Historians Were Astounded When Workers Discovered A Secret Room In Thomas Jefferson’s Mansion

[Music] historians were astonished when workers discovered a secret room in Thomas Jefferson's mansion the rumors about US President Thomas Jefferson's affair with one of his slaves Sally Hemings started while he was in office in 1802 it was a disgruntled journalist once an ally of Jeffersons but later an embittered enemy who set the ball rolling with articles in the Richmond reporter that journalist James T calendar wrote it's well known that the man whom it delighteth the people to honor keeps and for many years has kept as his concubine one of his own slaves her name is Sally the article went on to mention Jefferson by name in case any of his readers were in doubt as to who the man was Thomas Jefferson was 58 years old when these allegations were published in September 1802 and after a long political career he'd been president since March 1801 it was a position he was to hold through two four-year terms this exceptionally eminent American was one of the founding fathers of America and had been the lead author of the 1776 Declaration of Independence decades before these allegations surfaced Jefferson had married 23 year old Martha Wales in 1772 she was his third cousin and a widow and by all accounts the marriage was a loving one Martha bore six children although only two reached adulthood including her firstborn özil Martha pictured here Jefferson and his young wife had moved into a small cottage on the 5,000 acre Monticello plantation near Charlottesville Virginia later Jefferson would build a grand mansion in the Classical Revival style as was normal practice in Virginia the estate land was worked by african-american slaves and other slaves tended to Jefferson and his family in the great house Jefferson had inherited the land at Monticello from his father Peter after his father's death in 1757 he was only 14 when his father died so he had to wait until he was 21 before he took control of the estate also included in his inheritance were fifty two slaves consequently he and his wife Martha inherited another 135 slaves when her father John Wayles died in 1773 so here we have the central contradiction of Jefferson's life undoubtedly he opposed slavery and actively campaigned for its abolition indeed he was the man who wrote the immortal words all men are created equal yet he himself was a slave owner and remained one until his dying day as we shall see this contradiction is thrown into even sharper focus by his relationship with Sally Hemings Jefferson's marriage to Martha was apparently a happy one she was an accompanied pianist and Jefferson would often play with her on the cello or violin but tragedy struck in 1782 probably weakened by frequent childbirth Martha died aged just 33 with her husband at her side unsurprisingly Jefferson was deeply affected by the loss of his wife he spent the weeks after her death riding deep into the countryside often accompanied by his eldest child Martha who was a witness to the depths of this grief tellingly Jefferson's wife had made a death plea with him never to remarry as she could not stand the idea of another woman bringing up her children and Jefferson never did marry again but although Jefferson was never to Wed again that did not mean that his life was without romance although it was controversial for many years most historians now accept that Jefferson had a long lasting affair with Sally Hemings indeed she had six children by him shown to be fact by DNA testing of the descendants of those children some of whom are pictured here who was Sally Hemings sadly no attested image of her exist today but we do know quite a lot about her and some of what we know is quite astounding Sarah Sally Hemings was born into slavery in about 1773 Sally's mother was Betty and Betty's parents were Susannah who'd arrived in America from Africa as a slave and a British ship's captain called John Hemings the original owner of Sally's mother Betty and grandmother Susannah was one Francis Epps the fourth when he died his daughter Martha Epps inherited the two employing them as personal slaves Martha apps then married John Wayles who was the father of Jefferson's wife Martha Wales took Betty as his mistress fathering six children with her the youngest of whom was Sally Hemings as we've already seen The Jeffersons inherited 135 slaves from Wales when he died in 1773 one of those slaves was Sally Hemings so the astonishing fact is that Sally was a half-sister of Jefferson's wife Martha and after Martha's death Sally became Jefferson's mistress we can only speculate as to whether Jefferson's attraction for Sally was partly caused by her relation to the grief-stricken widowers late wife when Sally came into the ownership of Jefferson in 1773 she was but a babe in arms her childhood was spent on the Monticello plantation although neither she nor any of her siblings worked in the fields they were instead given positions as craftsmen of various kinds or as house servants it was the latter occupation that sally was to be given we cannot know precisely when Jefferson's relationship with Hemings started but there's perhaps a clue in the time that he spends in France as an American envoy from 1784 while there Jefferson decided that one of his daughters nine-year-old Maria should join him in Paris but she would need a companion for the journey and Sally was chosen for the role at age 15 or 16 consequently sadly spent more than two years in Paris if she had chosen to she could have left Jefferson's entourage to be a free woman as slavery had already been abolished in revolutionary France but she returned to Monticello and the life of slavery Sally's son Madison later claimed that she had in fact become pregnant by Jefferson in Paris so by 1789 Sally was back at the Monticello plantation it's been said that Jefferson enticed her with the promise that any children she had would be freed from slavery when they reached the age of 21 in fact it seems that her first child died in infancy but she was to have six more by Jefferson Sally lived out the rest of her life in Monticello working as a maid and a seamstress she died in 1835 at the age of 61 or 62 to living to see all of her children freed from slavery although she never was formally so herself as far as we know until 2017 it was believed that no trace of Sally remained at Monticello but then came an extraordinary discovery in 2017 the Monticello room where Sally had lived the tiny room just 13 feet by a little less than 15 feet dates from 1809 and is it a wing of the Monticello house next to Jefferson's bedroom it's currently being restored and will be open to the public when work is completed Monticello director of restoration Gardner Halleck told NBC this discovery gives us a sense of how enslaved people were living some of Sally's children may have been born in this room now at least Sally Hemings life at Monticello has a contemporary physical presence

Channel: Did You Know ?

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Keywords: Historians, Astounded, Workers, Discovered, Secret Room, Thomas Jefferson’s Mansion

Id: mlO0Kuo6yCE

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 05 2018