| Episodes |
Declaring Independence and Declaring Love
Dan Carr
[1] Barbara Chase-Riboud's 1979 novel Sally Hemings is a fictional interpretation of Thomas Jefferson's relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. Often times, Hemings is portrayed as a symbol of all the negative racial stereotypes associated with black slaves. Throughout her novel, however, Chase-Riboud uses fictional interaction between Jefferson and Hemings to paint the picture of a more sophisticated and more human Sally Hemings. Chase-Riboud is careful to include a great deal of actual facts to give her novel a "realistic-fiction" feel, using Jefferson's political affiliations to develop the racial situation between Hemings and Jefferson.
[2] Specifically, Chase-Riboud touches on the issue of Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence. She does this by creating a scene in which Jefferson explains to Sally that he originally included a clause that would have abolished slavery and that it was later written out before the Declaration was signed (191-94). By including this interaction in the novel, Chase-Riboud changes the reader's view on Jefferson, while, more importantly, affecting Hemings' and Jefferson's relationship. Before she makes these connections, however, Chase-Riboud first gives an account of Jefferson's personal experience with writing the Declaration.
[3] Chase-Riboud skillfully prefaces Jefferson's account of his writing with a dialogue in which Jefferson says, "[it] reminded me of a mistake I once made. Early in my political career, I gave up what I most deeply believed in for the sake of not provoking people. I vowed never to do it again" (190). We soon learn that Jefferson is referring to his experience with writing the Declaration. He describes the process as one in which he drafts a copy that is well received except for some syntax errors and for his proposition for the abolishment of the slave trade and of slavery altogether. While the congress read through the closing clauses of the Declaration, Jefferson recalls his thoughts at the time as he remarks, "I was much worried about my own standing at the Virginia Convention. I feared to be knifed out of Congress" (191). This revisiting of his past political troubles shows some of Jefferson's political pitfalls and sets up an analysis of Jefferson's image as it relates to slavery as well. Because Jefferson's experience with the writing of the Declaration makes him seem less heroic than the annals of history might care to argue, it is valuable to Chase-Riboud in the sense that it makes him seem more emotional.
[4] The scene, however, is more closely related to Jefferson's views on slavery than it is to his political failures. Chase-Riboud makes Jefferson's stance on slavery more definitive when he says to Sally, "I would have sent [the slaves] home" (194), which, in actuality, was the real Jefferson's political plan. Chase-Riboud invokes a wave of emotions with these simple words, in which Sally quickly connects to Jefferson, and in which she associates with her race. Sally realizes that at one point Jefferson truly tried to save her fellow blacks, to whom she does not always choose to relate herself. Whether she feels a wave of love or of debt, Chase-Riboud creatively makes the reader realize that Sally changes the way that she feels about Jefferson during these moments. When Sally narrates, "In that terrible silence that followed, how I loved him" (194), we feel Sally's appreciation for Jefferson's attempt at abolition. The true beauty of this line is that it is simultaneously a proclamation of love for Jefferson himself, something that Sally refrains from doing time and time again.
[5] Chase-Riboud then finishes the scene with a different feel when Jefferson exclaims, "I washed my hands of it! I vowed to let the Almighty, if there is one, do his own work!" (194) By saying this Jefferson retracts some of his sympathy towards the plight of the slaves, thus allowing the master-slave relationship to continue as normal. This is imperative to the novel because it allows the theme of love between the two to develop while remaining realistic.
[6] This scene is a short yet important movement in the novel because it develops various themes in various ways. It allows Sally to associate with other blacks by relating her to Jefferson's actions and also strengthens the feeling of love between the two while carefully maintaining the master-slave relationship between them.
