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Jefferson's Death and the Fate of Chase-Riboud's Sally
Keiko Akamine
[1] Barbara Chase-Riboud's portrayal of Jefferson's death and the aftermath it caused Sally Hemings adds another dimension to their relationship (325-27). Chase-Riboud is careful to highlight certain aspects of the situation in order to support Sally's strong, resilient character, while portraying Jefferson as a weak, helpless man. Overall, she is able to emphasize her belief that the Jefferson-Hemings controversy is not a tale of lust but a tragic love story.
[2] Jefferson's death is a difficult one, similar to Sally's mother Elizabeth's. This detail supports Jefferson's characteristics of stubbornness and independence throughout the novel. Interestingly, Chase-Riboud imagines Jefferson's final moments to be with Sally, rather than his white family who were gathering outside. She includes that "Martha, who is at Varina, would never make it up the mountain in time" to be with her father in his final moments (325). Sally and Jefferson are alone.
[3] Jefferson's final moments also provide insight into his relationship with Sally. Chase-Riboud's decision to have Sally alone with Jefferson indicates that the others present in the household were aware of her significance to him and left the two of them alone or that Jefferson requested that only Sally be present at his deathbed. In both of these instances, her importance to him is evident. He asks that Sally burn their love letters he had secretly kept along with other mementoes from their relationship. Chase-Riboud reveals a softer, almost helpless, side to Jefferson on his deathbed. For the first time in their thirty-eight year relationship, he includes the word "please" in his request (325). It is a known fact that Jefferson coped with the death of his loved ones by burning the things that reminded him of them. When his beloved wife Martha died, he burned all of their correspondences he had collected throughout their relationship. When he asks Sally to burn their letters, however, he is asking her to destroy the evidence of their relationship. Until this point, Sally had been unaware that Jefferson had secretly kept her letters. This demonstrates that the feelings he had for Sally were significant enough for him to keep what could have been incriminating evidence of his affair with a slave. Jefferson may wish to destroy the letters in order to spare Sally from further persecution, but Sally refuses to destroy the letters because to her they are not evidence of guilt but concrete evidence of love. She is a slave, yet he cared for her enough to keep her letters at the risk of them being found. Sally is therefore unable to destroy the proof of Jefferson's love for her.
[4] Jefferson appears insecure and vulnerable as he begs Sally to destroy the letters and finally asks her, "Did you love me?" Instead of a reply, Sally repeats to herself, "Lord keep me from sinking down. Lord keep me from sinking down" (326), the same lines she says in the beginning of the novel when she began to develop indescribable feelings for Jefferson (101). When Jefferson asks if she loved him, she thinks to herself, "After thirty-eight years he still had to ask," implying that their love, though unspoken, was a kind of mutual understanding between them. Throughout the novel, Sally's biggest inner conflict revolves around the fact that she has been "loving the enemy." This cognitive dissonance may be what kept her from telling Jefferson she loved him for the last time. It seems that although Jefferson has played the role of "master" through most of their relationship, when it comes down to it, he considers Sally to be an equal. He even puts her above his white relatives and the others present in the household. In Chase-Riboud's interpretation of Jefferson's death scene, their relationship more closely resembles a man and wife than master and slave. Chase-Riboud's goal in this scene is to convince the reader that the Jefferson-Hemings controversy is a tragic love story not a scandalous tale of a white man's affair with a Negro slave woman.
[5] Another issue that Chase-Riboud chooses to illustrate in this part of the novel is Sally's freedom. Immediately after Jefferson's death, Sally is informed that her sons have been freed along with a few other slaves, but no women were included in Jefferson's will. Although they had been together thirty-eight years, Jefferson did not free her. Sally, however, does not seem surprised at all. When Burwell informs her that Jefferson did not free her, she simply smiles, thinking to herself, "So he held me even in death" (326). She almost seems to be expecting not to be freed or that she has come to terms with the fact that she can never truly be free.
[6] Very early in her life, Sally realized that Jefferson would one day "claim" her. It had happened to her grandmother and her mother, and it would certainly happen to her as well. Even while in Paris, she "knew as sure as death that [she] belonged to Thomas Jefferson" (99). It was because of this relationship that she could never truly be free. When Martha attempts to free Sally according to Jefferson's last wishes, Sally replies that no one can free her. She argues that Jefferson "couldn't free [her] living, he couldn't free [her] dying, and he can't free [her] dead," because love will cause her to be an eternal slave to him (329). Though she has been freed from slavery, she has not been freed from the power Jefferson has over her. She even remains on his property long after he passes away. It is not her slavery that binds her there but, instead, her love for Jefferson. He can free her from slavery, but he can never have the power to free her from their relationship.
[7] Chase-Riboud's portrayal of Jefferson's death and the consequences for Sally emphasizes the romantic relationship the two shared rather than the master-slave relationship. Jefferson's vulnerable side is revealed, suggesting complete trust in Sally. Though Martha eventually frees her for Jefferson, Sally will never be truly free because love continues to hold her captive.
