so sally hemmings is part of an inheritance. i think it's important to remember that slaves were property and could be inherited through marriage as well as being bought and sold. so when jefferson married his wife, martha in 1772 she was it daughter of a very wealthy slave trader and it was through john wales that jefferson inherited 135 slaves and sally hemmings was one of those slaves. so she was born on the eastern shore and arrived here in about 1773 or 1774. sally hemmings is a person who is shrouded in mystery because we know so little about her. there are actually only four references to deskrapgzs of her that exist in the last 200 years. jefferson himself never wrote about her explicitly. so she remains this very mysterious figure. but i think it's important to emphasize she was related to jefferson's wife. so she was martha wales jefferson's half sister and she may have even resembled jefferson's wife. so in 1784 jefferson took up a post in paris as essentially a trade ambassador. he was trying to forge treaties with t

the room next door is going to be sally hemmings' room. the most sentinel change in the history of monticello was in the year 2000 when the thomas jefferson foundation said that we believe thomas jefferson was the father of sally hemmings' children. there are a lot of reasons that is the case. a whole lot of research. as the research got deeper and deeper, eventually it came to a point where it's fairly difficult to deny that thomas jefferson was the father of sally hemmings' children. note, i don't say impossible, because people still do, but most academic historians do not. and i think that one of the lines i use most often to talk about this is at this point, there is more evidence that thomas jefferson was the father of sally hemmings' children than there is evidence that he was the father of his wife's children, which is true, okay? so we're going to have a conversation about that. we're going to have a conversation about her living in this small quarter with her children with thomas jefferson. and, of course, people now, they don't r

-- dolley madison had requested of sally hemmingst this happened. it is kind of remarkable and poetic that jefferson had a son and grandson named james madison. remarkable and poetic that jefferson had a son and grandson named james allison, but as far as we know, madison did not have any offspring of his own. brian: he was one of 12 children, six of them lived to be adults. where did the other children fit? did any of the rest of them become anything significant? noah: they didn't really. we have one angry letter from madison to his brother in a response by patrick henry to make an approach to his brother willie. madison was not close to his actual brothers and sisters. but he was very close with a succession of men his own age. edmund randolph. james monroe. these were proteges of jefferson. those were crucial relationships in his life. they were like sibling relationships. they apparently substituted in some way. he was not that close to his actual biological siblings. brian: how mean would it have been back then when james monroe

thomasr 2000, when them jefferson foundation said we believe thomas jefferson is the father of sally hemmings's children. as the research got deeper and deeper it came to a point that is fairly difficult to deny that thomas jefferson as the father of sally hemmings'children. note i do not say impossible. some people do, but most academic historians do not. moreis point there is evidence that thomas jefferson was the father of sally hemmings children that he was the father of his wife's children. which is true. we are going to have a conversation about that, we are going to have a conversation about her living in the small quarter with her children with thomas jefferson. not want to argue some much about whether the relationship happened, they want to know what it was like. did they love each other? was it rape? did they love each other and was it rape? we want to have that conversation and provide a space where people can talk about it. saying we note one way or the other denies sally hemmings the same agency she was denied in life -- we do not know how she felt. about half of the plantation an

we know he had a relationship with sally hemmings, but she was not in the white house.t of the time, dolley functioned as the de facto first lady. she sometimes hosted events at the white house. she often hosted at madison's house, which functioned as white house events. this was the time when washington, d.c. became the capital. the capital was moving from philadelphia and new york, and annapolis. this was the moment when all of washington protocol was being set. when the manners and style of a small r republican president was being set. jefferson had no interest in socializing. madison did not like to socialize so dolley ran the show. she did it for 16 years. she also really influenced madison because she was able to express concern, opinion, and emotions that he was not. when i was researching the book i was trying to find what he thought about something and he would be writing letters in calm ways. then, i would find a letter from dolley where she would say that madison, or mr. madison, was very concerned about such and such. for example he was very , concerned abou

the room right next door is going to be the sally hemmings rooms. probably the biggest change in the history of monticello was in the year 2000, when them thomas -- when the thomas jefferson foundation said we believe thomas jefferson is the father of sally hemmings's children. a lot of reasons that is the case. as the research got deeper and deeper it came to a point that is fairly difficult to deny that thomas jefferson as the father -- was the father of sally hemmings'children. note i do not say impossible. people still do, but most academic historians do not. the lines are used to talk about this, at this point there is more evidence that thomas jefferson was the father of sally hemmings children that he was the father of his wife's children. which is true. we are going to have a conversation about that, we are going to have a conversation about her living in the small quarters with her children with thomas jefferson. people now do not want to argue so much about whether the relationship happened, they want to know what it was like. did they lov

the room next door is going to be sally hemmings room. the thomas jefferson found sa-- there are a lot of reasons that is the case. a lot of things built up to it. a whole lot of research. as the research became deeper and deeper, it eventually came to a point where it's fairly difficult to deny that he was the father. note i do not say impossible because people still do, but most academic historians do not. one of the lines i use most often to talk about this, there is more evidence that thomas jefferson was the father of sally hemmings children than he was the father of his wife's children, which is true. we're going to have a conversation about that. we're going to have a conversation about her living in this small quarter with her children with thomas jefferson. and, of course, people now, they don't really want to argue so much about whether the relationship happened, they want to know what it was like. did they love each other? was it rape? did they love each other and was it rape? and so we're hoping to allow for that conversation

hemmings is the older brother of sally hemmings. to have introduced mac and cheese and some other items into u.s. culture. he traveled with president jefferson and even accompanied him to paris where he learned the art of french cooking. >> ♪ >> 4:55 now and we're talking weather with mike thomas. good morning again. >> yeah, good morning. we're talking nice warmup finally at last after what honestly today could be our warmest day in about two and a half weeks. that's how long it's been since we've had a warmup in d.c. 50's locally here in town. just south and west of town they may see a little bit of low 60's but everybody will be seeing the 60's as we head into your day on friday. it's a storm system off to the west. we're going to start to stream in some gulf moisture as we head through the daytime hours today. by the time we get to the evening we could have scattered showers here or there. but today is not an overly wet day. here's futurecast, showers coming from the south it's more your friday, friday morning could start off a

hemmings is that refutes that thomas jefferson had a decade relationship with the slave by marriage sally hemmings and to revise relationships over this rape as it was more cal mon the case helps us understand the racial divide that i need to install devices today. and editing such works i became aware of the challenges faced and the need to convince whole chapters and stories have the tiniest of clues as the discovery thomas jefferson paid for three smallpox inoculation. what it's like to be in a foreign country or an imminent asserting a man of this honor couldn't possibly have entered into a relationship with a slave girl but how could they have ignored among this mountain of clues that telltale fact that they named their six children after his business associates, something slaves on their own to say the least. while i'm not the editor of the two commanding biographies who was regarded by hundreds of thousands of americans black-and-white as the paramount custodian of the intellect so many impoverished and intimidated into desperately striving african-americans have either never developed or f