| Episodes |
Sally and the Insurrectionist Garden
Dallas Gage
[1] Being a slave was all Sally Hemings knew. However, her views on slavery and freedom changed when she moved to Paris, where slavery was outlawed. Sally learns from her brother James that she can now live a free life. This is important to Sally because she is finally able to choose her own life--something most slaves cannot even dream of. If Sally is free she is able to make decisions without having to answer to anyone. However, freedom is not determined by the environment or geography--it is a state of mind. In the course of the novel, Sally achieves that state of mind when she finds out Nathan Langdon recorded her and her sons as white in the census. Sally gains personal freedom through this because she realizes that her whole life everyone has decided who and what she is. She has finally realized she is free--no one can decide who she is.
[2] When looking at Sally's younger life, we see how she lived a luxurious life for a slave. One time Sally begins to cry because her brother James and Martha go off to play and leave her behind, and "Master Jefferson came upon [her] and tried to comfort [her]" (61). When Martha comes back and sees them, she begins to hit Sally with her shoe in the head, and Jefferson takes Martha out of the room, glancing at Sally "in an attempt to console [her]" (61). This shows that, unlike many slaves, Sally is raised with a loving master. She is also given a warm home with nice clothes and plenty of food. In short, "[She] was happy" (61) and lived a life peacefully integrated with blacks and whites. Therefore, Sally is ignorant of the life of a "typical" slave, which is to be beaten on occasion, live in a little shack on the side of the house, and to have very little to eat.
[3] Since Sally grew up loved and without a sense of restriction, freedom is an inconceivable idea for her before she comes to France. There, her brother James enlightens her about the opportunities she can have by being free. Free people "get paid for their labor." They go where they want to and do what they want to do according to the nature and demand of their trade. They vote. They hold property. No one can imprison them, brand them, beat them, kill them with impunity, and no one can sell them. Free people marry and have children who belong to them and for whom they are responsible and who in turn take care of them in old age. "Free people do what they want without asking permission of any man" (81). After James explains all this to Sally, he tells her that "[they] must refuse to go back to Virginia and prepare [themselves] for the day [they] are commanded to do so." When Sally first hears of this, she is confused and rebels against the idea--"[Jefferson] is all we have," she told her brother, scared of any other life than the one she has. Sally associates slavery with a caring family; and her brother James, who is the only blood family she has in the house, is trying to take her away from the only family she knows.
[4] Who is James to tell Sally that she needs to leave Jefferson's house for freedom? James's role is that of Sally's older brother, the person who has had much more experience than she in slavery and in life. As a big brother, it is his responsibility to guide her down the right path and tell her right from wrong. He seduces her into thinking about herself and her own good, which, in his opinion, is to eventually leave Jefferson to be free in Europe. "He was taking her carefully through an insurrectionist garden," says Chase-Riboud, "having her smell first this flower, then another, leading her gently toward the strong scents, the bolder colors, the mandrake, and the poison. Little by little, he led her where he wanted her to go, stopping to explain an idea" (82). In this manner James slowly tells Sally about the things free people can do that slaves cannot, starting with the most basic and then finishing, with anger and passion, with what he thinks is the most important difference. Sally does not recognize that she is prohibited as a slave because Jefferson gives her everything that she needs and she is happy with the life that she has.
[5] Sally rebels against James because of her limited views of slavery. She does not see the difference between the life she lives now and the life she would live if she was free until James explains to her that "free people marry and have children, who belong to them and whom they are responsible and who in turn take care of them in old age" without fear of them being sold to another house (81). A few days later, Sally tells James that she wishes in the future "the son of the son of [her] son would have some knowledge of [her]." According to James, this is only possible if they are free. Here Sally starts to think about and understand what the differences are between her life as a slave and her life free. This is the moment Sally starts to feel oppressed as a slave in Jefferson's house.
[6] However, because of the way Sally has been raised and her limited views of slavery, she remains in Jefferson's house, where eventually her wish of a family that was hers becomes reality when she starts having a secret relationship with Jefferson. Sally is blinded by the love that she and Jefferson share together, which keeps her from leaving him for freedom. When Jefferson finds out that Sally is having a baby--his baby--an intense conversation decides that Sally, the baby, and any other future children will live with him and be freed when he dies. Unfortunately, when Jefferson dies, he frees Sally's children, Madison and Eston, but "he didn't free [any] women" (326). Sally is not surprised by this, for when she finds out "[she] sat smiling" (326). She knew that even though Jefferson was dead, he would not want to let her go just yet.
[7] In the end, Sally does not gain freedom because she moves to a country where slavery is outlawed. She never experienced the live of a normal slave so she always thought that slavery meant being happy with a loving family. This did not make Sally feel restricted with her life; she did not see a difference between the two different lives--being a slave and being free. It is shown at the end of the novel, however, that freedom is only gained through the mind. Sally wasn't freed by Jefferson when he died; he wanted Martha to do it years later. However, Sally replies by saying to Martha, "You cannot free me. Even [Jefferson] could not free me. He couldn't free me living, he couldn't free me dying and he can't free me dead." Sally knows that no one can free her if she couldn't free herself throughout her lifetime. It isn't until Sally's relationship with Nathan Langdon that she realizes people cannot decide who she is as a person. Langdon lists her and her sons in the census as white to protect them in case of trouble. Sally does not like this because she knows she is not white--"it takes more than a census taker to turn black into white" (50). Sally realizes that freedom does not come from signed papers, moving to a country where slavery is outlawed, being with someone who is white, or even by a census; she knows that her freedom comes from herself.
