Harriet Hemings

Harriet Hemings is a fictional character based on the real daughter of Sally Hemings, a slave who lived at Monticello until shortly after Thomas Jefferson's death. In this novel, Harriet Hemings is a nineteen-year-old girl at the beginning of the novel who is to be given her freedom at the age of twenty-one. Harriet is happy at Monticello and does not want to leave. Harriet does not consider herself a slave, only a servant, because of the kind way in which the master of the plantation, Thomas Jefferson, has always treated her, her brothers and her mother. However, Harriet's mother has made it clear that she will be offered her freedom at twenty-one and that she is expected to take it.

After an unfortunate incident in which the master's grandson-in-law attempts to take advantage of Harriet, she realizes that she must do as her mother wishes and...