Sally Hemings – circa 1773–1835

Hemings was a chambermaid to Thomas Jefferson, by whom she may have had at least one child (her youngest son, Easton Hemings). DNA studies of known Hemings and Jefferson descendants and other scientific evidence have yet to resolve the controversy definitively. Jefferson, who had condemned the slave trade in his draft of Declaration of Independence, was a slave owner lifelong and, on his death, did not free Sally or any other slave.