Original subtitles

Mrs. Jefferson, I'm Owen Lettinger from the Pike County Republican.

Come in, sir.

Mrs. Hemmings.

I'll do some water for tea.

My wife, Mary Hemmings, or Mary McCoy.

We never took the name Jefferson, sir. He's all Hemmingses.

I trust you had no trouble finding our place. We are a bit out of the way.

Yes, well, we...

Journalists will always find our destination if there's a good story at

the end of it.

Sit, please.

Oh, well, thank you.

It's like this, sir.

When my father died, he was what they call bankrupt.

Your father being President Thomas Jefferson.

Yes, sir. That is true and correct.

He was the third president of the United States.

You write money fast, sir.

Ah, we call this shorthand.

See?

Oh, Mary, don't read or write nothing.

I learned on my own self. Got the white children to learn me in secret.

Mr. Lettinger, has anybody ever told you it was against the law to learn a Negro

how to read and write during slavery?

They did tell about some owners that cut off a finger every time they catch a

slave trying to get learning.

They was afraid to see an eagle reading and getting to know too much, getting

ideas in his head.

Mary, take my key and bring them things out.

There was four of us living in Monticello, the children of Thomas

Jefferson and Sally Hemings.

There were three of us boys, Beverly, Esten, and myself, Madison.

We had one sister, Harriet.

Um, did Mr. Jefferson have children with any other slave woman

besides your mother?

No, only our mother.

We was the only ones. Did Mr. Jefferson ever show you any partiality or fatherly

affection?

He didn't favor us like he did his white children and grandchildren, but he was

well treated.

Didn't have to do any field work or any other hard labor.

My sister Harriet was put to weaving and spinning and such in the little factory

on the home plantation, and I was put to the carpenter trade.

Mm-hmm.

My brother Esten and me was more of the African blood, but my brother Beverly,

you couldn't hardly tell him from white.

He so took after my father that they tell a story of a French gentleman

dining with Mr. Jefferson.

And seeing Beverly, he did give a mighty jump to see the spittin' image of Thomas

Jefferson serving his soup.

They were given by my father to my mother. And when she dies, she give them

to me.

So these are your sole and only... May I? Surely.

Sole and only legacy from...

Thomas Jefferson?

Oh, no, sir.

Our legacy was our freedom long before emancipation.

And by the age of 21, we could pick up and leave.

We wasn't slaves no more.

This was written in the will of our father and in solemn promise to our

mother. All our children will be free. I will set them free.

And so it was done.

It was mighty sweet to be free, sir.

They used to sing a song.

Free at last, free at last.

Thank God Almighty, I was free at last.

Once was a moaner just like you.

Thank God Almighty, I was free at last.

Lord, Lord, Lord, them days was the days.

Thank God Almighty, I was free at last.

Shorty passed and I did pray.

In the name of the United States of America, I have the great honor of

paying homage to your majesty, as well as to all members of the royal family.

It is in obedience to the express commands of the Congress of the United

States of America that I have the honor of assuring your majesty.

of their unanimous disposition and desire to cultivate the most friendly

and liberal intercourse between Your Majesty's subjects and their citizens.

Another great nation, sire,

is rising in America.

Have you found a good house?

I thank your majesty for your kind concern.

I have agreed to the Hotel de Langeac by the Cree de Chaille.

It's very important to have a decent house in Paris.

You better

get

used to getting hit over the head.

Master can't live, but he's pulling something down and building something up

and pulling that down again.

Step.

Your father will see you before he leaves.

A fine tall girl.

She has inherited your art, Monsieur.

Yes, and that's no trifle for a girl to inherit.

I'm relieved that your English is so greatly superior to my French, Madame

Labesse.

Because what I wish to say is not altogether easy to express in any

language. Perhaps I may even venture to express it for you, Monsieur.

We have 55 girls studying in the convent.

Of these, 15 are not Catholic, but like your daughter, have various

Protestant persuasions.

These girls are completely free to pursue their own religious faith, and no

attempt is ever made to convert them to ours.

I assure you.

They emerged quite as good Protestants as when they entered.

You will forgive my perhaps somewhat exaggerated anxiety.

For an American, freedom of religious conscience is one of our great

principles.

I believe, Monsieur, you have to fulfill the part of both father and mother to

your daughter.

My wife died three years ago.

Well, Patsy, this is not any kind of party.

James will be coming to fetch you home on Saturday afternoon, and every

Saturday after that.

If only Polly and Lucy were with me.

One day soon, both your sisters will join us here, and our little family will

be reunited.

I promise you.

You know that I live only for that day.

And I live only for Saturday.

There's something in my eye.

Hello, Ben.

You see how this works, James?

As the wheel turns, the distance is recorded on this meter.

Master. What is it, James?

I was wanting to say, Master.

You should be most helpful in recording accurate boundaries within certain

limits. I was wanting to say, Master. Wanting to say what, James?

I like finished sentences.

Yes, Master, and what it is I was wanting to finish is... I wants to get

paid.

Master, I wants money.

In our present circumstances, your request is not unreasonable.

I shall tell Monsieur Petit that on the first of each month, you are to receive

24 francs by the way of sale.

You realize that this arrangement holds good only in Paris and that at

Monticello, we shall revert to our own system.

Yes, my son.

Thank you. I sure enough realized 24 francs. I understand, Jake.

Yes, sir. Very well.

. .

Leaving aside the taper, we still have among us the moose.

The moose, the American moose, stands so tall that a reindeer can walk with ease

under its belly.

And so you shout, Monsieur Dubuffon, I have the pleasure of introducing you to

a moose.

That's my best friend

What an adventure, my dear. We're lucky to be here at all. They lit an enormous

bonfire and they're throwing on everything they can lay their hands on.

I was certain they were going to drag us out of our coach and throw us on top

too. I told them I was quite prepared to sacrifice Maria, of course.

I said, take her.

She's much more inflammable than I am. Mr.

Causeway. You are.

You know you are. Now, let me introduce you to Mr. Thomas Jefferson and his

daughter Patsy, Mrs. and Mr. Richard Causeway, one of the greatest English

painters of the day. What am I saying? The greatest English painter? Vous

exagérez, my dear Lafayette. Comme toujours.

So, I said to the coachman, who is this? They're Bernie, the biggest rascal on

earth, he said, and Bernie's too good for him. Come on. Is that his name?

Minister of Finance?

I should not like to fall into the hands of your Paris mob.

Our people of Paris need only one little spark and boom, they explode.

I will rejoin you. It's my.

Your secretary appears to admire the Duchess.

We should be happy for her. She is married to our uncle, who is 40 years

older than she.

Is your daughter here to learn French

manners and morals?

Manners, to some extent, but when it comes to morals, we should keep to our

home.

Why? Are yours better than ours?

They are better for us. That is, for us Americans.

Are they difficult to learn?

Certainly not difficult to unlearn.

The subject is as large as the land itself.

England is so small.

Even the sky is small.

In Italy, it is a vast cerulean blue. It is not so much sky as

heaven.

You are Italian.

Mr. Jefferson!

Mr. Jefferson, can you tell me, is it true what my young friends are telling

me, that the revolt of our American colonies was really against trade

restrictions? All you wanted, you Americans, was the liberty to drink

French wine.

Instead of English beer, one might say that exchange alone was worth our

trouble.

We owe these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that

they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.

Are all men created equal, Mr. Jefferson?

Or should this read,

all white men are created equal?

We allowed for certain differences that are not caused by the laws of men, but

by those of nature.

And though the Negro may or may not be inferior, his status in no way alters

the wrongness of slavery.

It is evil.

Yet your first draft, I believe, contained a clause on the abolition of

slavery. I considered it essential, but Congress struck it out the final

declaration as being too particular.

So the question remains open with you and unsolved. Your revolution, Mr.

Jefferson, appears to be incomplete.

Why did you omit the notion of property as one of his rights?

Well, while I hold the right of the individual to possess property as basic,

I consider it as a means to human happiness, but not as an end in itself.

It is Madame Cosway.

and whispers the wind between the branches

and the one and the other is to sigh in life

crying the rose in the wind because

it calls me to cry alone and the lonely friend

It is only Mr. Don Carville declaring that he loves me.

He thinks I don't take him seriously.

But how can I? A man of society has to be in love, preferably with a married

woman. And Mr. Don Carville has done me the honor of choosing me.

Oh, do go, my dear, and see if we are wanted.

Please, you go.

Are you always cruel to those who love you? It's just a game we both play.

That's how it is here.

People play at love. It's not serious.

It is different in Italy. There, we kill for it.

Well, that is going too far.

Why? How far do you go in America?

Oh, in America.

In America, we stay at home and are happy and contented with the wives we

have chosen.

Ah, if you can choose.

And are you happy and contented?

Oh, forgive me.

I've been told that your wife died in giving birth to your son.

My daughter, Lucy.

And the child?

The child survived.

So you have two daughters? I have three daughters living.

We lost our first child when she was 18 months old.

Do you have no son?

He did not survive beyond 17 days.

Mr. Johnson, I think you belong there with the heart.

And that's right, Maria.

Definitely with the heart.

I know to my cost that she has no heart. And I to mine that she has no head.

You would know, too, if you had to pay her bills, as I do.

So, I shall start for the head.

Friendship? is but another word for an alliance with the misfortunes of others.

Our own share of miseries is sufficient.

Why take on those of another?

When sorrow

makes us weep, how sweet it is to have a friend to wipe away our tears.

With such a comfort, our very grief may turn to joy.

Come, come, Mr. Short. Take a man's part and speak up for the head.

Well, sir, when my heart speaks, the rest of me must need to be silent.

Rien ne repose entre nos mains si ce n'est les plaisirs de l'esprit.

La contemplation de la nature et de sa vérité, de l'animé et de l'inanimé, nous

permet de voguer serein et sublime au-dessus des contingences du monde des

mortels.

Toutes les froides, écoutez-moi, toutes les froides spéculations de la tête ne

valent pas une seule généreuse palpitation du cœur.

The best way of being secure against pain is to retire within ourselves and

to suffice for our own happiness.

Nobody cares for him who cares for nobody.

A wise man will only depend on himself.

It's not your turn, madam, nor is it your turn, sir.

I believe it's the head's turn.

It's the head's turn.

He's lost his head and she's lost her heart.

Yes, you, Mrs. Causeway, must speak only from your tender heart.

Now answer me.

Is it not in the company of a friend that nature wears her liveliest hue?

Whence did she borrow it?

From our charming companion.

Speak only from your head, Mr. Jefferson.

Our heart is pleased because she is pleased. No one is

pleased at all.

Ruined the game and lost everything.

This place makes me shudder.

Ill-formed.

Overloaded monstrosities.

When I was 17, I wanted to take my vows.

As a nun.

I see you're amused.

This is only because you are the opposite of everything gloomy and

aesthetic.

To me, you appear all clarity and light.

Of this world, not the next.

It's true. I was born in the sun, and I can't live without it.

But when my father died, we had to leave Florence and go to London.

We were poor, but I had a little time. talent for painting and ambition to

become an artist.

But instead... You were mad.

Mr. Cosway encourages me to paint, but not to exhibit my work.

I tell you freely about myself and my life, but about yourself, you keep

everything hidden and closed.

When my wife died, I destroyed every letter that had ever passed between us.

I wanted no one to find the least trace of our happiness.

It was hers and mine, and then only mine, to be shared

with no one.

Voilà, doucement, doucement. Voilà. Voilà.

You see, Signor Leonardo's been with you.

Let me look.

I would be proud, Mr. Jefferson, to have such a pretty daughter.

Mrs. Causeway plays well.

On Sunday last, I went as a private citizen and accompanied by my daughter

to the palace of Versailles.

We joined the crowd admitted according to some ancient custom to view the king

and queen on their way to mass.

I meant to impress upon my daughter the vainglory of these spectacles. May we

Americans never annihilate them.

nor burden our taxpayers with such useless splendors.

The royal procession showed an unexpected informality and animation of

spirits. It is said that this is due to Marie Antoinette, who tries to make such

occasions agreeable to her husband, who is often awkward and unsocial.

Martha Jefferson.

There's nothing to fear,

Patsy. She was only asking your name, and quite charmingly.

Daily life at court is still ruled by an etiquette so rigid that the most private

pursuits of the king and queen are converted into public ceremony.

It is like watching actors, fantastically painted, bewigged, and

bejeweled. disporting themselves on a stage.

The leading actress, though never a popular one, is the queen, whose

extravagance is blamed for the desperate financial situation of France.

But the king loves her very much, and she rules him completely.

As a foreigner, an Austrian, she feels lonely and isolated at the French court,

and has surrounded herself with her own little band of favorites.

They love to play at being simple shepherdesses.

a gain that is said to cost the exchequer one million livres a year.

But the friendship of the shepherdesses is based on their ferocious greed.

The queen's favorites take advantage of her lonely craving for affection,

threatening to leave her whenever she fails to accede to their insatiable

demands.

The French royal family are the butt of salacious skits and slanders

unimaginable in any other Christian kingdom.

The queen is depicted with the appetites of a messalina or a saffron, or engaged

in incestuous monstrosities with Count d'Artois, the king's debauched brother.

La reddition de Yorktown.

Bravo, Trammell. C'est saisissante vérité.

And that is you, sir, here on the left of my little sketch.

And hard to see. I assure you that in the finished painting, no one will ask,

where is General Lafayette?

And here is Lord Cornwallis surrendering.

And no, a mistake, sir. It was not Cornwallis.

Milord feigned sickness to escape sharing his men's humiliation.

Then I'm very sorry.

I must have been misinformed in London.

Probably on purpose.

Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a pony. I was shaking like a leaf with the

malaria caught in your confounded swamps. And this is Monsieur...

My dear friend, my dearest friend and comrade, we are all here, comrades, and

so perhaps it is not too greatly indelicate to mention what weighs on

these gentlemen.

Although a considerable amount is due for their services rendered in the

American war, the states have not yet paid their debts to them.

Not even the interest.

many of these gallant officers have lost limbs

or have been disabled in other ways

fighting for our cause

yet all requests

For money's justly due to them.

I've been ignored.

The fact is, Mr. Short, there is no money.

Our Congress is insolvent.

I know that your own salary hasn't been paid yet.

Hello, my salary. I haven't been reimbursed for the outlay I've made on

my domestic establishment.

Well, that is a personal matter.

But all this financial business presses on my mind like a mountain.

This is to inform the Congress that our crushing debts compel me forthwith to

journey to the Hague. I intend to appeal to some private Dutch bankers who are

justly famous for their financial wizardry. These shrewd money men have

devised a loan to cover our interests on another loan. A bit of juggling to

restore our credit and honor our debt to those gallant French officers.

Mr.

Short. Mrs. Causeway.

It was unexpected and most urgent.

Evidently. He was promised for the fete on Friday.

I trust we will have the honor of your presence, Mr. Short.

You keep faith with your friends, I hope.

Well, as madam, I leave for Rome tomorrow.

Also on urgent business.

Ah.

I have heard that you Americans are always on urgent business.

Your friends miss you, and none more than myself.

And Mr. Cosway, who, however, has much to fill his time with in this place.

I pass my more solitary hours in great hopes of a continuance of our happy days

together. I imagine I see you smiling down at me once more.

Absence from a friend grown dear.

Harder than I'd imagined.

My dear Mrs. Cosway.

My dear man.

How very dear this friend had gone. My dear friend.

How close to my heart.

My dear, dear friend.

Absence from a friend gone, dear, is harder than I imagined.

I observe the hog of this land, of which the celebrated ham is made, is tall,

gaunt, and with heavy lop ears.

People here pride themselves on their unique smokehouses that have no chimney.

But I had the pleasure of informing them that in Virginia, we use the same method

of smoking our bacon.

the resurrection after having been dead to the world.

But why are you crying?

It's with joy.

Fancy. My dear.

I wanted to see you.

And I hoped you might want to see me.

You must miss your father so very much in his absence.

He'll be back soon.

Oh? When? Have you had word?

I had hoped to know you better, and even if you were led me.

To be your friend.

Thank you, madam.

You see, I know how it is to be a foreigner in a foreign country.

I was born in that condition, for in Italy I'm English and in England I'm

Italian.

But I'm American everywhere.

Yes, there you are like your father.

Wherever he is, he is what he is.

There is another reason why I feel...

such a sympathy for you and your family, because you have suffered tragedy in the

loss of your mother and so many little brothers and sisters.

My childhood was also made tragic for my poor parents, and in a most horrible and

unnatural way.

May I tell you?

May I tell you my story?

I had three little sisters and a brother.

all of whom died very suddenly, and only I and one little brother were left.

One day, someone overheard my Italian nurse singing to me,

I have sent four to heaven before you, and now I will send you

two and save your eternal soul.

It was she who had poisoned the little babies.

for what in her madness she thought was her salvation.

Imagine the state of mind and heart of my poor parents.

You will understand better than anyone that I have to stay with Papa always.

That he needs me.

He will never marry again because that is what he vowed to my mom on her

deathbed

Oh, we are so glad to see you, Mr. Jefferson. We're enchanted to see you.

We thought you'd completely forgotten us. I arrived for my travels only one

hour ago.

Come on. Come on.

Mr. Jefferson, you're so attached to the opera that you would not waste a moment

to come here. Say, rather so attached to my friends whom I hope to find here.

Well, sir, you have found us. It is by no means certain that my wife is any

longer your friend. See how angry your neglect has been. Why would I be angry?

Alas, my duties were official or I would have returned weeks ago.

Women will never believe any business could take precedence over our business

with them.

Mr. Jefferson, take your bow.

Well,

Miss Jackson, I shall leave you to make your peace as best you can.

Come to your dog out. We'll be at least as tactful as a husband

I came back as soon as I could.

I was restless for Paris.

I can't imagine you restless.

Or even thinking of anyone or anything except, what do you call it? The

business at hand.

I thought of you constantly.

I wrote you constantly.

Yes, about smoked bacon and hogs.

What an extraordinary person you are. I hope to interest you in what interested

me.

I kept having a debate between my head and my heart.

In your case, the head always wins.

Not this time.

My poor head was simply whirled around by my unruly heart. Oh, good God.

It kept telling me, I love the lady and will continue to love her forever.

If she were on one side of the globe and I on the other, I would pierce through

the whole mess. of the world to reach her.

TARDANUS!

TARDANUS! TARDANUS!

They seem to have survived the ordeal.

Don't you wish it were possible to fly off to America?

Yes, if I could take you with me.

It is not impossible.

We are not on the other side of the moon.

What are you saying?

I'm saying come to America.

Come to Monticello.

Leave everything.

Leave everything here. Leave my husband.

I have thought of it sometimes.

Mr. Cosway and I have even spoken of it.

We are good friends.

Although he does not... He cannot love me the way a man loves a woman.

He must have guessed that.

my government will recall me from my simedia, and I shall go home for good.

Which is what you want more than anything in the world. I can't deny that

all my wishes end where I hope my days will end, at Monticello.

But to leave you... To leave you behind,

with all the ocean between us, and no hope

of ever seeing you again.

Even if I had no vows to break, what about yours?

Your vow to your wife?

You and I are alive.

And the earth belongs to us.

To the living.

Would you dare?

Would you?

Yes.

Yes. For you. For you, I would dare anything.

I would fly in the balloon.

Oh, no, no. It might carry you too far away from me.

Then I would ford a flood.

No, that's too dangerous.

Then I would leap over these logs.

Thomas!

Mr. Jefferson!

Mr. Jefferson!

Oh, what have you done? What have you done?

But he's going the wrong way from Mr. Jefferson's house.

Yes, I told him to drive straight to the ball. It is fashionable to be late to a

certain degree, but beyond that limit it is unimportant.

You're not to visit a sick friend for fear of being late for a ball.

Not a ball, madam, just a ball.

Everyone will be there. Le tout pari.

Except, of course, Mr. Jefferson.

Poor Mr. Jefferson.

We'll set him some calves' foot jelly.

Whatever it is one sends to invalids who have hurt their wrist.

Give me, madam, I forgot to tell you. I have secured passage for the packet on

Thursday.

I have, thank heaven, finished recording the entire Orleans

family for posterity, and we are now feet low, though. Dear dull London, I

have grown weary of Paris, have not you?

There are many amusements, it's true, but some of them are of the wrong kind.

must be short failing a private messenger i send this letter whatever

way i can i fear it may be opened at the post office and my words meant only for

you read by spies and strangers

when you come next

i shall never let you part from me again but are you coming to paris i dread the

answer may be no and that all this time my fond heart has been deceiving me.

Hello! I

have

made myself a medium between us.

Receive, through my eyes, this wonderful heavenly bath, which reduces pain and

soothes souls tormented by disease.

I'm shivering.

I thought it was night.

My body was born under a source that purifies it.

The vigor of this fluid.

My senses abandon me.

I wake up in the night.

Sir,

this is just trash and tricks for the weak mind.

The method is completely scientific.

I must have been cured of all sorts of ailments through animal magnetism.

The high price of bread in France is an old grievance.

But now the many deprivations coming all together, whether these be bread or fuel

and warm clothes for the dreadful winter, are judged by the populace to be

insupportable. Once the French people get started, we can't go to it with

gloves on.

Their wrath has found an object in the person of the Queen, who devotes herself

to her amusements, indulging in every current fancy and delusion.

She welcomes fashionable charlatans, like the dangerous Dr. Mesmer, and

allows them intimacy such as freedom to touch the royal person that not so long

ago would have condemned them to the rank.

While outside, the people starve

and freeze to death.

The queen and her ladies are... Cozy in warm chambers centered by blooms from

the royal hothouse, and dressed as if it were a different season, or as if they

lived in a different climate from the rest of France.

Is it any wonder that Marie Antoinette is hated by the people?

Yet their sentiments have not changed toward the little dolphin who is still

loved, as is the king himself, despite the iniquities he has come to represent.

The Marquis de Lafayette and other liberal aristocrats are eager to break

down the monstrous privilege both of their own order and of the clergy.

They propose to revive a long dormant assembly called the States General,

which has not convened since 1614.

In this, the common people will have their own elected deputies to be called

the third estate.

But the king... who has the most to lose, says, what does it matter if I

give up some of my own authority as long as my people are happy?

London is so melancholy. There is something in this air which always makes

me sad.

How I long for blue skies and for church bells and for your presence.

What am I without seeing or hearing from you?

Write to me.

I live only in your letters and in memories of our jour heureux, our happy

days together.

It is impossible to paint the anguish of my heart confined a week to her bed with

a whooping cough.

Your dear angel Lucy was thrown into convulsion and then expired.

She retained her senses perfectly, called me a few moments before she died,

asked to stink you for water.

You shall always, always above everything be first in my life.

I vow to you now as you vow to Mama.

No one shall ever come between us.

I shall write to your Aunt Elizabeth that Polly must come to France on the

next available ship before winter sets in.

Her nurse may accompany her.

I will be her nurse and her mother and her sister and her everything and your

everything, dearest Papa.

Oh, Forrest.

The surgeon has made a bad thing of setting it.

I may have to carry it as a reminder of foolishness the rest of my life.

You may imagine, my dear Mrs. Epps, how greatly we desire to have Polly with us

and never to be parted from her again.

The voyage and the change of domicile would be greatly eased for her by the

company of any one servant to whom she is particularly attached.

Oh, I was going with you.

And we two, we'd be laughing and joking each other all the way.

We's been riding a big old ship.

Oh, and we've been rocking. Getting on the water.

Ain't that gay, Polly?

Huh? Ain't that gay?

My grandmother, Betty Hemmings, was the daughter of a full-blooded African slave

woman and an English sea captain named Hemmings.

She was the property.

of Mr. John Wales.

Mr. Jefferson, having married Mr. Wales's daughter, my grandmother and all

of her kin, came to live at Monticello.

That is, Thomas Jefferson inherited your family from his wife's father,

John Wales.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Wales was the father of Mrs. Thomas Jefferson.

He was also the father of my mother, Sally Hemings, and her brother, James

Hemings. and four other offspring that he had with my grandmother, who he took

as concubine.

So Mrs. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings

were half-sisters.

Ain't no use in asking who was sister with who and who the father and who the

brother.

They don't speak of it now, and they didn't speak of it then.

No matter whose blood flows in your veins, you're either master or you're

slave.

You're white or you're black.

There's no in-between.

Here

she

is.

Polly!

Hello, Sally.

Oh, what is it? Have you forgotten your own sister, Betsy, and your papa? Sally,

Polly, we've missed you. You've let her be away from us too long. Help me up

with her. Your wrist. It'll be all right.

Yes.

Oh, we missed you.

Sally. Welcome to France, Mademoiselle Jefferson.

To the land of liberty and equality, or soon it will be. Polly, come on inside.

All right. Come on, Papa. It's all right. Sally.

So Granny's gone?

Uh-huh.

She was sick a while.

You see her there laying in bed?

And she couldn't take nothing to eat.

Little Isaac, he tried giving her a piece of his crust.

But she said, uh-uh.

Granny don't want bread no more.

They done buried her over by Weaver's Cottage.

You won't support Sunday, I mean, sir.

We're hard-ashes and mustard.

My old nurse at Tuckahoe had all kinds of roots and herbs for the mumps and the

whooping cough and every sort of aching pain.

And no medicine ever suited me as well or tasted better.

I have some letters for you, sir.

Letters from a lady.

And how is the lady? She sends her regards.

My friend tops quarters easier.

Did you receive my last two letters?

What does this silence mean?

In constant friend.

I live in misery waiting for a letter from you.

Unable to bear this anxiety, I have taken a passage for Calais on Thursday

next.

I'm in a million fears about you.

I long to be with you.

Polly. Lucy. Polly. Lucy. Polly.

What if little Lucy wasn't dead, but was sitting up in her coffin in the cold,

wet ground?

Oh. Patsy.

Hush.

You hush.

Our little Lucy is an angel now in heaven with Mama.

Where have you been?

This is for Master's poem.

When Miss Polly is home from the convent, you were to sleep with her, I

told you.

Go on.

Try some of this.

Might do you some good.

Did Sally make it?

Well, I'll try anything.

While it is true that under French law, slavery is considered illegal, I don't

think that American citizens need to be too concerned.

My advice to you would be to keep your boy here and say nothing about him.

Where you from?

Bird's Nest, Goochland County. Mr. James Bird is my master.

Would you be knowing Susie Melton, what was cook there one time?

Married. Israel Jefferson and Monticello. She'd be my mother's own

sister. No, Dee.

Ain't in a small world to turn around.

What sort of place would that be, bird's nest?

Always getting our most fine thing to eat. New clothes for the summer and

winter.

Saturday night, master don't care how much we dance and carry on so long we

don't do it on Sunday.

Some fans good, some fans common.

Oh, he said pretty good. Yes, sir.

Master's so fond of me, I was like his own child almost.

Company coming.

What's your name?

Rachel. Rachel's bird. My home master's nest.

What a

pretty

girl that was.

That's Sally.

She my baby sister.

She come see old man, sir? Mm-hmm. That Miss Causeway.

She go away, now she back.

If slavery is illegal in France, the boy could claim he was free and refuse to go

back home with us.

Master, Miss Causeway is waiting for you in the music room.

Inform the lady I'll be with her presently.

The answer to your question is yes, but I don't think your boy would have known

enough to claim that right.

Didn't you yourself, Mr. Jefferson, bring over two of your servants from

Virginia? A male and a female, I believe.

You see, I've come back.

Although with very little encouragement.

Why did you not write?

I had always to wait for a suitable messenger.

How could I run the risk of exposing my tender sentiments to the officials of a

post office? Ah, excuses.

Vain excuses.

Mr. Trumbull could have brought letters, but you entrusted none even to him.

Did you have nothing then to say to me?

I had too much to say.

And have you come back only to load me with reproaches?

And how is your poor wrist? It is better. No thanks to the French

surgeons. But I've been trying out some American witchcraft.

Oh, I hope it works, so that soon you can play your violin for me again.

Our beautiful duets, our happy day, our jour heureux.

Jour heureux Espoir enchanteur

Prix charmant De un amour si tendre

I'm alone here.

Mr. Cosway is in London.

He wished me to... to find my own way.

Did you lose him?

Yes.

From the moment I saw you, I found him.

Trust me, I know what girls like better than you. But American girls?

American girls?

And how, pray, are your American girls so different to the rest of the world?

Well, their expectations are different. Oh, you mean they expect to make corn

puddings and to knit woolen stockings for their lord and master?

I can think of worse occupations for a woman. What a tyrant you'd be.

Are you sure?

I'm afraid it won't suit Patsy. It's not for Patsy. Oh, Polly would like it even

less. It's for a servant girl who needs to be outfitted.

The little negro nurse?

She's very pretty.

How old is she?

I'm not sure I inherited her.

You inherited her. Yes.

Yes. As a responsibility.

We are responsible for these people as members of our most intimate family.

There.

It's impossible to explain to a foreigner.

Even an American not born in our southern states is unable to understand

the special relationship we have with our Negroes.

Ten meters.

Oh, no, eight will be enough. It's a simple dress. Oui, maître, je vous prie.

It's only an effigy. They are burning an effigy of Brielle, the finance minister.

The last time we were in Paris, they were burning another finance minister.

That was Monsieur Descolons. He is now in exile in England.

The people are making their voice heard.

There's nothing to fear in the triumph of the people.

Not even you are safe anymore.

Come on. Come away.

All they want is their liberty, their right to freedom.

I've seen such horrible, horrible sights in the streets.

It makes me fear that men are not good, not kind by nature, but cruel. No.

No.

They have been warped by generations of tyranny, but they are naturally good.

If I were not sure of that, sure of the goodness inherent in the natural man, I

would no longer want to be alive.

Sally!

Sally, have you gone deaf?

Where did you get that?

Our master done give me the cloth to sew.

I've been calling and calling you.

Come along.

He's got to pay you for that.

He's out of your head, James.

Folks get wages for their work. That's the law of this land.

But we're his slaves.

Yeah, you's a slave all right, right down to the bottom of your soul.

Yeah, well, I'd sooner be a slave to a man than to that old liquor.

You mind yourself or you'll end up just like Bob Tucker.

You think on that and what happened to he on account of the way he was drinking

just like you was drinking.

If that nigger don't walk the chalk... Y'all put him on the block and set it.

Yeah, but ain't nobody won't buy a drinker, nigga. He ain't no use for

work.

What's that want with all that money, huh?

I guess me my something to eat. I guess me my new clothes.

Tell him.

Tell him right this minute. 20 francs a month for your wages.

You is hurting my arm.

I hurt you so you know that you don't tell him right now.

I'm just talking to Sally, miss.

You are?

What are you talking about?

Just talking, miss.

It's a mighty pretty dress, Sally.

Good night, James.

Come here, Sally.

What are you doing there, Sally?

What's the matter?

Mass, I scared.

Of what?

Ghosts. Ghosts? Uh-huh.

Have you ever seen one?

Scared me so bad, my hair ris up till I couldn't get my hat back on my head.

Well, you won't see any here because they're all left behind in Virginia.

Uh-uh. They come with us, Master.

What? They sailed with you on the ship?

I thought ghosts couldn't cross water.

See, they don't mean no ship, no water. They just goes on through the air.

Same as smoke.

I done seen Molly. She done drowned herself in the mill pond.

She's here with us.

Well, doesn't that make you feel nice and at home to have Molly come all the

way to Paris from the bottom of an old mill pond?

You

know,

when they bring Molly up...

There wasn't nothing left to bury. She was ate up so bad.

All her eyes was gone.

And half her face.

Her legs and all.

And there wasn't a morsel of brain left in her skull.

What was all swarming with them water bugs.

Good night, Sally.

And thank you for giving me a pleasant vision to lull me to sleep.

Master, there's this old fly sitting on your face.

I don't see it.

It's troubling you.

Eye just stays here fanning right off you.

I do beg your pardon, Mr. Ambassador.

Your

immediate

task now is practical.

Your three separate orders of nobles, clergy and commons must be combined into

one single vote. But that is unresolved.

We shall vote, not by rank, but with the commons. Sir, I once knew a young man

who, having visited countries where liberty and equality were the rule,

decided to import those commodities into his own country.

Do you know what happened to him?

Well, sir, he was hanged.

Don't laugh.

My invention is the most humanitarian way of execution ever conceived.

But finally, Mr. Guillotin, for whom did you invent your charming little machine?

Was it only for us?

No more rascally hangings, no more low-life drawings and quarterings. Oh,

what a terrible shame.

Whatever these learned French surgeons may say, our old American remedies are

still the best.

Now, Sally, since the cure was due to your administrations, it's only right

that the results should be to your benefit.

Yes, ma'am.

To Sally Hemings, wages 24

francs.

You shall receive the same amount every month.

Of course, it's yours to do with as you please, but I would advise you not to

give it to James, or he will be spending in ways that won't do him any good.

He young and wild.

And you so old and sage.

Would you want me to keep it for you?

Yeah.

But I like... The bright colors, Beth.

Pink I like.

And yellow.

Now, I wonder.

What do you think of this?

Of course, you may not care for it at all. In which case, I might as well give

it away to some other girl.

Uh-uh. What is it?

You show me. Show me what it is.

It's that one.

It's not that one.

It's this one.

It's that for me.

That's Plum Creek.

You finished with Patsy yet? You're so slow, Sally. What will I say to Sir

Teresa if we're late again?

You tell her that you only got one girl, and she's so unlucky to be by my only

two hands. You make me so cross.

You make me so cross.

That's to teach you respect for your mistress.

You go and lay out Polly's things.

Javi, are you asleep?

Mother Superior says I can write to my parents.

Yes, I may enter my mission.

Juliet, you can take your vows.

Jeffy.

Now I have only one wish left.

Jeffy, I pray for it.

For you.

That God will allow you to join the true church.

The jealousies of rank have brought the States General to an impasse.

The older nobles and the clergy are determined to negate any measures that

would lose them the least of their privileges.

And of course, as usual, the Queen is on their side.

The order of the commons, the third estate, are equally determined, so that

there is a deadlock which only the king can resolve.

Neither did we exchange them, nor did we discuss them.

Citizens!

There is not a minute to lose! I'm coming from Versailles!

Mr. Necker is back!

There is only one solution.

Run to the trees, choose cockades to be recognized.

What color do you want?

Be free!

Do you want green, the color of hope, or blue, the color of St. Sinatus?

The color of the freedom of America and democracy!

Friends,

the signal is given.

The spirit

of liberty is

cantering from one end of France to the other, and through all ranks of society.

There are some incidents of violence.

mainly due to the continued shortage of bread, so that grain speculators are

frequent victims.

Yet I will agree to be stoned as a false prophet if all does not end well in this

country.

Ali, my boy.

Is it a revolt?

No, it's a revolution.

I fear it is what in England you would call rather silly.

But for us it's a beautiful new thought, that the flower of the poor potato is

more valuable than our finest jewellery.

Thank you, Adrien.

Perhaps you don't understand the deep affinity between us and the people.

We are all of us commoners now, and they are all noble.

Some of the faces I have seen in the streets of Paris did not look noble.

What I don't understand is what you're waiting for. Why don't you go?

Get out.

Run for your lives.

It is not easy to leave everything behind.

go to a strange country, an emigre, a refugee, without

money or connection or friends.

So one persuades oneself that everything will turn out well.

On Tuesday last, a crowd of women in a direct approach to the king and queen to

help them feed their children marched to Versailles and forced the royal family

to return with them to Paris.

The Marquis de Lafayette, as commander of the new National Guard, had the duty

of escort.

The people hoped that the presence of the king in their midst will help

relieve their desperate situation.

Waving loaves in the air on spikes, they jest that surely now they will have

bread, when they had brought the baker himself, that is, the king, and the

baker's wife and his little apprentice.

I came to give you this.

The memento of my small art and its great subject.

Papa has always taught us that in matters of religion, everyone must be

free to follow their own conscience.

So you've not told him yet?

I shall have to soon.

I am so happy for you.

When I was your age, I too desired, oh, so ardently, to take my vows.

But it was not to be.

You will be more fortunate than I.

But what will you do when he returns to America?

I shall stay here in the convent and take my vows.

And not see your beautiful Monticello?

No.

Patsy. I don't ever want to go back to Monticello. Dear Patsy, it's your sweet

home and your father's most cherished place.

You don't know.

What?

What is it, my dear child?

You don't know how we live in Monticello.

It is a paradise on earth.

Your father has told me so much, so much.

And he has made me love the place and made me long to go there too.

And as he told you about our Negroes and how they live, I'm sure he's very good

to them.

He's the best master in all of Virginia.

But he is the master.

And they're the servants.

Slaves.

And I'm certain that they hate us. Yes, I know they do. I can see it in their

faces, even when they smile and say, yes, master. And they're always there,

watching everything we do and listening to everything we say and hate us.

And I hate them.

And yet I pity them for the misery of their lives, and I wish from the bottom

of my heart that all the Negroes could be free forever.

They of us, and we of them.

Your father has explained to me how it is in the nature of a family

relationship.

And I've seen how kind he is. For instance, to the little Negro nurse,

Sally.

He has bought her pretty clothes, just as he has for you.

Can't you speak to me?

Please, tell me.

No, Mrs. Cosway, don't ask me. Don't force me.

Who would force you?

Only to relieve your heart by speaking to a friend.

I can't speak, Mrs. Cosway. I can't.

Speak because because because

It's unspeakable

I

can't possibly guess

Slade Manson.

Master's expecting you in the garden.

What are you doing?

Oh, Mrs. You scared me out of my skin.

I was picking corn for dinner.

Old man said he's so proud of his corn, but I see his Frenchy gas, they can't

abide it.

They don't even know how to eat it like it should be ate.

Why, how do you eat it?

You roast it, then you eat it on the cob, and it's the sweetest stuff you

ever eat in your life.

Except for couscous.

And ash cake.

Since you are never to be found, I have boldly come to you. Ah, but it is you

who are never to be found, except among a crowd of friends and admirers who hide

you from view.

At least my view.

I've planted an American garden.

I had seeds sent from Virginia, but only our harmony corn has prospered.

Everything else has been a dismal failure.

Our watermelons, cantaloupes, sweet potatoes.

You see, it hasn't rooted.

If only I could give you a taste of our marvelous sweet potatoes.

You sound homesick, Mr. Jefferson.

It is hard to leave.

I shall miss my friends and so much else.

Who would not want to be in France at such a glorious time?

Ah, yes, the glorious revolution.

I too shall have to return soon.

I've overstayed both my leave from London and my welcome in Paris.

Your welcome from whom?

From you, sir.

My affections have not altered.

There has been no change in the friendship that has been between us from

the first moment.

You are becoming the perfect diplomat.

Courteous and amiable always and always on your guard.

Well, I...

I confess I fear unguarded moments.

As when you fell and hurt your wrist?

I do feel most horribly responsible for that.

As though it were I who led you into recklessness.

No, no.

It was my own middle-aged vanity that made me attempt what only a youth can

do. May I, sir?

A corn.

You must try a corn.

Yes.

Pick it up and eat it with your hands.

It's like with all your friends against Manson when we cook it for them. They

love our corn.

They loves it when you're looking at them, but when you ain't, they just

spits it out.

Nonsense, Sally. That's nonsense.

I see them in my own eyes.

They just spit.

What's wrong? Please tell me. You told me yourself I could never hope to

understand.

If I have erred in some way, if I have offended you, I beg you to be as frank

with me as I've always tried to be with you.

On all subjects?

Or are there some that are best left unexplained?

Let me call on you tomorrow.

I've so missed you.

Let us resume our happy days together.

I wish we could.

I wish you both

success and joy.

May God protect you.

And keep you from harm.

And without a word for those who love you.

Not even our American friend.

Oh, my dear Mrs. Cosworth, this is all very hard on me. How will I justify

myself when he reproaches me for your absence?

He would be heartbroken.

I don't think we need fear for Mr.

Jefferson's heart.

But he has one.

Believe me.

A great and tender heart.

Only where is it in the rest of you? Far more. Well, then he is safe, for it will

never break or hurt him very much.

We have failed you. No, not you. You have been kindness and hospitality

itself. In France, we boast our fertile is our soil for love and lovers.

But if the soil is American, then nothing will grow but corn and, what is

it, sweet potatoes.

You sad, Matthew?

You crying?

You want me to sing for you?

I could sing you something sad, something merry.

Let it be sad then, Sally, since that's my mood.

I can't bear it. It'll make me sink into my grave for sadness.

You want me to show you how to cut the pigeon wing?

Cut what?

We calls it cutting the pigeon wings, because you hold your neck up real

stiff, just like a pigeon do, and you're there flapping your arms and your legs.

I'll show you.

Who's going to the party?

But first, the couple has to set the floor.

They comes up, bends over to each other at the waist, and the woman, she puts

her hands on her hips, and the man roll his eyes all round, and he's grinning.

Gonna wear a red gown, dee-dee-da-dee-da.

Gonna wear a velvet coat, dee-dee-da-dee-da.

Going to the ball, dee-dee. But it's better if you're on a dirt floor,

because then your feet can slap down real hard, or you get a glass of water.

And you put it on your head, and you see how many steps you can do without

spilling the water?

Going to the ball-dee-dee, going to the ball-dee-dee, going to the ball-dee-dee,

going to... Let me show you how to do butt dancing.

You hold hands, jumps up and down.

You still scared of me, Sally?

I ain't scared of you, Masa.

I respect your decision, monsieur, but I regret it.

We have become fond of both your daughters, and I have reason to believe

that your elder daughter is not altogether willing to depart.

But I am confident that she will be glad of it in future years.

We have our own ways, Madame Labesse, which we must follow if we are to be

true to ourselves.

I believe freedom of worship.

is written into your constitution.

Yes, ma'am. I am proud to say it is. That we allow each man to choose his

religion according to his own conscience.

In spite of promises made to me, my daughter was unduly influenced.

On the contrary, monsieur.

Your daughter, exercising the freedom on which your country prides itself,

made the choice which she judged to be right.

My daughter is too young to make such a judgment.

Independence is not a toy for children to play with, but the privilege of a

fully matured mind.

Patsy?

Can I get a sleep?

It's very late.

What's the time?

It's past midnight.

Didn't you hear it start?

I thought I counted eleven.

General Washington has written to ask me to return home and become his Secretary

of State.

You know my feelings about public office.

That I'd rather eat my soup at home with you, Apollo, than have all the honors

and position my country can heap on me.

But, Patsy, you have to be at home and learn what, after all, you can only

learn in America, to be a woman of your own country, a lady of Virginia.

Have you so fallen in love with France?

Or is it the dislike of your own country?

Surely not.

Remember what you promised me when you were only ten years old?

You said then, in your sweet way, that you were there for me and would

do everything for me and would forever be the lady of my house.

Who can be the mistress of Monticello but you?

Don't you want to be that?

More than anything else in the world.

If only it could be.

Monticello is yours.

You are my true life and my true love.

And everything that is best in me belongs to you.

I need some of your money, Sal.

I ain't got it.

Old Master don't keep it for me.

You let him keep your money?

Uh-huh. You do beat all for natural stupidness.

I don't needs it.

I needs it.

Is you in trouble?

I just go tell Old Master that I wants my money.

And if he says what for?

I say that is for me and the little one that's coming.

Who's been at you?

There's one of them down there?

I'll kill him with my bare hands.

Them Frenchies?

They as much as look at me and I'll bop them in his face.

Who is it then?

You think you know something and you don't know nothing.

So it's him, is it?

Whole lot better if it was one of them Frenchies.

And he's scarcely 14.

I was 15 and you knows it.

He's almost 16.

He's glad.

He's glad to breed more little niggers to work in your master's fields.

Won't be no field nigger if it's his own chai dies carrying.

Oh, yeah.

He let he sit in he parlor.

Drinking is poor.

Like my white father and yours done for us.

Don't you shush me.

You know blame well what our white father done for us. Give us away for her

wedding present when his white daughter, our white sister, marry Mr. Jefferson.

And Mr. Jefferson, he serve you the same when Miss Patsy get married. You see,

you and all your little half-niggers, y'all gets thrown in with the pots and

pans she be taking away from Monticello. Or he gets married himself.

And this new Miss Jefferson, she come and say, who are all these brat niggers

running around my house?

That don't look good. You go sell them someplace else.

You don't know nothing.

Oh, master, he never gonna marry again.

I is there when he do promise Miss Jefferson on her deathbed.

White folks promises.

Yeah, well, they keep them when they make them to other white folks.

If the angels was to come down from heaven, then they'd cheat them the same

as they do us.

It's pitiful.

Pitiful times we's in.

But you listen here.

Sal, if we stays in Paris, we's free.

Yeah. Plum free to starve to death.

I can get wages any day I wants with making the pastries and all them things

I learns.

But he learns you so you can cook good things to that Monticello.

It's lucky for us I got more sense in my little toe than you has in your entire

body.

I'm missing my mammy and they all something awful.

I want to go home.

Home? Home?

What home?

Your little old slave cabin where they keep you like the animals they breeds?

God Almighty never meant for human beings to be like animals.

We has a soul and a head and a mind.

We ain't like a dog or a horse.

Now you listen to me.

You do what I says and you and me is free.

And that little one in there, free.

Don't you want to see what it's like to own your own body?

He was crazy, James, hear me?

He was crazy.

Master, we staying in Paris.

Sally and I are staying.

You consider yourself free then to go or stay as you please.

We is free here, Master.

Ain't nobody is a slave in France.

Does your sister also wish to follow the law prevailing here rather than the

American law under which she was born? She don't understand nothing.

She do what I say.

With no regard for what I say.

She'd be wanting her freedom, master.

For her own self and the little one what's coming.

So you, James, will provide for Sally and her child.

I'll be getting work and wages.

Now remember, once I have left and you are here on your own, there's nothing

more I shall be able to do for you.

You will be living among strangers in a strange land of which you do not even

know the language.

I know some.

More than you, Master.

Yes. Well, that is true.

But if, James... James, listen to me.

If I say come home to Virginia, and I shall give you your freedom...

You give me my freedom?

That is what I'm proposing.

My papers and all?

Everything that is legally required to release you from my ownership.

And her and the little one?

What do you say, Sally?

Now think very carefully.

You and your child will be free to leave Monticello and earn your living

elsewhere as a free woman.

Where's I going?

Wherever you wish.

But where do I go?

Let me make another proposal.

Well, you, James, may claim your freedom whenever you wish after I return home.

Sally and her child will remain at Monticello under

my care, but upon my death to be given her freedom.

How we know it happened like that when we get back to Monticello?

You have my word.

I mean, they swear an oath on the Bible.

Patsy?

Patsy? Will you step inside, please?

Close the door.

Now, here's a strange to-do, Patsy.

I'm about to swear an oath that on our return to Virginia, James shall have his

freedom.

But should anything happen to me, Patsy, it will be you who have to fulfill that

promise.

Do you understand me?

And further, there's an oath to Sally.

that she too upon my death shall be freed. Her and the little one, what's

coming?

Yes, Sally and the child she is expecting.

And all other children that may be born to her in the future.

Do you bind yourself to that?

I swear by almighty God that upon my return to the state of Virginia, I shall

within a period of not more than two years give his freedom to James

Hammeetz.

Since, however, James was brought to Paris a great expense to me for the

purpose of learning the art of French cookery, he shall continue to reside at

Monticello in my service until he shall have taught the same art to such persons

as I shall place under him.

Do you swear?

I swear.

I also hereby promise and declare that Sally Hemings, sister of James,

shall be freed upon my death.

Likewise, all children born to her.

Shall be freed from my ownership or that of my ears upon reaching the age of 21

Do you swear Patsy I

swear