A DECLARATION OF LOVE IN CBS' 'SALLY HEMINGS' PRESIDENT'S PASSION EXPLORED.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

Fact: Sally Hemings was a beautiful light-skinned slave of mixed race at Thomas Jefferson's landmark Virginia plantation, Monticello.

Fact: Hemings as a teen-ager accompanied Jefferson's younger daughter, Mary, to France in 1787 to serve as her lady's maid while the widowed Jefferson was ambassador.

Fact: Hemings, unmarried, bore six children over the next several years, all of whom looked white and at least some of whom were tall, red-haired and freckled.

Fact: Thomas Jefferson, who was tall, red-haired and freckled, traveled frequently but according to his journals was at Monticello when each of Sally's children was conceived, with the exception of her first, Tom Hemings, who was conceived while she and Jefferson were in Paris.

Fact: In 1998, DNA results from descendants of Eston Hemings, Sally's youngest, showed he was the son of Thomas Jefferson, and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, the research institution that maintains Monticello, last month conceded it is at least possible Jefferson fathered the others as well.

This information on its own might occupy a half-hour on PBS or flesh out a ``Biography'' hour on A&E, but it wouldn't sustain a four-hour miniseries.

So with CBS' blessing, writer Tina Andrews connected the dots and filled in the dramatic blanks to create ``Sally Hemings: An American Scandal,'' a romantic tale of forbidden love, 19th-century politics and the protection of a national hero's image and legacy. It airs 9 p.m. Sunday and Feb. 16 and stars Sam Neill and Carmen Ejogo.

Sure, it's a two-night sweeps-period special that may be enjoyed or criticized for its soap-opera story elements and the romance-novel look of its publicity photos.

But at its core is a 200-year-old debate centered on conflicting ``truths'' about this very underdocumented aspect of Jefferson's life.

Aside from the American public's curiosity about our third president and the revered author of the Declaration of Independence, there are hundreds of living descendants of Sally Hemings who seek public validation of what they have known with certainty for years: that they are Jefferson's kin as well, according to oral histories and family records kept in their Bibles.

Some of them want the privileges afforded the members of the Monticello Association - the descendants of Jefferson's white daughters, Martha and Mary - be it burial on the grounds of Monticello or the right to politely refuse that honor. Others would be happy just to hear the Hemings story as they know it told by the guides who lead thousands of tourists through the plantation each year.

As she read and wrote in her Los Angeles office, Andrews had pictures all over her walls of Hemings descendants going back to the grandchildren of Thomas and Sally.

With the miniseries completed, Andrews waited with anticipation last month for the announcement of a new development in the Jefferson-Hemings story. On Jan. 26, the Jefferson foundation released its own study concurring with the Eston Hemings DNA results.

``My reaction was how happy I am for the family, because all they have wanted is simple recognition and acknowledgment for 213 years,'' Andrews said. ``That's all. Just the acknowledgement that they exist because those two people had a relationship, no matter how that relationship is characterized.

``It produced children who had children who had children who had children, and now they can in many ways hold their heads up knowing their oral history has, in fact, proven true. The one thing I'm now hoping is that the sons and daughters of Jefferson and Hemings can hold hands with the sons and daughters of the Jefferson descendants and realize that they are all one family.''

For now, the chances of a group hug are slim to none. The descendants of Sally's children - Thomas (Hemings) Woodson, Madison Hemings and Eston Hemings - would welcome it, but there are only a few from the Jefferson side that seem ready to take that step.

Among those is Marla Randolph Stevens, a 48-year-old lobbyist in Indianapolis whose family stems from Martha Randolph, Jefferson's older daughter with wife Martha. She not only accepts her Hemings kinship, she accepts the idea that there were blood ties between the two branches before Sally was born.

According to Hemings oral history, Sally's father was John Wayles, a plantation owner who was the father of Jefferson's beloved wife. That would make Sally and Mrs. Jefferson half-sisters, hence Jefferson's remark to Sally in the movie that she bears a striking resemblance to his late wife.

``In some ways we're just quibbling about how many ways we're half- cousins,'' Stevens said. ``We're already all family, and we need to behave like that.

``A lot of the name-calling is not helpful, and it divides people,'' she said. ``And I want to try to help the people who are willing to listen see that it started out with love and it needs to end that way.''

The idea that it was love is another point of contention. The miniseries portrays the relationship as warm, passionate and steadfast until Jefferson's death in 1826.

There is little direct evidence of a love affair, such as journal entries or love letters, but Andrews found her premise in circumstantial proof.

``Guys, it was 38 years,'' she said. ``She got 38 years older. If it was only sex, he'd have moved on to another woman on the plantation.''

She said she believes that Jefferson, widowed at age 38, would have remarried before he ran for president as political advisers suggested if his relationship with Sally were just a ``slave romp.'' She also notes Jefferson neither admitted nor denied the relationship when newspaper accounts by gossip monger James T. Callender - the Matt Drudge of his day - were printed in 1802.

Neill, a New Zealander, said he knew about Jefferson's role in history but knew nothing of his private life before this project.

``The most compelling evidence to me that this was not simply a master- slave relationship, that this was based on at least some mutual respect and affection, is that after he died and she was freed and she lived quite a ways from Monticello, she walked up that hill every week and tended his grave,'' Neill said. ``You don't do that for someone whose memory you don't hold dear. She would never have gone back.

``It really is just in hindsight that we build monuments to people and they become sort of less human somehow,'' Neill added. ``I find (the relationship) entirely plausible and understandable somehow. He was a widower for many years. You can't just sort of read Ovid for the rest of your life.''

However, the Jefferson foundation, keeper of his memory as well as his estate, is not yet willing to concede that point.

``Whether it was love or lust, rape or romance, no one knows - and it's unlikely that anyone will ever know,'' foundation president Dan Jordan said last month.

``Our first step was to prepare and release the report,'' Jordan said in a phone interview this week. ``Now we are looking at how it might change our interpretation of the issue at Monticello.''

He said he hopes to revise the Hemings account ``sooner rather than later.''

``We're anxious to get on with it, but we want to get it right, and that takes a little time.''

The Hemings descendants feel certain they already know the truth. Some 800 of them gathered last weekend in Columbus, Ohio, for a screening of the miniseries. Julia Jefferson Westerinen, who traces her roots to Eston Hemings (he changed his name to E.H. Jefferson), described it as ``wall-to-wall relatives.''

Stevens says the Jefferson-Hemings affair cannot do serious harm to her ancestor's memory. ``It doesn't unwrite the Declaration of Independence, it doesn't blow up the University of Virginia.

``As a little girl, I always loved the fact that he never could really get the (Monticello) dome right,'' she said. ``I always loved that there was this tangible proof that he wasn't perfect, because being a descendant of his carries a heavy load. It made him more like a grandpa and less like an icon.''

The Hemings story ``doesn't make him not an icon,'' she added. ``It just creates a better balance, an accessible balance.''

THE FACTS

--The show: ``Sally Hemings: An American Scandal.''

--The stars: Sam Neill and Carmen Ejogo.

--The story: Plantation owner and politician Thomas Jefferson had a relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings, that lasted until his death and most likely produced her six children.

--When: 9 p.m. Sunday and Feb. 16.

--Where: CBS (Channel 2).

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) Uncertain history

CBS miniseries 'Sally Hemings' revolves around Jefferson's private life

(2) Sam Neill is Thomas Jefferson and Carmen Ejogo is the slave with whom he had a 38-year relationship in ``Sally Hemings: An American Scandal.''

(3) The two-part CBS drama shows how Hemings (Ejogo) followed the widowed Jefferson to France while he was an ambassador.

(4) While Thomas Jefferson's (Sam Neill) relationship with Sally Hemings is shown to be very loving in the miniseries, there isn't enough historical evidence to pinpoint the nature of their bond.