| Episodes |
1) Sally (voiceover): I was born into slavery but destined for scandal.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:00
2) You read between the lines. . . . It was a longstanding relationship. That was not 38 years of a man raping a woman.
Tina Andrews qtd. in DeNeen L. Brown
3) Sally: I don't want to leave you and Henry. I don't care about being free.
Betty: Don't you ever let me hear you say that. Being free is a precious gift. . . . I want you to have something none of us has ever had.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:03:08
4) I liked the fact that the story was told from Sally's point of view because while it teaches us about someone we know very little about, it also sheds new light on the life of Thomas Jefferson. He was an enormously complicated man, and through his relationship with Sally a different side of him emerges. It's one we've never really seen before and one that is infinitely more interesting than the one we learned of in school.
Film producer Craig Anderson, qtd. in "Connecting the Dots"
5) Jefferson: My instincts tell me you have a good mind, worth mentoring. . . .
Jefferson: Please don't call me master anymore.
Sally: Why? Ain't you my master no more?
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:10:11
6) So, I kept Sally's story within the context of where he was. Where I couldn't find historical references, I had to connect the dramatic dots. For instance, we know that Sally was in Paris with Jefferson, and that he went to Versailles on many occasions. If he brought his daughters with him there would be a ladies maid in attendance. So, in mind who would be in attendance? Sally Hemings.
Tina Andrews, qtd. in "Connecting the Dots"
7) Jean: You are American?
Sally: I'm a slave.
Jean: Does that mean you are not American?
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:17:00
8) This story is of a man and a woman, who despite their vast cultural differences, despite the adversity they faced and the secrecy they were forced to maintain, remained devoted to each other. My hope is that the movie will further the dialogue between the races, that the sons and daughters of slaves and the sons and daughters of slave owners will come together and talk honestly about the past -- accept it, learn from it and grow closer together.
Tina Andrews, qtd. in "Connecting the Dots"
9) Sally: "Weak men cannot see, and prejudiced men will not see, and we have it in our power to begin the world again." Mr. Paine, such wonderful, powerful words you wrote, sir.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:21:28
10) By presenting the story truthfully and with reverence to the deprecated Sally Hemings, I knew that the visual telling of this controversial story would resonate far beyond its airing, for ultimately, it is a story of America--and America's struggle with unfinished family business.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings 6
11) Sally: I love you.
Jefferson: You must not.
Sally: You're frightening me.
Jefferson: I, too, am afraid. Sally, my heart and my head are wrestling with the consequences of this. You are too young and too vulnerable, and you are my -- you are in my service.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:32:37
12) Can we deny Sally Hemings her right to a private life without representing her as a passive victim? Whether she was slave or free, she had her own private passions. Did she use Jefferson for personal gain? For the freedom of her children? For protection? Or did she in fact find in him a kindred spirit longing to simply love and be loved in return? So many of us place entirely too much politics behind the simplicity of genuine affection.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings 6
13) Jefferson: Why are you out here on your own? Don't you know the streets are no longer safe? I've sent for Martha, Polly, and your brother James. We are leaving tomorrow. Sally: je suis enceinte.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:34:02
14) My attempt to understand and thus dramatize Thomas Jefferson was not an attempt to debase him, but rather to place him in some mortal context. It would be mythology to assume that because Mr. Jefferson was a white, wealthy, politically positioned aristocrat that he could not be sexually attracted to a woman of color. Whether he was besotted by Sally Hemings or simply took sexual pleasure in her was not so much the issue as the fact that he indeed did sleep with her and had children with her no matter how their sexual arrangement is characterized.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings 6
15) James: With child! Have you lost your mind? How can you bring another slave, bastard into this world? . . .
Sally: I'm free now and I want my child to be free.
Jefferson: Sally, please come back with me.
Sally: Why should I?
Jefferson: I cannot go back to Monticello without you, tell me what I must do.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:34:38
16) In the course of my research, I read [Jefferson's] incendiary Notes on the State of Virginia. . . . The book sent me into a rage from which I would never recover. After reading that tome, I realized the dramatic Sally Hemings had to also read that book somewhere in the screenplay and speak out. She had to become the voice for all of the slaves and freed blacks in America then and now. She had to express outrage at Jefferson and his racist, divisive views about Blacks and their contribution (or lack according to him) to American culture. She had to become the voice of the silenced.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings 17
17) Sally's Mother: Sally I am very disappointed in you. You were supposed to stay over there and be free. James was gonna see after you, and now both of you are back here, and you with your belly as big as a house, by Master Tom!
Sally: Please mother, enough of this.
Sally's Mother: Please mother, enough of this? My, my, my, my, we do have such class now, don't we? Such style and sophistication. You let me tell you something, missy. You coming back here with your proper English and French clothes, don't make you nothin' but a fancy slave.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:40:31
18) Who was Sally Hemings? After all, if she was the woman who obviously dominated the private life and passions of Thomas Jefferson and kept the American icon and genius for peace interested in her until his death in 1826, then she had to have been an intriguing woman. Thomas Jefferson never remarried and never dated again after his liaison with Sally in Paris. He would keep her close no matter the political consequences. He named their children after friends of his. He was at the brink of losing his second term as president based on the discovery of his relationship with her, and yet he did not sell her. Why? What did she mean to him? How much did she mean to him?
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings 17
19) Sally: Tell me what I mean to you.
Jefferson: You are my own sweet Sally, and we should make the most of the time that we have.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:46:56
20) So many things about Sally Hemings we'll just never know. Equally enigmatic is the heart of Thomas Jefferson. But since I had to make a dramatic choice, my assessment became clear. These two people, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings--a white man and a black woman--were both victims of the times in which they lived. They were forced to conduct their relationship in a cloistered, clandestine, sometimes tumultuous environment. But for what reason? Why would these two have continued together for 38 years, particularly under some politically untenable circumstances for Jefferson, unless there were some emotional attachment involved?
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings 33
21) Mid-wife: Thomas Jefferson Hemings!
Sally's Mother: James, it's a boy!
James: What color is he?
Sally's Mother: White as snow.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 0:47:40
22) So my job as a producer on the Sally Hemings project was to protect the integrity of the material. I, after all, understood and had to service my community, and I knew what had to be communicated in the piece. I had lived with it. I was the material.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings 76
23) Sally: They would have killed her
Jefferson: This plantation is not a refuge for runaway slaves.
Sally: I cannot stand by and see another slave hunted like an animal
Jefferson: Now, listen to me Sally, this is the law, and it is common sense. And once more, you will do as I say.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 1:01:38
24) My take on the Sally Hemings story has received much the same reaction as the Hemings family story. We all suffer the slings and arrows of public attack. In the Hemingses continued quest for simple recognition, they endure all manner of ridicule from people who don't realize they did not choose this fight. They were born into it.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings 110
25) Jefferson: Have you lost your mind?
Sally: Why, because I keep company with a carpenter?
Jefferson: I will not have another man touch you. You understand . . . You belong to me.
Sally: You don't have to hurt me. You own me.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 1:14:55
26) I began to receive faxes which were clearly script pages, which resembled my scenes, but something was amiss. The words on the pages were not my own. Whole scenes had been rewritten, whole sequences changed, complete content and motivations altered. The work did not resemble my language or tone. I threw a fit, made angry calls. At the next script meeting, I lost it. "What is this!" I asked the director, "Why are you rewriting me without benefit of consulting me?" I was given all manner of explanation as to why scenes needed to be modified. And as much as expressed my anger--I must admit I went "black woman" on everyone as m y finger went into the air, my head rotated dramatically while I flailed and carried on--the changes continued. Now, attitudes within scenes were being tempered. All the rage and anger the slave characters had at their condition were being systematically toned down. All Sally's scenes where she exhibited a modicum of influence over Jefferson were expunged. A scene where Sally suggests Jefferson go back into politics so that perhaps he can do something about slavery suddenly came back to me with the two of them in bed with Jefferson cooing, "Your are my own sweet Sally, let us make the most of the time we have." O, puleeeze!!
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal
27) Sally: Does that surprise you? That people can be strained so tight in slavery it makes them want to kill? . . .
Sally: Then what is your solution? Where do you stand on slavery?
Jefferson: I have fought against this!
Sally: Not enough.
Jefferson: I believe so strongly in the issue of slavery that I wrote specifically to the issue when I first drafted the declaration of independence. And southern delegates, men I respected, tore those passages to shreds, obliterating every reference to slavery. Not one idea survived. Not one.
Sally: Then you must fight again. . . . Be true to your word, Thomas. If you become president, you cannot come to my bed and go to your white Congress and do nothing about this plague on my people.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 1:17:08
28) I watched scenes, including the one Sunta had personally quoted to me as great dialogue, faxed to me, under my own moniker, as some watered down, impotent version of the socially significant story I had written. I was constantly told Sally was "too strong." I was told I "hit the race card too squarely over the head." Excuse me! Too strong? When Maya Angelou wrote "Still I Rise" she spoke of the endurance and strength of black women. What we had to tolerate, accept and suffer through yet still wake up each day. In the face of chattel slavery nothing Sally did was short of strength. She survived and stayed with Jefferson despite a scandal likening her to Monica S. Lewinsky, Jefferson almost being relieved of office because of her, and, all of America singing ballads and hating her. To raise her children, see that they were all freed and educated, and manage not be killed or sold herself is strength personified. This was an intelligent woman who had to know she had some kind of influence or Jefferson would have moved on to the next sweet young slave thing, or, do what the editor of Lynchburg Virginia Gazette suggested in 1802 and "married some worthy woman of (his) own complexion."
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal
29) Mr. Peter Carr: You see, Sally is the perfect example of white people's fears. She's smart, beautiful, and pale. A negress capable of seducing white men? And if everyone followed Uncle's example, by the end of the century there will be no more white people.
Mr. Randolph: That woman is dangerous.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 1:48:53
30) As for race? The whole piece is about race. Race is the reason Sally has not been accepted as the woman in Jefferson's life. Race is the reason the DNA test results are still being refuted today. Race is the reason Jefferson's letter index for the year 1788, the year he began a sexual relationship with Sally, has suspiciously disappeared. Remember, no one so much as raised an eyebrow at Jefferson's relationship with Lady Maria Cosway, a married white woman. Race--is the reason I was willing to suffer through bad commentary or poor reviews for work that was truly of my doing, but not this. I am not a girl to go gentle into that good night. I'm from Chicago's south side. Trust me, I know how to fight. Sally could not (and would not) be some passive, inept slave with no purpose other than the sexual pleasure for an influential white man of power. Oh no. I was not interested in writing that. Sally's descendants have obviously proven that they learned from her generation after generation. So many current descendants are educators, professors and owners of their own businesses. Many, many others in the 19th century became abolitionists on the Underground Railroad for which many Hemings descendants lost their lives. I had a responsibility to them.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal
31) Mr. Carr: You know you could be arrested for harboring runaways?
Sally: What are you talking about?
Mr. Carr: I know of several incidents, now you take me seriously. If you thought what Lilly did to you was bad, imagine what the Sheriff would do. Brand you. Maim you. Cut off your hand. But I'm always here, aren't I? Take your side? And why? Because I keep dreaming that one day you'll realize that I'm the one, Sally. Me. (He kisses her, and Sally pushes him off.
Sally: You're no different from the rest of them.
Mr. Carr: From who? My uncle? You read the pages. You'll realize my uncle is no different from any other slave owner. But I am different. Now it's time you knew what my uncle thinks about you niggers, Sally. He doesn't care for you, not the way I do. (He kisses her again.)
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 1:54:01
32) So I fought and I rewrote. This went on until the production went to Virginia to shoot. The stress was killing me, and once again I found myself struggling through a second bout of pneumonia. And if my health wasn't enough to put me into the ground, comments on the subsequent draft drove the nail into the coffin. Actors who knew me began calling, "What happened to the draft we signed on to do?" It was obvious to anyone reading the script that someone other than me had tampered with the material. But I could do nothing. My voice was being silenced and I could not understand why. How can someone go around a "Producer/writer"? So I elected to write letters to all involved stating how unhappy I was with the draft, how far off the mark it was, how it misrepresented my writing, and, more importantly, how displeased the black community would be if certain scenes remained as "written" by me.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal
33) Mr. Jefferson: What is going on here? (Sally walks away, leaving Carr and Jefferson in the room.) I believe you owe me an explanation.
Mr. Carr: And what do you mean?
Mr. Jefferson: I have eyes, I just saw you kissing Sally.
Mr. Carr: This is ridiculous. I'm her friend. Just try to make her feel at ease when you're gone! Take away the pain of the scandal.
Mr. Jefferson: Which requires you to kiss her, to touch her? Have you been intimate with her? Speak up dammit, if you've done something shameful…
Mr. Carr: Haven't you? Haven't you to the detriment of us all? Have you asked yourself if she might be attracted to me? I'm younger, stronger, here when she needs someone, when she's in danger, instead of you, who's up in Washington, dissembling and denying all claims to her.
Mr. Jefferson: (Throws Carr on the ground) I suggest you return to your own farm, and your own wife. I have treated you like a son. You are no longer welcome in this house! Now leave my sight.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 1:55:13
34) I then flew to Virginia for the read through. When I showed up at the Production office, I was livid. Taped to the door of the Directors office was a sheet of paper with the words "Shhhh, Director is Writing: written in magic marker. Now mind you it didn't say "Director is Sleeping," or "Director is Casting" or "Director is Producing." But before I blew a gasket, I heard Alex's voice again and I forced myself to be calm. I did not want to lose it in front of the brilliant cast that had been assembled, many of whom would be meeting "the writer" for the first time. That is NOT the time to come across as "raving shrew."
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal
35) Jefferson: I want a word with you, madam. He tells me that you want a younger man. After all there's been between us, and you want a younger man? Now Samuel's feeling cannot have progressed without some prompting on your part!
Sally: How dare you insinuate that I've been intimate with him! But then of course you believe your white nephew and not your black concubine, because you wrote this: "Whites are superior to blacks in reason and in beauty. In music, blacks are more gifted than whites, with accurate ears for tune, time and rhythm. In the imagination they are tasteless and dull. They secrete less by the kidneys and more by the glands which gives them a strong, disagreeable odor." Did it occur to you that slaves don't have your brass bathing tub? Or your perfumed oils? And this: "Among blacks there is no poetry. I have never yet heard a black utter a thought above plain narration." You disgust me!
Jefferson: You are taking my observations out of context!
Sally: Then here's one in context! "An amalgamation between whites and blacks produces a degradation to which no one can innocently consent."
Jefferson: Sally, please!
Sally: Are our children a degradation? Is my mother? Am I?
Jefferson: I was wrong!
Sally: Every time you say, "No Sally, I can't do a thing about slavery now, you wait ‘til I'm elected, wait ‘til I'm reelected, wait, wait! It was all lies! Your own law again miscegenation prevents us from marrying!
Jefferson: I wrote that 25 years ago, I was ignorant!
Sally: Buying a new territory twenty days ago. Are you going to admit that as a slave state and perpetuate the horror? Or are you going to sit on your hands and blame the southern constituents? Because this is what they think of slavery. (Sally reveals her scarred back to Jefferson).
Jefferson: God, Sally. Sally, what has happened to you?
Sally: I hate you. I hate what I've allowed you to turn me into.
Jefferson: Stop it. Stop it. You don't hate me. You love me. You love me the same way that I love you. I love you. Do as you please, but do not forget that you are my heart. I love you. God help me, I do. Sally, you must never, never leave me. And I will always love and honor you. Promise me.
Sally: I do.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 1:57:10
36) So I did the honorable thing. I sat there biting my inside cheek as the cast read from a lukewarm script I hated. I cried inside as I listened to a scene where Sally's daughter, Harriet--who should have been expressing her desire to pass for white (which she did in real life), become a scene where the word "white" was not even uttered. Harriet, instead, told her mother she would "never do such a thing." I popped two Motrins and kept copious notes of every scene that had substantially changed, and went back to the hotel where I contemplated calling the network. I had nothing to lose. If this is what the network wanted, fine. But what if they think I have been making the changes? Perhaps they should be told that should the NAACP or the Los Angeles Times gain knowledge that this project, with all the itinerant politics attached, has been surreptitiously co-opted and diluted by persons not of color who've done it poorly black folks will protest loudly and it would look bad. I was in purgatory. So I decided to light a candle, pray, and go to bed. After all, tomorrow was another day.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal
37) Harriet: He's so wonderful, and so sweet, and he's already mentioned that he wants to take me to Philadelphia with him.
Mother: Does he know who you are?
Harriet: Mama, this is my chance to have the life I want!
Mother: What is it that you want?
Harriet: A home, a family, a chance in this world to be free . . . He is a DuPont, he is a man of means and I'm the daughter of the President, am I not deserving of some of the things that freedom brings?
Mother: You are his child Harriet, you will never be his daughter.
Harriet: Mother, please.
Mother: The way you will be treated in this world has already been decided by the color of your skin; you must never deny who you are even though who we are began as a crime and most of us would do anything to escape it.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 2:16:29
38) There were several scenes I could not save from misinterpretation, however, and critics and African Americans nailed ME to the cross (see Chapter Nine). An example is Sally and Jefferson's first love scenes, I had written them in such a way that both of the two principals were nervous, yet drawn to each other. Their attraction had been carefully building and now neither could resist the other, or suppress their feelings. So when their lips meet, nature takes its course. I was very specific in our creative meetings that Sally could NOT make the first move. She was young and I was playing her as a virgin, not sexually manipulative, and did NOT want any interpretations that would represent a black woman as wanton, or sexually aggressive. There are too many stereotypes of this nature depicted in film and, as an African American woman, I would not be party to the perpetuation of such a negative stereotype. I truly felt Jefferson was the only man Sally was ever with sexually. Equally, I did not want Jefferson to by lusty or primal with her or appear to force himself on her. I wanted the audience to see how this relationship developed in the open, social mores of France, into one lasting 38 years. But I sat in utter shock as I watched dallies of Sally pulling off hero gown sexually presenting herself to a Jefferson standing at the door, having yet to make a move. And we could not re-shoot.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal
39) William: White women do not work in the kitchen, how dare you pass yourself off as white!
Sally: Get off of him!
William: Get your foot off me, nigger.
Sally: You will never treat my children this way in my home, do you understand me?
Sally: Mr Bacon, will you escort this boy off the row and back to his family?
Bacon: Let's go, son.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 2:21:02
40) Initially, the miniseries was announced and promoted as "The Memoirs of Sally Hemings." But a month before the official press tour and the scheduled airing, the network made the decision to change the title. We were all understandably worried about our competition on ABC, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" which was eclipsing everything in its path and we were scheduled to go head-to-head with it the first hour of the first night. The thinking was if people were flipping through the TV Guide looking for something to watch on Sunday night and saw " . . . Millionaire" or a project called "Memoirs of . . . someone-you-didn't-know-connected with-a-dead-President,"--which would you watch? I was asked to come up with a title that included both Sally Hemings' name and the word "Scandal" in it. People love watching scandals unfold on television. They react to the word "scandal." The country was just emerging from quite a salacious one in the White House and this would be the presentation of another one--only some 200 years earlier. I was also encouraged not to us Thomas Jefferson's name in the title for fear people would dismiss the project as a documentary-style history lesson. All understandable, acceptable suggestions. But naturally my personal concern was that Sally Hemings not be portrayed (thus condemned) as the sole blame for a scandal.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal
41) Martha: How much did the government pay for the books Papa?
Jefferson: That is my private affair Martha.
Martha: Because if it is not over 50,000 dollars then we shall be forced off this plantation.
Jefferson: Forced off? Nonsense. I still own all the equipment and livestock here . . .
Martha: Which is being sold.
Jefferson: And the poplar forest.
Martha: Which is mortgaged.
Martha: You have 152 slaves papa, that is your only valuable commerce.
Jefferson: No I will not sell my servants.
Martha: And if you sell 60 of them you will hold off the banks.
Jefferson: I will not abandon them!
Martha: We are bankrupt!
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 2:26:54
42) Bright and early, a phone call awakened me. It was my aunt in Philadelphia. "Tina, they're picketing in front of the CBS station, talking about your show." Shortly after I hung up the phone, a network publicist called me. "There are protesters picketing the Philadelphia affiliate station and two newspapers want your comments. You're going to have to give them a statement."
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal
43) Jefferson: There was a time when I hoped for the emancipation of all of you because nothing is more certain than one day you will all know freedom, but I have failed you in that, and my Monticello dream has failed too because it is based on slavery, which I have always known in my heart is an inequity, but I did nothing because I was afraid in my heart and complacent , which has brought us all to this painful moment. We have all been overwhelmed by misfortune-our plantation no longer supports us. My credit is now on Monticello and all of you, and, and I'm afraid you will all be sold, and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 2:29:01
44) Tom: I've been married for twenty years, I have ten grandchildren.
Sally: Twenty years?
Tom: I want you to come home with me mama, I've come to ask Mr. Jefferson if we might . . .
Jefferson: Welcome to Monticello, sir.
Sally: Mr. Jefferson, this is . . .
Tom: Tom Woodson of Ohio.
Jefferson: Woodson. I have Woodson cousins in Greenbriar County, Virginia.
Jefferson: Do you have the time, sir?
Tom: Mr. President?
Jefferson: The time, do you have the time?
Jefferson: That is a handsome watch, now I happen to have a fob which belongs to a watch which I misplaced years ago, perhaps you could find some use for it.
Tom: Why, thank you. Mr. Jefferson.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 2:37:29
45) Though denied her place in Jefferson's life during her own lifetime and his, Miss Hemings has come to symbolize the by-product of America's almost fanatic preoccupation with race, the racial divide, and racial ambiguity.
Tina Andrews, Sally Hemings 111
46) Jefferson: Forgive me, I never told you enough but I've always loved you.
Sally: You are my own sweet Tom.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 2:42:59
47) My father always had it in his mind that I should as a writer explore the stories within the African American experience.
Tina Andrews qtd. in McCluskey
48) Martha: This is his will. He has been as generous as he could for a man of such debt. Our lives are complete pretenses, he has left nothing. No inheritances no bequeaths, only instructions regarding five slaves he has ordered to free. You are not mentioned in the will; however your name does appear on the slave inventory list, which I could overlook as I'm certain he would want your family together if at all possible. Did you think he would provide for you? He's not provided for me or his grandchildren. I have served my father with as much fidelity as I could have serve my God, and for the rest of my days I will preserve his legacy and his genius and I will protect him from . . . Look at me when I speak to you!
Sally: No, you look at me. What do you see? A family, I'm your aunt ,Martha, I am your mother's sister. We have the same blood. You can't deny me. And you can't sell me. Years before Thomas died he gave me this . . . I've been free since Paris. Your father once told me something that you said that slavery is wrong, that human beings should have the right to be where they want to. I've always wanted to be here Martha. If I took my freedom it would have meant I would have to leave Virginia, but I would never, I would never have left your father. Here we are, we are both displaced, where will you go?
Martha: I shall go to live with my Ellen and her family, and you?
Sally: I will stay here and be with my sons.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 2:45:21
49) Sally: I must entrust my story to my children now, so perhaps they will pass down the history of who they are and how they came to be.
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal 2:50:08
