4. Thomas Jefferson not only owned six hundred slaves during his lifetime, but he also coerced and forced, under false promises, a teenage female slave to serve as his concubine after the death of his wife.
Thomas Jefferson, perhaps the most influential of the Founding Fathers, was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the country’s inaugural Secretary of State, and the 3rd President of the United States, serving in the latter capacity from 1801 until 1809. Marrying his third cousin, Martha Wayles Skelton in 1772, frequent childbirths and illnesses contributed to her early death in 1782. Despite being the widowed father to six young children, soon after the death of his wife Jefferson initiated a sexual relationship with teenage slave Sally Hemings. Summoning her to France in 1787, Hemings, aged approximately sixteen, was impregnated during her 26-month residence in Paris.
Offered the choice to petition for her freedom under French law, Jefferson manipulated Hemings with the promise of freedom for her children should she return to Virginia and slavery. Whilst historically their relationship has been portrayed in a romantic light, recent examinations have shed a darker picture on Jefferson’s actions. Hemings, a teenager, could not have refused the advances of her 40-year-old master. Coerced through unfulfilled promises for her children, Hemings was repeatedly raped by the American civic leader, even if social norms surrounding African “property” at the time did not perceive his actions as such.