Watch Sally Hemings: An American Scandal For Free

I love this movie so much

Too much of everything

From my favorite movies..

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

As is the the mini-series itself. Sally Hemmings was not Jefferson's "mistress". She was a 14 year-old slave of Jefferson's. A mistress, by definition, is a grown woman who willingly joins in a sexual relationship. In this mini-series, she's shown as mature beyond her years, somehow glossing over her true age, and presented as if she is lucky to be the property of the "enlightened" Mr. Jefferson. The historical truth is that Sally Hemmings was a 14 year-old child, and had no choice in the matter. Slavery is abuse, and Jefferson abused the power he had over her to have sex with her with or without her consent. This was a 43 year-old man having sex with a 14 year-old child; whom he impregnated multiple times. He never freed her, nor the children he forced her to have. Does anyone believe that she willingly consented to intercourse with a 43 year- old white adult? That she would have, had she not been a slave? This was at the same time he was writing letters and giving speeches about the evils of slavery. If a 43 year-old man had sexual relations with a 14 year-old girl he made pregnant, he would be given 20 to 30 years in prison and be a registered sex offender. Jefferson's abuse of his slave is presented as a romance in this mini-series, that avoids carefully the ugly truths: That Jefferson sexually abused a child, and was by definition of his act a pedophile. He could have just as easily abused an adult slave, but chose to abuse a little girl. Sally Hemming's voice will never be heard. As usual, the victim's voice is silent. This mini-series is a true American product; a rewriting of the truth of Jefferson's sexual abuse of a 14 year-old slave he impregnated, into a Gone With the Wind romance. It belongs next to the romance that the networks made of General Custer, presenting him as a romantic hero and no the genocidal maniac he was. I give this mini-series 0 stars. It is rank and perverted. If Sally Hemmings could be heard for 10 minutes voicing the truth of Jefferson's "relationship" to her, one wonders what the reaction would be? Would history be corrected? Or would every tape recorder and camera suddenly stop working and be erased mysteriously? And would some persuasive American historian gently be interrupting her from revealing the sick truth, saying "Now child, you don't understand. You may have been a slave, but it was love that Jefferson was showing you when he made you pregnant. Right? You see that, right?". This mini-series is exactly as sick as that.

THE FACTS:She was a slave. He was a slave owner.Any "romance" that blossomed under those circumstances is instantly suspect. Love is free. Love is willing. Love should not be kept under lock and key. Yeah, maybe Sally legitimatly fell in love with TJ BUT the fact still remains, she was his property. What options did she have? What if 14-15 year old Sally had said no to her 42-43 year old "massa" Thomas? But on to the movie itself. Did it make a honest attempt to tell this story, taking in consideration the circumstances in which these people lived or did the creators take the sleasy route and just make it some wack romance novel come to life?Yep...worse fears confirmed...Tina Andrews(writer) turned it in to a part GONE WITH THE WIND, part IMITATION OF LIFE, part THORN BIRDS, all crap. Oh sure we got to see Diahann Carol smack ol Sally upside the head and my goodness, for a slave, Sally sure did get around didn't she? I was expecting Rhett Butler to come rolling through, proclaiming his love for Sally as well.What a load of crap.This movie made slavery look like fun, like an Disney amusement park(SLAVERYLAND! Where Ol' Times Are Not Forgotten! Zippadee Doo Dah Zippadee Yea!), made Sally look like a spoiled(how dare she want Thomas to promise not to sell her!)Lolitaish(her "seduction" of a "resisting" Thomas in romantic pre-French Revolution Paris is sure to be a "classic")civil rights feminist and Thomas as a reluctant, foot soaking, tortured(he supposedly did not agree with the institution of slavery but yet owned slaves and sold some of them to pay off his debts)romantic.Did I already mention that this was a load of crap?To take an period in American history as horrifying as slavery and to use it as a backdrop for a two bit Danielle Steele knockoff is demeaning not only to the audience watching this train wreck of a mini-series but to the memories of those who endured Slavery. Period.

What a performance for Sam Neill. I thought that his portrayal of Jefferson was delightful. They could not have picked a better actor. I truly loved this mini-series. I think it is one of the best that I have seen in a while.

I liked this movie, I didn't love it, however. I don't think that the relationship between Sally and Jefferson was particularly startling, I don't understand why the relationship would be a shock to anybody. Slaves are people too, so of course, people can fall in love with a slave, it's not impossible. I happen to be a black girl who likes white men, shocking? I think not. I do think that this movie did not concentrate on family, enough, I wouldn't have expected Jefferson to have long chats with his biracial children, but Sally too hardly said anything to them. And I so wish that people would quit calling Sally Hemings black, or colored. Sally was white AND black, a simple blood test would show that. Most blacks don't choose to believe that blacks should be considered less than a whole human, but they'll go for that one-drop-of-black-blood crap in a second! Carmen Ejogo didn't play Sally as well as Thandie Newton did to me, but she did a fine job!