| Episodes |
James and Sally as Foils
Matt Sakalosky
[1] James Hemings, the slave brother of Sally Hemimgs and cook to Thomas Jefferson, is quite an interesting character in Barbara Chase-Riboud's 1979 Sally Hemings: A Novel. His temperamental personality, romantic idealism, and drive for dreams and beliefs are enough to grasp the attention of any reader looking for a hero outside the parameters of the main plotline of this story. In many ways, Chase-Riboud uses James as both a foil and a parallel of Sally's inner emotions and outer decisions dealing with slavery and the freedom of the next generation. The latter of the two is perhaps more important to either sibling than the former. These comparisons and contrasts come to a climax during the Christmas scene in which Jefferson finally grants James his promised freedom and James shares with Sally a bit of information about his love life never previously known to her or anyone: that he has never been with a woman sexually.
[2] James's viewpoints and decisions dealing with his relationships and his future descendants at the point of the Christmas party has been touched upon but once in the book at the point of that freedom party, and that one time only dealt with a bit of mixed emotions when seeing his sister, eight years his junior, lose her virginity before him. After his emancipation, however, James and Sally have a little talk during which three details are uncovered. First is that James has never had a relationship with a woman before: "If I spill [my seed], it will be as a free man who can father free children" (202). Being a grown man of twenty-six and living at a time during which sex for slaves was more than a common occurrence, this should come as a surprise to the reader as it does for Sally. The next detail is more of an explanation for the first fact. The reason James still held his virginity at this point was because of his declaration in Paris that no child of his would be born a slave. With these two aspects revealed, the reader is lead to a simplified revelation: James decides to wait now so he will not have to fight for the rights of his children later.
[3] When dealing with Sally in this comparison of slave offspring, there are three different viewpoints/facts that Sally possesses at the time of the Christmas party. The first is that she already has children born as slaves. Whether or not she agrees with James's standpoint on having children as slaves at this point, she has already borne several children. Secondly, she had decided at an early age, an age in which it is difficult to think more than a few days into the future let alone a few children into the future, to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors before her. To be the slave concubine of the master would be a tremendous decision as a fully physically and emotionally grown person, let alone a child. With Jefferson's manipulative, verbose mannerisms, this decision is almost made for her. The last point is another simplified revelation: Sally decides to act now in having her children and decided to fight for their freedom later. At all times during her relationship with Jefferson, however, she always has the hope (with good reason, seeing as they are, for all intents and purposes, white) that her children will be set free.
[4] The differences between the siblings break up into a comparison and a contrast. The two are very similar in their principles. They both want their families to break the bonds of slavery, and neither of them wants another generation of black people to be under the whip of the white man. The differences come in when their actions are viewed. James decides and acts upon not even chancing a pregnancy and a consequential slave child born under his name until he knows for sure that he first is a free man. Sally, however, decides to have her children first and fight for their rights as white children at a later date and time because Jefferson's promise in Paris to free her children seemed to be only words and not very concrete. As far as the story goes, these actions are what truly define the two as literary foils.
[5] In conclusion, the brother and sister are similar when it comes to their ideal ends, but their means to that end vary. Sally chooses to act first in having her children and fight to have them freed later, while James chooses to wait for his children so once he is free their freedom would not even be an issue. Two topics of concern that have much to do with the decisions made are the sex of the characters and their personalities. Since Sally is female, she has the opportunity to become a concubine and have her children, an option that James could never have. She also, as a female, has less time biologically to bear her children. When it comes to personalities, James has a much stronger, stubborn, fiery personality that leads to his demand for emancipation. Sally, while still a strong character does not have the drive to receive her personal freedom. These two issues do not subtract from the fact that the two choices made emphasize each other.
