PETER: Oh!..was Sally pretty? Figure?.. Face? I suppose that Jefferson didn’t think about her blood lines during sex.
JOSH: We think she had straight black hair. She was only one quarter black so she was “brown”. Their son Madison Hemings was essentially “white” but, one eighth black so he still was treated as a slave. He never forgave Jefferson for this. He would ask his mother something like: “ Why did daddy treat his other children different from me?” She would reply “Quiet, quiet…. when we were in Paris he promised to free all my children. Patience, patience”
PETER: Jefferson did as he promised?
JOSH: No….and yes! Only after his death were they freed.
PETER: When did Sally’s and Jefferson’s relationship start? What about his wife?
JOSH: His wife died very young. In Paris when Sally was fourteen years old!
PETER: Fourteen! Yikes!
JOSH: Then young girls were considered women. Madison said later, “…Jefferson took his mother like a concubine”.
PETER: Why do you think that Madison’s statement is important?
JOSH: There is a difference, a concubine…
PETER: How do you know that Jefferson still treated her as a slave?
JOSH: He looked on her that way…
PETER: Why didn’t he give her freedom?
JOSH: I think if he gave her freedom he couldn’t control her and keep her in his house. Once the relationship with Sally begins, he is living in lie.
PETER: Write a book!
JOSH: Jefferson was also duplicitous. In fact he was a “dirty” politician.
PETER: Such a duplicitous President. It reminds me of FDR. Can we explain this type of person?
JOSH: What do you think?
PETER: I find it hard to think that he was just a hypocrite and liar….so then..
JOSH: Continue. “So then”..what….talk, talk.
PETER: You’re the history teacher! Don’t expect so much from me.
JOSH: What I find strange is that Jefferson’s oldest daughter Martha maintained that there was no relationship between her father and Sally. I don’t see how the relationship could not be known to the white members of his family.
PETER: Family secret!
JOSH: I don’t think so. A grandchild of Jefferson, Helen, wrotethat the relationship was impossible! The door to Sally’s room was very public all entering and exiting were in sight of the family.
PETER (bored): How do you think they could meet?
JOSH: He met with her in a secret corner. a corridor, or a storeroom..
PETER: Risky, less fun.
(Josh starts to straighten the rug under the table and chairs. Then he quickly straightens up while kneading his back, and screwing up his face in pain
