(1773-1835) Virginia-born enslaved woman, daughter of an enslaved woman,  [Betty Hemings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Hemings "Betty Hemings") (who was herself the daughter of an enslaved mother and an Englishman), and planter John Wayles ([[Reading Notes/Thomas Jefferson]]'s father-in-law). After Jefferson's wife (Sally's half-sister) [Martha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Jefferson) died in 1782, he seems to have begun a relationship with Sally while in Paris in 1787, where she was acting as caretaker to her seven-year old niece, also called Martha. At this time, Sally was fourteen years old and technically free, since slavery was illegal in France. According to testimony from her son, [Madison Hemings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Hemings "Madison Hemings"), Sally agreed to return to Virginia when Jefferson returned in 1789, resume her life as a slave, and continue her relationship with Jefferson in return for a promise that all their children would be freed. Jefferson honored this agreement and their four children became free when he died in 1826. Hemings lived the rest of her life in the house of one of her freed sons.