Fan Casting Sally Hemings in Actors by Historical Figures They've Played

Sally Hemings (c. 1773 – 1835) was an enslaved woman, inherited among many others by the third President of the United States Thomas Jefferson, from his father-in-law, John Wayles. In 1787, at 14, Hemings accompanied Jefferson's daughter to Paris where they joined Thomas Jefferson. In Paris, Hemings was legally free, as slavery was not legal in France. At some time during her 26 months in Paris, Jefferson is believed to have begun intimate relations with her. As attested by her son, Madison Hemings, Sally agreed with Jefferson that she would return to Virginia and resume her life in slavery, as long as all their children would be freed when they came of age. Multiple lines of evidence, including modern DNA analyses, indicate that Jefferson impregnated Hemings several times over the years they lived together on Jefferson's Monticello estate, and historians now broadly agree that he was the father of her five children. Whether this should be described as rape remains a matter of controversy, as there is no evidence that Jefferson forced Hemings to have intimate relations; however, if Jefferson did force her, there would be limited evidence given his ownership of her and the inherent insularity of a slave estate.