Jefferson's wife, Martha, inherited enslaved people from her father, one of whom was Sally Hemmings, the youngest daughter of her father's "shadow family." When Martha died, Jefferson promised that he would not remarry. Instead, it is readily accepted these days, he fathered children born by Sally, who was Martha's much younger half-sister. Their children would be Jefferson's shadow family, but, unlike their mother who was one-quarter black and three-quarters white, their children were one-eighth black and seven-eighths white.
While that may not sound like a big deal, the Plessy standard for "separate but equal" provisions applied to anyone who was one-eighth, or more, black. One of Hemmings' grandsons had his testimony questioned because of his race, despite that he claimed Thomas Jefferson as his grandfather. It was only the denial from the Jefferson family that made him one-eighth black. If it had been accepted that Jefferson was the grandfather, he would be fifteen-sixteenths white, and his testimony would not have been rebuked.
Even as late as 1998, after a DNA test was done on known descendants of both parties, the Jeffersonians said that the positive results neither confirm nor deny that Jefferson was a common ancestor, but that he would be one of a few who might be the common ancestor. That's hogwash, and we all know it. Jefferson is the common ancestor, and Jefferson and Hemmings knew it.
So, if Jefferson knew that he was doing this to his concubine and children, why did he do it? He was a progressive thinker for the day. He wasn't a dishonest person. By some accounts, there were deals made with Sally Hemmings that Jefferson did not honor. It is too easy to dismiss it as prejudice, and just move on as if the question were answered.
The answers to the questions I asked are irrelevant. Whatever the reasons were, the conflicting words and actions of America's third president demonstrate the plight that Black people have suffered through since before the USA was founded: they were never considered people with rights equal to that of other people.
Literally.
Enslaved people lacked standing to bring a lawsuit under the same rules that prevent cows or horses from suing their owners: cows, horses, and enslaved people weren't people with rights, so they lacked standing to bring lawsuits.
Nobody has kept this a secret, and it's gone on from day one and it still goes on today. Black people do not get equal treatment under the law, and it doesn't matter whether they are accused of a crime or the victim of one. What should be bad punchlines to racist jokes, has been the reality for Black people seeking justice and due process.
It is for that reason that we owe it to our Black brothers and sisters to give them reparations. It's not because the plantation owners didn't treat them right. It's not because the lynch mobs can have wealth shaken out of their britches to repay them. It's because the one entity that allowed this all to happen - the US government - still exists and owes the descendants of enslaved people both money and recognition for the wrongs it has, in the past, allowed others to get away with.
If it truly is "self-evident that all men are created equal," then it is time to back that self-evidence up with our nation's sincere apology to put that treatment in the past. Since it isn't a white versus black issue, under those circumstances, perhaps there can be some solace taken that Black people will also be funding the reparations through their taxes, and will derive benefits for being guilty only of being Black in America.
