William Wells Brown and the Jefferson and Hemings Scandal

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William Wells Brown and the Jefferson and Hemings Scandal

William Wells Brown wrote Clotel or The President's Daughter, a (fiction) novel based on the rumors surrounding Thomas Jefferson's affair with Sally Hemings, his slave. Brown learned of the scandal while working in several antislavery activities following his escape from slavery in 1834. Brown wanted not only to improve the social status of blacks and to support abolition through his writing, but also to encourage his readers to "develop a skeptical relationship to glorified stories of the national past" (Levine 15). He chose to write a novel that not only questioned slavery, but also questioned the validity of the principles that this nation was founded on.

Rumors about the affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings were circulating on a small scale after Hemings gave birth to several children who were noticeably light-skinned. Visitors as early as 1796 to Monticello, Jefferson's home in Virginia, often noted, "Mr. Jefferson's [slaves] had neither in their color nor features a single trace of their origin" (Rothman 87). It was clear to many that the slave children at Monticello were the result of interracial sexual relationships. Not until James Callender made a public accusation in 1802, however, did the scandal make its way into the press.

James Callender was a supporter of Jeffersonian Republican politics, and he began writing political columns for the Philadelphia Gazette in the 1790s. His views were more extreme than those of the political party that he supported, however, and his writing was untactful. He attacked politicians who belonged to other parties, and exposed scandals where scandals could be found (or created?). He was eventually fire...

... middle of paper ...

...lgram, Jeff. "In Jefferson-Hemings DNA test, media found failing: Research director sees 'biggest science story' as widely misinterpreted." Packet Online. 29 Apr. 2000

<http://www.google. com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.pacpubserver.com/new/new s/images/philosophicock. jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.pacpubserver. com/new/news /4-29

00/jefferson.html&h=325&w=326&sz=26&tbnid=hIml z3nbCtYJ:&tbnh=113&tb nw=113 &start=11 &prev=/images%3Fq%3DThomas%2BJefferson,%2B Sally%2 BHemings%26svnum%3D 10%26h1%3Den%261r%3D%26sa%3DG>.

Rothman, Joshua D. "James Callender and Social Knowledge of Interracial Sex in Antebellum Virginia." Jan Ellen Lewis, and Peter S. Onuf. Sally Hemings & Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999.

"A Philosophic Cock," a caricature of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, 1802 (Milgram 1).

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