Sally Hemmings was a slave who was known for her long relationship with the third president of the United States. Despite Sally having a relationship with the President, she remained a slave as the laws of those days dictated, making her four children slaves as well.
Thomas Jefferson had promised to set free his children at 21, and he kept his promise and freed Harriet Hemings and some of her brothers. Born into slavery, Thomas Jefferson never freed his daughter legally, but he allowed her to escape to freedom.
Harriet Hemings boarded a stagecoach to freedom at 21, and her father gave her $50 for her travel expenses. The young girl left for DC, and she never saw her mother and brothers ever again. She became a free woman after she married a white man and gave herself a new identity, cutting connections with her family.
Harriet Hemings’ Parents
Harriet Hemmings was Sally Hemings’s daughter of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Despite Harriet being the President’s daughter, it was not enough to buy her freedom because of the race obsession at the time.
Harriet has eight great-grandparents of white ethnicity, with one of African descent. Still, she remained an enslaved person until when she moved to Washington, married a white man, and changed her identity.
Sally Hemmings was Harriet’s mother, and she had a long relationship with the President, which resulted in four children. Sally and her children remained as enslaved people for the President, although he promised to set them free at 21.
The President allowed Harriet to escape as a fugitive, but he never searched for her or printed her as a fugitive. Moreover, he facilitated her movement to Washington, where Harriet found a new life.
Harriet Hemmings’s Life After Freedom
In 1822, Harriet Hemmings relocated to Washington, where she started a new life. She had mentioned to her brother her wishes to marry a white person and have freedom, and she fulfilled it after she relocated.
Her father had given her $50 for her travel expenses, and he allowed her to start a new life. Harriet wrote letters to her siblings and mother after she moved to Washington, but only a few times.
Her slavery drove her to erase her family history, and it made her change her identity. Her white color helped her escape slavery, and she met a white man, raised children with him, and died as a white.
Hemmings’s decision ensured that she bought her children freedom in a country where racism was deep. Her skin color ensured that her children had the right to vote, get an education, have a home mortgage, and have a seat of their choice in a car.
Why is Harriet Hemings’s Story Important
Harriet Hemings’s story has been referenced many times in the fight against racism. In a society that associated blackness with slavery, Harriet used her white skin to buy her freedom. Skin color has been revealed not to be a marker of race because of Harriet’s story.
Despite Harriet being born as an enslaved person, anyone who saw her assumed she was white. She lived as a free person before the amendment in 1865.