The fact that she did not speaks volumes.
Many, many white men fathered children by black slaves. Almost all Americans of African ancestry with bonafide slave ancestry who takes a DNA test will find up to 25% European ancestry markers. Most will be in the mid single digits. Even famous blacks such as Booker T. Washington (before DNA tests were invented) have scattered white documented ancestry, so common was interracial sex back in the day.
Rapes were rare and very much frowned upon by society at the time. Enticements, on the other hand, were very, very common. Solly Hemmings was a product of such a union. So was her mother. Not only was she light skinned but, by all accounts, very attractive. Jefferson was a young widower with young children who needed a nanny.
It isn't difficult to imagine Miss Hemmings seizing an opportunity to entice such a famous and accomplished man. After all, a sexual union could potentially produce children who have an easier time in the world, just as a similar union by her mother had put her in position for a more favorable job assignment. It is even less difficult to imagine a virile young widower resonding to such an enticement. A close boyhood friend of mine who lost his wife to cancer told me that second only to missing her companionship in diffuculty was being starved for the regular physical intimacy which she provided.
While the "Jefferson's brother" theory is not withou merit, the fact is that Jefferson emacipated all her and her children in his will. All chose to live out the remainder of their lives as whites. Not so different than BO chosing to ignore the 50% white part of his ancestry when it was his political advantage to do so.
I do not revere Thomas Jefferson any less for [probably] doing what most men (including myself) would have done under similar circumstances.
Nice post. I don’t think their relationship had to be that of an enticer and someone falling prey. A man and a woman sometimes become mutually attracted and interested.
Jefferson couldn’t have freed his slaves during his lifetime even had he wanted to. Virginia law prohibited freeing your slaves if you were in debt.
It also prohibited freeing dowry slaves, a law which affected George Washington and Robert E. Lee, who acquired slaves as a result of their unions with Custis women. Lee did it anyway, signing a document of manumission in 1862.