Movie Review

Sally Hemings: An American Scandal premiered in February 2000 as a CBS Miniseries Event to little fanfare from the regular press, although it was featured on the cover of Jet magazine. The publicity packet included excerpts from Fawn Brodie's 1974 biography, Thomas Jefferson, a reprint of an 1802 Virginia newspaper article accusing the president of keeping a colored concubine, and copies of a December 1998 U.S. News and World Report cover story, with an essay by the historian Joseph Ellis in which he commented that the scandal had "achieved the status of America's most enduring soap opera." So can we blame a network for capitalizing on the controversy?	1
As Sally Hemings's voice-over at the end of the film suggests, history may be to blame. She confides: "History is agreed-upon lies." Her narration hints at issues raised judiciously by Annette Gordon-Reed in Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (1997). If distinguished scholars ignore compelling coincidences, why shouldn't the television industry weigh in with its own interpretation?	2
All televised dramas take liberties, and this one is no exception. As a scholar watching the multipart program unfold, I was concerned that the historical inaccuracies might mount up to drive me to distraction. At the same time, I was on the edge of my seat, wondering how the film would resolve the conflict I had heard historians heatedly debate at conferences across the country for the past two years: If Hemings and Jefferson did have the intimate connection DNA evidence suggested, what was the nature of that relationship?	3
Surprisingly, I found material in the program that was both thought provoking and absorbing (Wow, look at that, the French Revolution beamed into our living rooms in the first fifteen minutes!), as well as the usual giggles and gaffes common to the genre. The project focuses on Hemings (as played by British actress Carmen Ejogo, and why is it no African American actress has ever been cast as Hemings?) and offers plenty of good background that contextualizes her life and choices in a sophisticated manner from the program's very beginning. Diahann Carroll's impressive portrait of Betty Hemings offers insight into the complexities of antebellum slavery and life at Monticello.	4
Sam Neill's ability to invest Jefferson with some character and motivation wiped out the unpleasant memory of Nick Nolte's impersonation in Jefferson in Paris. And I was pleasantly surprised that, despite the dance over the initial encounter of Hemings and Jefferson, the film highlights a facet of this attraction supported by historical evidence: Sally Hemings was the half sister of Jefferson's deceased wife. As such, it would not have been unusual for Jefferson to turn to Hemings for comfort, an impulse Neill persuasively portrays. Indeed, many southern planters married their dead wives' white sisters. Due to the color line, Jefferson would have been allowed to initiate only an illicit liaison. Despite all the naysaying among Jefferson scholars, a sexual liaison appears credible.	5
And whatever nays might be said to the particular historical lapses in this production—and indeed there are dozens, such as the chronology surrounding Gabriel's Rebellion, a jealous Hemings heading to the White House to check up on Jefferson's female company, and the irksome error of Beverley Hemings playing a keyboard rather than violin—there are many yeas as well.	. . .