Protestors Accuse New Play About Jefferson-Hemings Relationship Of Romanticizing Slavery And Rape

“The central question of [Thomas] Bradshaw’s play – whether Sally Hemings, who as Jefferson’s slave was his legal property, could have loved her master, who fathered six of her children – has made Thomas and Sally the locus of a veritable firestorm of public protest and criticism. With that backlash have arisen questions of how sexual assault and slavery history can and should be portrayed onstage.”