James Meets Sally in Jefferson in Paris

By Brandi Klotz

[1] Often when a novel precedes a movie, the movie leaves us disappointed. We expect to see the characters we saw and relive the scenes we read in the novel. However this is usually not the case. The movie brings a new perspective. The characters have different personalities and different motives. Scenes are left out, made up, or changed. The 1995 is not exempt from this phenomenon. Instead of the strong Sally we saw in Barbara Chase-Riboud’s 1979 Sally Hemings, we see an idiot dance and flirt, with the poorest of acting. It is not the actress to be blamed, however, but the director and writers. They give the actress the motivations, cues, and dialogue. They give her the acting prompt that results in scenes rather painful to watch. The movie might not have been such a disappointment had Sally Hemings not come before it. Despite the bad acting and a poor representation of Sally, the movie does touch upon some important themes.

[2] Far into the film, after we see Sally’s many awkward scenes with Jefferson, we finally come to see her really interact with James (2:03). Sally is still the same weak child seen throughout the rest of the film, but James is a strong, well articulated slave. He may not speak perfect English as we would like to hear it, but what he says is so full of conviction and passion that it negates any butchering of the English language. James’s verbal power dominates this scene.

[3] At the beginning of the scene Sally tells James of her pregnancy with a sly little smile. It is predictable that he will be upset by her news; however, once he finds out that it is Jefferson’s child she is to bear, the situation becomes unpredictable. James is not angry at Jefferson, the intellectual man who got his baby sister pregnant, but he is infuriated with Sally, still the uneducated child. Sally is innocently upbeat telling James of her pregnancy at the hands of Jefferson, much to James’s disliking: “’You’s glad, you’s glad to breed more little niggers to work in your master’s fields.’” Sally’s mood starts to slowly dip at that as she retorts, “‘It won’t be no field nigger if it’s his own child I’s carryin’.’” She really believes that Jefferson is different than the other masters, even the master that fathered her. She believes Jefferson will care for her child as he does for his own white children, and she takes offense at James telling her otherwise.

[4] James tries to show her the hilarity in her beliefs by being sarcastic and making dramatic movements. ”‘Oh, yeah,’ he says, ‘He’ll let it sit in his parlor drinkin’ his port like my white father and yours done for us.’” James thinks Sally is just a silly child. He knows Sally is weak-minded and incapable of making decisions for herself, exclaiming “’It’s lucky for us I got more sense in my little toe than you has in your entire body.’” Knowing such, James tries to control Sally’s strings, and once more turn her into a marionette, serving only to appease the will of men.

[5] James wants to scare Sally into listening to him, to show her what her future really holds when, back at Monticello with Jefferson, Polly gets married: “’You and all your little half-niggers, y’all gets throwed in with the pots and pans she be takin’ away from Monticello.’” Sally is naïve and does not see this reality, but James knows the lot of the slaves. He knows what it really means to be a slave, regardless of whether or not you sleep with the master and bear his children. James uses this dose of harsh reality to try to manipulate Sally into staying in Paris with him and claiming their freedom.

[6] Sally listens to him, but she doesn’t seem to exactly understand. James tries to tell Sally that they can stay in Paris and be free, but Sally begins to truly cry. Here we really see the childish nature of Sally. She cannot stand on her own. She needs her family and the way of life she is used to. She tells James she wants to go home, that she misses her family at Monticello. James is outraged by her use of the word “home.” How could that place ever be a home to them?

[7] James then speaks to Sally with a more caring tone and gets in close to her. “’Home? What Home? Your little old slave cabin where they keeps you like the animals they breeds? God Almighty never meant for human beings to be like animals. We has a soul, and a head, and a mind. We ain’t like a dog or a horse.’” We are able to see the passion and ideas of James through this part of their dialogue. He is intelligent and strong just as Chase-Riboud had earlier made Sally. He speaks with such conviction that by the end of all of it, he has convinced Sally to come with him to tell Jefferson of their decision to stay in Paris. He has used all his intelligence and passion to manipulate Sally.

[8] It is Jefferson who usually holds the power over Sally’s will. Earlier in the film, Jefferson offers Sally wages for her work (1:30). It seems like a nice gesture from the beginning, but it is just more of Jefferson’s control over her. He does all the important talking: offering the wages, saying how much, telling her not to spend it on James, and asking if she wants him to keep it. While there are questions asked, he knows Sally will only agree with him. The questions are just there to seem like she actually gets to make the decisions, while he subtly takes control of her every thought.

[9] James thinks he has Sally’s best interest at heart, but he is guilty of the exact same thing he loathes Jefferson for: not allowing Sally to be her own person with her own mind. James, however, lacks the tact with which Jefferson exercises control over Sally. With Jefferson, Sally is calm and pleased, but with James, she quickly is upset and uneasy. These two scenes work together to show how easily manipulated Sally is as well as how much of child she still is, even at the age of fifteen. Jefferson could make her happy and feel more desiring of him, and James could make her scared and sad, even while they both wanted the same thing. Her emotions were easily swayed by the two men. She is too childish to realize they are both fighting for control of her.

[10] Jefferson and James both want Sally to love them more than the other. Earlier Jefferson knows James has been pressuring Sally to ask for wages, so he himself asks Sally if she would like to earn wages. He proves James wrong and shows Sally how much he cares for her. Similarly, James knows how Jefferson has made Sally feel, so he shows her that she is just like any other black mistress and that her children will be the same as any other born to a black woman. It does not matter that he is their father. James tries to show Sally that he wants her to be taken care of and he is willing to help her. He wants her feel that he cares for her more than Jefferson does.

[11] In the end, the film is just a power struggle between Jefferson and James over Sally. They both want her to bend to their will. Sally is just the meat thrown into the snarling teeth of the savages. Like a rag doll, she is tossed around, as they fight to come out victorious, their prize in hand. Sally is a victim of circumstance, of position, and she plays the role so well, whereas in Sally Hemings she did not accept the victim’s role so entirely. There she tried to fight back, if just a little -- at the very least she was a woman of strength, determination, and intelligence. Not so in this film.