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Chase-Riboud's Take on Sally's Callender Issue
Nelson Calero
[1] The famous yet invisible Sally Hemings, Jefferson's slave mistress, has had her name tarnished by many individuals throughout history. However, Barbara Chase-Riboud's 1979 historical novel Sally Hemings attempts to take her character and alter this negative image of what Suzette Spencer calls "noxious blackness." Chase-Riboud takes the primitive concubine that James T. Callender's original attacks made Sally out to be and sculpts her as a strong, insightful mulatto woman, especially at the point in the Jefferson-Hemings relationship when the Callender accusations become public. Although historically we don't have any facts about Sally's take on the matter, if even she knew about it at all, Chase-Riboud presents an interesting perspective on the scandal, accentuating not only Sally's strength but also the strength of the relationship itself.
[2] One of the first questions one asks regarding the Callender attacks would probably be whether or not she knew her relationship with Jefferson had been discovered. While the real answer is not known, Chase-Riboud gives Sally full knowledge of Callender's attacks and a rather strange level-headedness about them. In one scene, Sally and her mother Elizabeth Hemings discuss the slanderous articles. Elizabeth urges, "He will send you away. He has got to do it. His white folks will destroy him if he don't" (246). Sally then adamantly responds, "He will not sell me, Mama. He will not abandon me or send the children away. . . . Because he cannot live without me" (246). While her mother panics at the idea of her daughter being sent away, Sally, although upset about the articles, remains calm and firm in her belief that the love shared between her and Jefferson would keep her safe. Sally simply considers the ordeal "the test that Thomas Jefferson would have to pass" (247). If Jefferson passed this ordeal, it meant victory in their "battle" to maintain their love.
[3] Jefferson is well aware of this difficult test in his relationship with Sally. Portrayed as a protective family man, Jefferson embraces Sally upon his return to Monticello and does not touch on the news attacks. We as readers are uncertain of how Jefferson feels about the situation until James Madison pays him a visit at Monticello. The following passage discusses a suggestion from Madison on what to do with Sally:
"As for the other calumny . . ." began James Madison, "I believe Mr. Monroe would be happy to take her." "Take her?" Thomas Jefferson swayed slightly and blood rushed to his face . . . "The Hemingsesare mine," said Jefferson. "All of them." . . . His face had taken on the serene expression Madison knew so well: his public face. (252-53)Indirectly, Jefferson expresses his feelings over the whole ordeal: he doesn't want to lose Sally. Given the stern tone, the rush of blood, and public face arising, Jefferson loves Sally to the point where he gets physically worked up at the thought of losing her. Compared to Sally's calm composure and self-assurance, Jefferson comes off as a bit more uneasy. Through this comparison, Chase-Riboud makes Sally out to be the mentally stronger of the two in this ordeal.
[4] Further accentuating this love for Sally, Jefferson writes a small entry in his logbook before he departs Monticello once again. After Jefferson leaves Monticello for Washington, Sally manages to find this logbook of Jefferson's personal family census. In this logbook, Jefferson considers his three children with Sally as free and white, reassuring Sally of his love for her and his attempts to protect her and her children. Sally's original prediction on the predicament seems to be correct, adding a new level of intuition to her character. Also, the idea of a "test" in this relationship can now be considered passed, since Jefferson has chosen to keep Sally and her children regardless of the circumstances present.
[5] Although it was Jefferson's test to pass, Sally had to deal with the cruel pens of those who wrote about her. Sally states that she knew of all the harsh names used to describe her and bore the guilt. She, however, does not consider her troubles as great as Jefferson's. The following passage peeks into Sally's mind while thinking about her insults:
Nothing was too horrible for me: my heart cut out, my tongue out by its roots, my body burned. . . . He paid the worst of all prices: public humiliation. To have been scourged at the public post for slaves would have been easier for him than that price: the loss of his public image, the façade he cherished almost as much as he cherished the façade Monticello. He had paid. . . . He had paid with a kind of helpless, bewildered pride, for I was Monticello. (254-55)Chase-Riboud presents a new understanding side of Sally in this scene. Although she feels the pain and shame from the attacks, she still takes it all in because she isn't the one seeing the worst from the ordeal. Her appreciation and consistent insight keeps her from living up to Callender's initial claim.
[6] Thomas Jefferson has indeed passed this test presented, but, more importantly, the experience reveals a whole new side of Sally that further takes away from her stereotype as a primitive slave. Although fictionally, Barbara Chase-Riboud presents Sally Hemings in a completely new light in which one can ponder and attempt to determine the kind of woman with whom Thomas Jefferson involved himself. Similar to Dumas Malone's presentation of Ellen Randolph Coolidge's letter, Chase-Riboud's novel sheds new light on this everlasting controversy, adding more depth and insight as to what actually happened.
