Class: First Year Seminar 125G
Instructor: Chocos, Theodora & Welsh, Polly
Name: Xianglong Tao
09/24/09
Journal 4
(I read Professor Teddy’s suggestions and rewrite my journal. I deleted some
meaningless sentences and indicated my main idea. I tried to analyze how racism
influenced Sally Hemings’s family which includes Jefferson, not other unspecific
things.)
Racism, a barrier in Hemings’s family
Thomas Jefferson, the third American president who was born in 1743 in
Albemarle County, Virginia, ever drafted “The Declaration of Independent” in 1776,
is lauded as one of the most palmary American leaders. There is a story which
happened to him and a slave woman, Sally Hemings, who was born in 1773 at
Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, and known by people rarely. They had been
lived together for 37 years and had born 4 children. The Monticello Research
Committee wrote the report “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account.”
It records a lot of information about Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and their own
children. In addition, the son of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, Madison
Hemings, ever memorized his family in the article “The memories of Madison
Hemings.” Based those documents, we could find that racism effected everyone in
Hemings’s family deeply.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson should be added in Hemings’s family though he did not admit
that he has relationship with her. The DNA test shows that he was Hemings’s four
children’s father. Thomas Jefferson already faced the resistance of racism when he
drafted the “The Declaration of Independent” in 1776. Jefferson ever wrote his belief
in it. “We hold those truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal.”(82) He
believed that the whole human nature ought to share the benefaction of equality
whatever their skins’ colors are. In addition, Jefferson ever argued that it was immoral
for the King of Britain to slave black people. He thought slavery which against human
nature is illegal. It is unreasonable for a person to be treated as a tool, a product, a
belonging.
However, he had to drop those sentences from it because of the demurral from
South Carolina and Georgia in July 1976. On one hand, they thought that it could lead
the King of Britain’s repulsion and violate American independence. On the other hand,
those white people did not want to black people become a part of American people
whom own same identities like them. They treated slaves as their property, labors that
could make benefits. Thus they separated black people from white people’s world and
held racial discriminations about this pity group.
Being an American politician may be a hardship for Jefferson because he should be
discreet in wood and deed. Medison Hemings ever wrote about his father. “He was
hardly ever known to get angry, though sometimes he was irritated when matters went
wrong, but even then he hardly ever allowed himself to be made unhappy any great
length of time.” (Memory by Medison Hemings) As a leader, Jefferson’s activities
would affect American society and even international area much. Therefore, he should
do everything with analysis and even oppress himself sometimes. Although he was a
woman slave’s paramour and Medison Hemings’s father, he could not protect other
black people as same as his family. When he faced the power from white people who
had racism, he may be powerless no better than black people are.
Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings’s slavery began at the time she was born at Shadwell, Albemarle
County, Virginia, in 1773. Sally Hemings was defined as a slave because of her
mother was a slave, even though her skin looks light in the Movie “Jefferson in Paris.”
Compared to her half-sister, Martha-Wales’s white daughter, her life is more fortunate
than Hemings. She married with Thomas Jefferson, and most Americans know that
she is Thomas Jefferson’s wife-in-law. Although both two sisters owned Wales’s
blood, they lived in different groups and were treated unequal.
Hemings was treated as the property of his father, sister, and Jefferson successively.
In Medison Hemings’s memory, he wrote: “On the death of John Wales, my
grandmother, his concubine, and her children by him fell to Martha, Thomas
Jefferson’s wife, and consequently became the property of Thomas Jefferson.”
(Memory by Medison Hemings) John Wales and Martha were Sally Hemings’s
consanguinities, not only masters simply. It is unreasonable for people to treat their
children and sisters as slaves. How ludicrous they were! The racism influenced their
judgment and made them did not see the mess of Hemings clearly.
Hemings’s children
Sally Hemings ever got freedom when she lived in Paris in 1787. However, she
sacrificed her freedom in order to finish the slavery of her children. Jefferson
promised that he would free their children when they were 21 years old, Hemings
agreed to return with Jefferson to America. Jefferson met his commitment to Sally
Hemings. All of their children were free. Nevertheless, the racism affected them much
and made them be separated from each other.
When Medison Hemings mentioned his brother, Beverly Hemings, a son of
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, he wrote: “Beverly left Monticello and went to
Washington as a white man.” (Response by Medison Hemings) Beverly’s skin’s color
is white, thus he could enter white people’s community. However, the expense is
enormous. He switched off the connection with Hemings’s family. “He married a
white woman in Maryland, and their only child, a daughter, was not known by the
white folks to have any colored blood coursing in her veins.” (Response by Medison
Hemings) He kept silence about his relationship about Hemings’s family and gave up
his root. If some of white people around him knew that he was a slave’s son, they
probably would have discriminations on him. He was in awkward position. He did not
belong to either purebred black people or purebred white people. Finally, he made a
choice, putting him into white people’s group and be separated from black people
totally. He himself became an evidence to prove the racism’s existence.
Up to now, people still concerns the story between Sally Hemings and Thomas
Jefferson. They are interested those two famous people and the affecting storyline. In
addition, they analyze about racism. If there is no racism in America, some of
unhappy things could be avoided. John Wales may love Sally Hemings as much as
Martha; Sally Hemings would not be a slave; Jefferson could announce that he loved
Hemings; Hemings’s children such as Beverly would not be separated from each
other.
After read the articles “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account” and
“The memories of Madison Hemings,” people could know the process of Thomas
Jefferson and Sally Hemings’s story, and analyze some adversities which related to
the racism. “All men are created equal,” (86) this sentence is known by a lot of people
who live in America. People are equal in their souls. If people are treated base on their
different races, nations, skins’ colors, and backgrounds, more and more tragedies like
Hemings’s story would happen in society. Therefore, all of American people need to
understand and respect others, and then American could become a big warm family.
Reference List
1. Gerry Spence, ““Easy in the Harness: The Tyranny of Freedom,” Reread We
America; Eds Colombo, Cullen Lisle; Boston, St Martins, 1995
2. The Monticello Research Committee, “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A
Brief Account.”
3. Medison Hemings, “The memories of Madison Hemings.”
4. Thomas Jefferson, “The Declaration of Independence,” Susan Wyle, Revisiting
America, Stanford University publish.