Inconvenient truths about Thomas Jefferson explored in ‘Sally & Tom’ at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre

Play-within-a-play runs through Sunday

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June 30, 2026 4:08 p.m.

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While the Broadway musical “Hamilton” elevated the status of Alexander Hamilton from a mostly historical afterthought to a cultural icon, “Sally & Tom,” a play currently at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland, it doesn’t do Hamilton’s fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson any such favors.

As we know from our history books, Jefferson was the third president of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence.

These truths are self-evident.

Also true: Jefferson owned over 600 enslaved people, including Sally Hemings, with whom he had a decades-long relationship, fathering at least six children with her. The relationship started when Jefferson was 41 and Hemmings was 14. Jefferson never freed Hemmings.

Read more on WTOP.com.

This article was written by Bethesda Today’s partner WTOP News and republished with permission. Sign up for WTOP’s breaking news, traffic and weather alerts and emails today.

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine