Well, in that era, when SOBs could kidnap freed slaves and sell them off.... any Black slave who could pass themselves off as white did so for their self-preservation and their families as well. They could then buy land and vote! It’s a very sad part of American history that I didn’t learn in school.... my grandparents taught me this.

Well her children were 7/8 white as she herself was 3/4 white, so they probably looked almost entirely (if not entirely) like white people. Given the discrimination of the time, it’s hard to blame some of them for choosing an easier life by identifying as white people. It’s just so wrong that it mattered so much.

3 out of 4 of the four adult children felt it would be better to live in the white community. The reason was since they were nearly white in appearance they would gave better oppurtunity up in North as white adults. Living on the plantation...they already recieved lighter duties and worked in the kitchen so they could use that training / experience to enter the white society.

Many who visited Monticello and had dinner with Thomas Jefferson commented to others/wrote in their journals how much some of the slaves who served in the house looked exactly like Jefferson. The family resemblance was unmistakable.

Addenda: on Sally Hemings- Her mother Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings was of mixed race herself- thus , Sally Hemings was actually three quarters white . This information only for family relationship purposes .

She was Jefferson's wife half sister. Do any read history anymore. Damn

After nearly 300 years people in this country, most particularly southerners like me have mixed blood. I do not deny that am of Native American, Black, Scots, French Creole, Melungeon, Russian and Austrian ancestry. Race means nothing.

Yeah, the two accounts we have of Sally's appearance say she was "near white" in appearance with long straight hair. Not really like the actress who portrayed her in the film. But who knows? Only one of those accounts was from someone who actually knew her. In the end, the system was evil and immoral. Jefferson basically owned his sister-in-law and used her as he saw fit. An ugly system that allowed the English colonists to gain an economic foothold in Virginia and the South. And it permeates our society to this day. Glad the Jefferson descendants finally saw the light but that did not come easy either hundreds of years later.

@msmelody1960 THANK YOU!!! it's about time someone said something!! they only teach about slavery they never go in to DETAIL which is important.but the minute you do people start going off and saying to leave it in the pass,but it's not just black history it's AMERICA"S as well.people just need to deal with it instead of covering it up.what was done with people in slavery was a sick and twisted thing.and it's the job of teachers/professors to TEACH it,not sugar coat it.

Lawyers are highly trained at analytical thinking and research, two key skills in the study of history.

there is one race it's called the HUMAN race!

Little do people know that a lot of African American did this throughout the 20th century as well...I have family that passed, including a grandfather

So true.

Im reading her book now.

@msmelody1960 of course people in america are in denial.but it's up to people like you me to set them straight.keeping the truth alive is something that needs to be done.no matter how uncomfortable,or upsetting it maybe.truth:it may not be popular but it's always right.

LIFE IS TO LOVE AND TO BE LOVED 💖 LOVE ALONE CAN CONQUER THE WORLD

"Why did some of Sally Hemings's children identify themselves as white?" Because they had good sense.

This video does NOT address the subject title.

Total chaos! . . . will love one and despise the other!

@areyouquitemad She was a quadroon.

@DKMontoya4670 .. Nicole Ritchie is adopted.. but she's Shiela's E's niece... Nicole is Shiela E's brothers child...

@dukenukembunz69 I stand by my statement.

@DKMontoya4670 I'm not sure what you mean she said on tyra that she's black and that's what's on her drivers license. DO you mean in terms of how the media generally portrays her.

View History through the constraints of the time. Old age was 50 and a lot of people died at that age. Women married earlier than they do now. At that time, Black people could not marry white. But really can we stop labeling people quadroon, etc. They are multi racial. We have many children today that are multi racial let us not single them out. They are people period. I understand why in that day that some of these children left and lived as white. At that time it meant more opportunities and more freedom.

@jhunted7667 What color are you?

jhunted7667 What's is your point and what are you talking about?

@rupal20101 No she is mixed her black mother's biological dauther. Her dad is white.

@DKMontoya4670 Yo, Nicole Richie is adopted, she is not her black father's biological daughter

@bondurango the 1 drop rule did't apply until 1924

Then what are you?

@RedSkullthagreat How do you know this interesting fact?

Can anyone shine some light as for where she died and where she was barrie.

@rupal20101 No she is her black mother's biological dauther. Her dad is white.

@SPIDERHULK101 lol, AMEN!

@JRF1961 In that case, Joakim Noah is white, along with Jon and Kate's kids as well. It's a lot more complicated than the way you put it. I would find it laughable if Joakim Noah, Nahla Aubry, the Gosselin kids, or Benjamin Todd Jealous self-identified as white.

@bbgurl22ful In South Africa, you would not be considered black by most South Africans, since you're 1/8 white. There, you are automatically identified as 'Coloured', which is the term used by South Africans to denote a person with mixed-race ancestry. This goes to show how social constructs vary by society. Octoroons, as the old U.S. caste system referred to them by, were people that were 7/8 white and 1/8 white. Not all of these "octoroons" looked passably white, about 30% looked ambiguous.

Was Harriet mother was half white herself?.

We've all sprinkled a little brown sugar on our french toast from time to time. HEY now! 🤓😎😁

Then i guess faith evans is white

Do they teach anything else at Monticello but tittilating innuendos about interracial sex? It's a sign of the times, I guess.

I love history one thing that annoys me is modern people judge people of the past through Modern standards people did what after they have to do to survive if you that means you have to pass for what you did it. If you had to drink the wine with Jesus you did it people in the past did what they had to do and more people wouldn't hold up to if they went through a similar process of historical people of the past

I think this is really interesting. I have found Jefferson and Hemmings to be such an interesting couple for many years now, and have always been interested in genetics. I believe that several of their children were actually redheads, none the less!

Slaves had no free will did they?

The actual answer to this question is something a lot of people DO NOT want to hear for whatever reason but; at least 2 of Sally's children were likely fathered by another slave who was 1/2 or 3/4 black. Only her last child Eston was ever proven to have carried/passed on the Jefferson Y chromosome. When the news articles claiming Thomas Jefferson had children with one of his slaves first appeared in press, she was described as having had children and partners of "every different color and complexion". One of the smears against Jefferson was that he freely shared a concubine with black male slaves indiscriminately. People have a tendency to resist any notion that paints Sally in a negative light or sheds doubt on the idea that all 6 of her children belonged to Thomas Jefferson. With the idea that if its established that any of the children WEREN'T his, then the likelihood of any of them belonging to him would be far less likely.

If her daddy is white then yes she is smh.

Tomas Jefferson children

None of the Hemings family at Monticello (~75) were field hands, all were domestic servants. Sally was 1/4 black, her children 7/8 white. Sally left Monticello with 2 sons (who were freed) to live in a house & all 3 were listed as white in the census. One son & daughter left in their early 20s & lived as whites & disappeared & cut ties with their family. Sally’s Mother Elizabeth Hemings lived on Monticello property & sold produce from her garden to Jefferson. She had ~14 children & she was 50% white/black but looked white. We should be glad slavery in America is in the past but it still exists in the world even today. Slavery goes back to ancient times.

I’m gonna always look at SKIN COMPLEXION & HAIR TYPE! If you’re VERY LIGHT SKINNED, STRAIGHT/LOOSE WAVY HAIR then I’d say you’re NON NEGRO! Examples of this: Mariah Carey, Nicole Richie, ALL 3 of Michael Jackson’s children

There both

It was mentioned by a few of Jefferson's visitors that Sally Hemings and Jefferson's wife resembled each other.

Well they were 75% white and 25% black and looked white so...

Many people bring up the story of Jefferson and Sally Hemmings as an example of hypocrisy, but they know little of history and less about women. Hemmings was, by all contemporary accounts, a stunningly beautiful woman who could easily pass for white. With those attributes, no woman was going to link her future with a field hand. When Jefferson was ambassador to France he requested that one of his slaves be sent to France to serve him. Hemmings cunningly maneuvered her way into this job, knowing she would be living far away with a wealthy man in his prime and her natural beauty would be impossible to resist. The narrative of the evil slave master forcing himself on a woman is totally false, and was actually quite the opposite. In France, slavery had already been outlawed, so the moment Hemmings stepped off the boat she was a free woman and could have simply found a place among the black population of Paris. However she chose the life of high society and the company of a wealthy man, so the relationship was not master and slave, but consensual between 2 free adults. When Jefferson returned to America, Hemmings did not have to accompany him, as she was a free woman, but she chose life with him under American law as being preferable to life in France. Back in America they continued the relationship and she bore at least 4 of his children. People ask why she remained a slave, but in the context of the times, many powerful men had extramarital relationships and having one with a slave was not uncommon, but had Jefferson given her freedom, then the morality of the day would not have allowed her to remain in his household. Therefore it is most likely that she agreed to remain a technical slave in order to remain with him. It is well known that his will clearly freed her and her children on his death.

isn't this lady a law professor? what does a law professor's opinion matter in terms of understanding history...

You are all wrong. - Tom J

Another historian on KZfaq stated that by Virgina law any person with only 1/8 black parentage was legally white. Whites in Virginia could not be held as slaves. If true than Sally's children were by Virgina law white and free at birth. This raises even more troubling questions about Jefferson and how he controlled Sally's children. If true, then Sally's children who were only 1/8 black were white under Virgina law and Jefferson therefore had no legal right to hold them in bondage or as slaves and had no right to even free them later in life since they would have been born free whites under Virgina law.

Actually, a little cream in the coffee, improves it's appearance. Look around.

What utter fanfiction