Sally

Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemming met as lovers in Paris, when she was fourteen and he thirty-five. They returned to Virginia and Sally never again left Monticello until after Jefferson's death. Thomas and Sally loved each other as man and wife throughout their life together although they passed through many tribulations. Often other women tried to woo him and Sally threatened to break from Jefferson's love upon numerous occasions. Imagine the anguish, the love, the passions that played out in their private quarters, deeply hidden from the world in that seraglio of one. The only way Jefferson could have both Sally's love and his public life was to prevent the tiniest inkling of his forbidden liaison to come out...even though their relationship was an open secret within the family and in the neighborhood. Sally had iron in her soul and that was one of the characteristics which kept Jefferson forever with her or forever pining for her when they were apart. Theirs was an amazing and sometimes painful story, which is told here in Sally's point of view.