SALLY HEMINGS: AN AMERICAN SCANDAL {PART 1 OF 2} (TV)
Summary
The first installment in this two-part historical miniseries about the decades-long clandestine relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings. The program begins as Sally explains that she was born into slavery, though she and her family were, unusually, permitted last names and treated with some degree of respect. Everyone is pleased when her sister Chitta gives birth to a boy, though they note that the baby is also now a slave to be sold. Sally's mother Betty then instructs her to accompany Jefferson's daughter Maria, called "Polly," to Paris, telling her that she will be free there, and Sally's paramour Henry, also a slave, sadly gives her a farewell gift. Once in Paris, Sally is pleased to be reunited with her brother James, who assures her that she is now a respectable maid and will be given finer clothes along with French and literacy lessons. Jefferson is struck to see the now grown-up Sally, and Thomas Paine advises him to tutor her and make an example of her for his anti-slavery petition. Jefferson's other daughter Martha, called "Patsy," notes that her widowed father has resolved never to remarry, though Jefferson begins to bond with Sally as he begins to educate her, urging her to cease calling him "Master."
As the French lower class' anger at Marie Antoinette and King Louis mounts, Patsy begs her father to send her to convent school and Lady Maria Cosway, though already married, makes her interest in Jefferson plain, all observed by Sally. Sally spends nine months learning to read and write in both French and English, though when she catches an impoverished thief, he asks her to join their cause, pointing out that the poor too are "slaves." Struck by this, Sally questions Jefferson about his true feelings on slavery, and he urges her to read Paine's "Common Sense" to understand the "complicated situation." Sally and the Jeffersons travel to Versailles for a ball, and Paine is highly impressed to see Sally's ladylike transformation. Later, Patsy and Polly head to boarding school after all, and Jefferson and Sally give in to their physical attraction to one another. They live for a time as a seemingly happy couple, though he expresses his conflict at being with someone "young and vulnerable" whom he legally owns. In July 1789, the French peasants storm the Bastille and Jefferson prepares to flee France, though Sally reveals that she is pregnant and wishes to remain in Paris so her child will be born free. James sides with his sister, but Jefferson begs them to accompany him home and promises to free James upon arrival. As they ride through the angry mob, Sally's thief friend reminds her that she "stands for something."
Sally reunites with her family back in America, though her mother is upset at her decision to forfeit her freedom because of her feelings for Jefferson. Sally dismisses Henry's renewed offer to be with her, saying that her child already has a loving father, but Betty reminds Sally that her father and grandfather were also slavemasters who then turned around and sold their own children, urging her to secure her baby's freedom in writing. Chitta fends off cousin Peter's advances as Jefferson announces that he has accepted the position of Secretary of State, meaning that he will be away from home for extended periods of time, and Sally begins to wonder what she truly means to him. She is delighted by the birth of her very white-appearing son, Thomas Jr., and Monticello flourishes as Patsy eventually marries Thomas Mann Randolph, though Sally is shocked when Chitta reveals the extreme lengths to which she has gone to prevent herself having another child through Peter's assaults. Henry observes that Randolph is mentally unwell, and despite his disappointment he bonds with Sally anew as she secretly teaches him to read and write, though she maintains an affectionate correspondence with Jefferson in D.C. at the same time.
Everyone is saddened when Patsy's first child is stillborn, and though Jefferson intervenes when Sally and Henry are captured after helping a slave woman to escape across the river, he angrily reminds Sally that the law does not allow her to do so. He then announces that he has resigned his post and is home to stay, promising to build Sally her own quarters as he builds a grand home, inspired by Roman temple architecture, on the Monticello grounds. Years pass and Sally gives birth to another child, though Betty is still displeased with the relationship, and James, still conflicted about leaving France, begins to drink more heavily and confronts Peter, ordering him to leave his sister in peace. Jefferson's children and nephews urge him to run for President and work more actively against slavery, and Jefferson does not object when James announces that he is finally leaving, as promised in Paris. Sally is crushed when her infant daughter Edie dies and is buried in the slave cemetery, and Polly later marries plantation owner Jack Eppes and receives land and slaves as a gift from her father, who is now Vice-President. Henry, inspired by Gabriel Prosser's slave rebellions, declares his love for Sally and begs her to run away with him, adding that Jefferson has a white mistress, Margaret Bayard Smith, in Washington. Jefferson assures her that Smith is simply a "social companion," though grows jealous when she hints that Henry is the same for her and reminds her that he does, in fact, own her. Henry joins the rebellion and is soon caught and executed, ad a heartbroken Sally demands that Jefferson openly assert his anti-slavery position once and for all.
Sally soon has another son and Jefferson considers another Presidential bid, though noted "scandalmonger" journalist James Callender makes it clear that he intends to blackmail Jefferson with the story of his affair with Sally and their mixed-race children. Jefferson refuses his offer and wins the election, and Callender's story about his "concubine" spreads far and wide. His family and associates urge him to take action and deny the rumors, and Thomas Jr., frightened that he is going to be sold, decides to run away. Sally bids farewell to her son and angrily questions Jefferson about his intentions, and Patsy, worried about their reputation, urges her father to sell his mistress. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:26:32
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:84271
- GENRE: Drama, historical
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Drama; Drama, historical; History - American
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV, 2000
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Craig Anderson … Executive Producer
- Wendy Kram … Co-Executive Producer
- Tina Andrews … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- Marty Eli Schwartz … Supervising Producer
- Gerrit van der Meer … Producer
- Ric Rondell … Line Producer
- Charles Haid … Director
- Joel McNeely … Music by
- Gwendolyn Glenn … Choreographer
- Sam Neill … Cast, Thomas Jefferson
- Carmen Ejogo … Cast, Sally Hemings
- Mare Winningham … Cast, Martha 'Patsy' Jefferson Randolph
- Diahann Carroll … Cast, Betty Hemings
- Mario Van Peebles … Cast, James Hemings
- Rene Auberjonois … Cast, James Callender
- Zeljko Ivanek … Cast, Thomas Mann Randolph
- Kevin Conway … Cast, Thomas Paine
- Amelia Heinle … Cast, Harriet Hemings
- Klea Scott … Cast, Critta Hemings
- Kelly Rutherford … Cast, Lady Maria Cosway
- Peter Bradbury … Cast, Samuel Carr
- Jefrey Alan Chandler … Cast, Adrien Petit
- Jesse Tyler Ferguson … Cast, Young Tom Hemings
- June Gable … Cast, Madam Dupre
- Larry Gilliard Jr. … Cast, Henry Jackson
- Mark Joy … Cast, Gabriel Lilly
- Paul Kandel … Cast, Pierre Du Pont
- Kweli Leapart … Cast, Sukey
- Kathryn Meisle … Cast, Dolley Madison
- Reno Roop … Cast, James Madison
- Chris Stafford … Cast, Peter Carr
- Jessica Townsend … Cast, Maria 'Polly' Jefferson
- Zachary Knighton … Cast, William Alexander
- Sean Pratt … Cast, Tom Hemings (Woodson)
- Alex Draper … Cast, Jean Michel Salveaux
- Anthony Hamilton … Cast, Versailles Announcer
- Duke Lafoon … Cast, Jack Eppes
- Trudy Lancaster … Cast, Female Runaway Slave
- Ed Sala … Cast, Slaver
- Kevin Grantz … Cast, Sheriff Clenon
- Randell Haynes … Cast, Reporter #1
- Richard Fullerton … Cast, Reporter #2
- Elisabeth Harmon Haid … Cast, Margaret Bayard Smith
- Shaun Depriest … Cast, Rufus
- Newton B. Miller … Cast, Mr. Batiste
- Rachel Johnson … Cast, Virginia Randolph
- David Bridgewater … Cast, E.I. DuPont
- Brian Franklin … Cast, Beverly Hemings
- Owen Valentine … Cast, Auctioneer
- James M. Peerman … Cast, Mulberry Row Man