7. The Freedom Advocate’s Abused Child Slave
America’s third president had a creepy relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings (1773 – 1835). However, straightforward abuse might be a more accurate description than a “relationship”. Sally Hemings was a slave, kept in bondage by a brutal system in which violence, including deadly violence, was used to coerce its victims and secure their compliance. She had as much choice in submitting to Jefferson’s carnal demands as does a modern kidnapped victim, who finds herself chained for years in some psycho’s basement.
Even if she had not been a slave, there would still have been something super creepy about the age disparity between Sally Hemings and the famous Founding Father. A further contrast between Thomas Jefferson’s public image as a prominent Enlightenment figure and his actual life is the fact that he was 44 years old when he started having intimacy with Sally. She was thirteen or fourteen. Even if she had been a willing participant, it would be considered criminal today.