Third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson lived at the plantation
Monticello and kept slaves to work in his fields, farm and home.
One of his slaves was a woman named Sally Hemings, mother to
four of Jefferson's children - Beverly, Harriet, Maddy, and
Eston. Though slaves, the children and their mother were given
special treatment by Jefferson because of his discreet
relationship to them - but nevertheless, slaves they remained.
Master Jefferson promises freedom to all four of his slave
children upon their twenty-first birthdays, but Beverly, the
eldest, cannot imagine leaving his mother, sister, brothers -
but especially his father. Light-skinned and longing for a
father figure, Beverly struggles with the secrecy of Jefferson's
nonpublic identity as his father, especially when Jefferson
presents him and his brothers with a kit violin and lessons. He
and his siblings imagine a life where his mother, siblings and
father could live openly together as a real family; a life that
did not involve waiting on Master Jeff