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The Private Jefferson: Introduction

With some ideas of the public image of Thomas Jefferson in mind, think now about the claims that the private Jefferson had a 38-year relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, beginning when he was forty-something and she a teen (maybe 14-15 years old), a relationship that produced multiple children. How does this image of the private Jefferson resonate and comport with the public image? The claim of a Jefferson-Hemings relationship has been forcefully made since about the year 2000, so you may have heard it and, perhaps, may even believe it. But let's begin to think in a serious, focused way -- again drawing on Burns and Monticello -- on what such a relationship means and to whom it is significant.

The basic question here is does it matter if Thomas Jefferson had or didn't have a long-standing relationship with a slave?

1) Ken Burns, Thomas Jefferson (1997): Part Two, minutes 34-40 on Jefferson and Hemings

Listen to the varying viewpoints from the talking heads Burns has assembled in the six-minute section he devotes to the controversy. (Note, importantly, that this film was done before the results of the DNA test that will be the focus of episode 13 were published in 1998.) Why do some people believe in the relationship -- what's their basis, what's their evidence? Why do some people disbelieve in the relationship -- and what reasons or feelings do they give? To whom does Burns give climactic emphasis and why? What do you find yourself thinking about while listening to these stakeholders in Jefferson's image and reputation?

2) Monticello on Hemings and Slavery

You can well imagine that the issues of slavery and of Hemings are very tricky for the administrators of Monticello, and, in fact, their approach to the issues has changed over the years. Use these three sections of the Monticello web site to gain both an overview of Jefferson (author of "all men are created equal") as slaveholder in general and of the controversy in particular: "To Labour for Another," Thomas Jefferson and Slavery, and Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account. Control yourself -- do not go further into the other portions of the site dealing with the controversy yet.

Once again, we ask, does it matter to you if Jefferson had or didn't have a long-standing relationship with a slave? If he did have the relationship, what impact does that have? Does it lessen (or enhance) your esteem for Jefferson himself? Does it make you feel differently about "America"? Does it make you think about the otherwise invisible Sally Hemings and the rest of the slaves at Monticello? If you are African American, does it rile (or please) you? If he did have the relationship, what lessons do we learn from his actions? If he did have the relationship, does it taint his political acts and scientific achievements? What is the relevance of private life to our judgments about public figures? Think about other instances of political/sexual scandals past and present: President John Kennedy, President William Clinton, Senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart, Senator and vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer, and others. Should we care about this kind of thing or just let it go?

Let the thinking begin. There are no formulaic textbook answers to trot out here. Instead, an opportunity for personally productive consciousness-raising before the miniseries begins. Join your thoughts with others considering a private Jefferson.