The Founding Mothers of the USA, 2: Martha Jefferson & Sally Hemings

We hear a great deal about the ingenious and venerated founding fathers of the United States of America. But women in colonial America also rose up in many ways to support the cause of independence for the United States. In this four part series we will learn about the lives of the founding mothers of the United States of America.

Part 1:
Deborah Read Franklin
Martha Washington
Abigail Adams

Part 2:
Martha Wayles Jefferson
Sally Hemings

Part 3:

Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton
Sarah Livingston Jay
Dolley Madison

Part 4:

Mercy Otis Warren
Esther DeBerdt Reed
Phillis Wheatley
Angelica Schuyler Church
Deborah Sampson

I make mini documentaries about women's history and royal history:

Sources:
Roberts, Cokie. Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation. Harper Collins Press, 2004.
Roberts, Cokie. Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies. Harper Collins Press, 2004.

Music: "The Star Spangled Banner" by preformed Cooper Cannell

[Delinaaaa]

Jefferson was a man by far removed from his own conscience. He raped his 14 year old slave, caused her to bare 6 children for him that he then enslaved, never acknowledged nor accepted, imagine what thoughts went through his "mixed kids" minds whilst they was made to serve their "white" siblings, they may have had different mothers, but he was the biological father to them all!! what a wicked man. He was shy on the surface but his ruthlessness ran deep. He made that young girl and her kids suffer, he made their lives a living misery. There is no love story here, just years of abuse to Sally and his own children...

[aeasley]

I love your videos, but when a slave master has a sexual relationship with one who is enslaved it’s rape, not an affair—there’s a clear power imbalance. Lets start normalising this language instead

[derickgoh]

Everybody repeat after me :
SALLY DESERVED BETTER!!!!




[ Thanks for the 500 likes! ]

[leilaakhand]

Just aced a midterm. This is a perfect way to come down from all that adrenaline!

[wandaholmes]

As a slave once said, you either laid down or they put you down by force. Sally Hemmings had no choice. The family left behind caught Hell if a slave took their freedom.

[LosMuertosNegros]

They did not have affairs, the would constitute consent, this was not the case with enslaved women. They had no choice!

[FlowIrec]

Great video, as always. I do have one critique....

I understand that you can't say the word "rape" due to YouTube's algorithm. Perhaps you could word it as a "non-consensual relationship", something like that. Because that's exactly what it was. Slave girls had no right to resist their master's sexual advances, so she was hardly a mistress.

[BuzziestofBees]

These women paved the road for people to spark the fight for women’s rights!

[CaitlinSk]

Instead of saying "slave trader" lets call them what they were "Human traffickers"

[areiaaphrodite]

Honestly, Thomas Jefferson was a good husband to Martha and seemed to really love her. However, hearing Sally Hemmings' family history of the women in her family being used as enslaved concubines/bedfellows, is so sad.

[AliciaNyblade]

Okay, the skewed power balance of a much older master and teenage slave girl made Jefferson and Hemings' relationship gross enough. But the fact that Thomas was so grief-stricken by his wife's death and then turned to Sally, who was his wife's half-sister and "looked so much like her", takes things up to a whole other psychological level. Their whole relationship was messed up and really sad.

[picklesthewise]

As much as you can say that Jefferson did amazing things to promote American democracy, what happened with Sally Hemmings was vile and should not be glossed over. I'm as disappointed as anyone else, but it is the truth. He was a great (in his abilities) and yet terrible man.

Also, it's like when I found out as a teenager that my historical crush, Potemkin, had sexual relationships with his own nieces, possibly having groomed them since childhood. I was absolutely devastated and I didn't want to give up my ideas of who the man was - brilliant, intelligent, funny and charming, from everything positive that had been written about him - but I realized that it is both possible that he was all of those things, and yet still capable of doing evil things like that. We're seeing that so often in the modern day with celebrities' behavior coming to light, and it's a thing we have to get our heads around and not ignore.

[BoomerGirlInaGenZWorld]

I love that you don’t sugar coat our history. As with all history of mankind, there is good and bad mixed in. It does injustice to our story to deny either. We can’t change it, but we can acknowledge it for what it is, and work to prevent its repeat.

[jbos]

Is anyone else thinking "old pervert"?

[Lauren.E.O]

The frequency of pregnancies and high infant mortality back then, plus the higher chance of post-childbirth infection...those poor women.

[Kaylee]

Ugh our history is so disgusting.... that poor girl.

[VasilikiTzalachanihappy]

I would love to read more about Sally Hemmings' descendents.

And great video as always!

[displacerkatsidhe]

"Mistress" and "affair"... yeah...okay >>'

[terrirobinson]

I am loving this series! Thank you for including Sally Hemings. Her story needs to come out of the shadows and be told.

[shortie]

Ok so first, I absolutely love this channel! But if Sally Humings was 14 when she was sent to France, she did not “start a sexually relationship” with anyone. It’s sad.