in their favor. there are letters in which he talks about the possibility of them being equal, intellectual. people who he alleges that a review, our low estimate is based on people who have never had the advantages of -- in that sense, they are not comparable. on the other hand, he does just dismiss benjamin ban occur, ultimately. and having been quite polite in his correspondence, banner was an african american who corresponded within the last -- and indeed, many modern historians would love to ask him how did he write all men are created equal, and yet you are unwilling to make that more of a reality. >> right. then occur had worked on the design in d.c. and it helped build it. >> and the almanac, as well. >> yes. >> he had complex mathematical comp -- i don't think you noted that, but it is there among the r

signs will freeing the remaining sons of sally hemings and also sends an appeal of petition to the virginia legislature, but they've allowed to remain in virginia and that the law insisting. that free african americans leave the state recently immense faded would be waived in their rap favor and there are letters which he talks about. the possibility of the survey equal intellectual ability, you know, he acknowledges our view our lowest is based on. people who have never had the advantages and in that sense are not comparable on the other hand. he does just dismiss benjamin bank banneker. ultimately. yeah and having been quite polite in his correspondence bandico is a african-american mathematician who corresponded with him last i think every african american and indeed modern many modern historians would love to ask him. how could you write all men are crazy equal? um, and yeah, you know you're honored bound to make that more of a reality right, but he someone else. oh then because abilities even suggesting that it was just his white. my opposite made him look. yeah good despite that banne

i don't care what he did with sally hemings you maintain a kind of distance from them and then you leave the scene and then you sort of give us context for what was going on. i think there are a lot of journalists in this day and age who would really want to dive in there and judge. what do you think it is about you that makes you want to observe and not reserve judgment you know to your point, i mean, i think there's a version of this book that you know in which i spend the day with the sun's confederate veterans and do like like a daily show kind of thing where it's like trying to like very clearly make them look ridiculous. and for me it was you know, that's not under sort of natural part of my ethos. and i also i really i really wanted to understand why they believed some of the things that they believed right so many things that that run so profoundly counter to the evidence at hand, right? i always think about a conversation i had with guy named jeff. jeff was members of sons confederate veterans had this long salt and pepper ponytail is handlebar mustache this round belly this bik

hemings. giving credence to the oral history that they were related to him. years after his wife's death, jefferson fathered at least six of sally amping's children, four of whom survived to adulthood and are mentioned in jefferson's plantation records. their daughter harriet and elder son beverley were allowed to leave monticello during his lifetime, and the two youngest sons madison and assistant were freed in his will. others of the sun's actually worked on popular forests, which was built as a retreat for jefferson, and he would go down there. he would've been there at the same time that these children of his were also there. so while jefferson is building this plantation operation, he is also elaborating this neo-classical monument at its center, his main house. which is an essay in architecture, and particularly in the classical tradition, as his understanding of a change over the course of his life. and as his knowledge of contemporary developments in great britain and in france changed. so, the first design was this one. this to story design which you will see in a moment, was very much based on palladio. who we thought