Sally likely had a better life than 75% of the respectable white married women of that era, and I feel certain that if anyone dare lay a finger on her she would have been defended just as a white wife would have been. I don't want to get into the "house vs field " slave thing(because it is awful) but does anyone truly believe that she would have preferred to be stuck in the miserably hot "out kitchen" toiling all day in servants' rags or even worse, in the fields picking tobacco? I think not. It wasn't a love based on personal boundaries and equal power, but again, how many marital pairings of that time were? Sally likely had everything she wanted or needed and she had the heart of a brilliant and handsome man. I believe that Sally and Tommy loved each other. Maybe, but then so are any married women today who do not wish to give up the perks and benefits of marriage to a man of substance and means. Of course the response from many to that opinion will be that she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. R117 I would bet my entire inheritance that if Miss Sally Hemmings had been allowed to leave Monticello with her children and a handsome dowry of sorts she would have chosen not to do so.
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