Cultural depictions of Sally Hemings

Sally Hemings has been represented in the media in popular culture due to her association with Thomas Jefferson. She has been portrayed in films, referred to and has been an inspiration to novels and many more.

Literature

• 1853, William Wells Brown, known as the first African-American novelist, published his Clotel; or, The President's Daughter, a novel about a mixed-race daughter and based on the Jefferson-Hemings story.^[1] It is available as an Etext at Project Gutenberg.^[2]
• 1974, Fawn McKay Brodie published her psychobiography, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, which seriously examined the evidence of Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings and was a bestseller. Together with articles about the issue and Jefferson-Hemings descendants in American Heritage magazine in 1974 and 1976, popular attention was attracted to the controversy, as her conclusion was vigorously resisted by mainline historians.^[3][4]
• 1979, Barbara Chase-Riboud's novel Sally Hemings became a bestseller. Hers was the first novel in which an author had portrayed Sally Hemings as a fully realized person. CBS began to adapt the popular novel as a miniseries, but prominent historians Virginius Dabney (a descendant of Jefferson's sister Martha) and Dumas Malone successfully campaigned against it with the network's president William S. Paley, and persuaded him to kill the project.^[5]

In television

• 1976, the opening episode of the third season of the TV series, The Jeffersons, was entitled "George and the President," and had a plot linked to the Jefferson–Hemings controversy.^[6][7][8]
• 1986, In an episode of Head of the Class, Darlene Merrimen played by actress Robin Givens, learns that she is a descendant of Sally Hemings.
• 2000, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal, was a CBS television miniseries (air dates: February 13, 2000 and February 16, 2000; writer: Tina Andrews director: Charles Haid; with Carmen Ejogo as Hemings and Sam Neill as Thomas Jefferson).^[9] As PBS noted in a Frontline program, "Though many quarrelled with the portrayal of Hemings as unrealistically modern and heroic, no major historian challenged the series' premise that Hemings and Jefferson had a 38-year relationship that produced children."^[10]
• 2000, PBS Frontline had an extensive documentary program entitled Jefferson's Blood, about the issues of DNA, historical evidence related to Jefferson's likely paternity of Hemings's children, and the significance of the controversy and its issues in American history.^[11] Documentary material is on the website for this program.^[12]
• 2002, Saturday Night Live parodied the relationship of Hemings and Jefferson titled Thomas Jefferson Meets Sally Hemings in Season 28, Episode 8. Hemings was portrayed by comedian Maya Rudolph, while Jefferson was portrayed by actor Robert De Niro.^[13]
• 2008, HBO's miniseries John Adams briefly shows Sally Hemings in its final episode, Peacefield (1803 A.D. – 1826 A.D.). Hemings, played by actress Lizan Mitchell, is shown comforting Jefferson, played by Stephen Dillane, as he dies at Monticello; and crying openly once he has died.
• 2013, Sleepy Hollow, a television series on Fox, the episode Midnight Ride references an affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, citing DNA evidence as proof to the lead character, Ichabod Crane, who knew Jefferson.^[14]

In film

• 1995, Jefferson in Paris, a film, portrayed the early relationship between Sally Hemings (played by Thandie Newton) and Jefferson (Nick Nolte).^[15]

In opera and Broadway

• 2012, Tom and Sally in Paris is a two-act opera with libretto and music by William Lavonis; he explores Jefferson and Hemings' relationship during the French Revolution.^{[16][17][18][19]}
• 2015, Hamilton, a Broadway theater musical, depicts Sally Hemings in the song titled "What'd I Miss".

In music

• 2001, From the Diary of Sally Hemings, with a text by author and professor Sandra Seaton, is a song cycle by the American composer William Bolcom;^[20] it was premiered at the Library of Congress.^[21] The Jefferson-Hemings descendants attended the premiere.^[22]

References