When Thomas Jefferson and enslaved Sally Hemings were "sealed" in a Mormon marriage ceremony

Why it mattered: Hemings' relationship with Jefferson — the father of at least six of her children — has long been a point of historical debate.

• The term "power imbalance" understates the problems around consent between an enslaved person and their owner. Hemings was legally Jefferson's property and would have had no recognized right to refuse his sexual advances — even if she was his "paramour."
• Hemings was 16 when she first became pregnant; Jefferson was 46.

What happened: In 2012, Slate reported that the church confirmed Hemings and Jefferson were posthumously "sealed" — a Mormon marriage rite that allows couples to stay connected eternally, per the faith's teachings.

• The ceremony occurred in 1991 in the Mesa, Arizona, temple, Slate reported.

How it works: Church procedures allow Latter-day Saints to perform baptisms, sealings and other ordinances or ceremonies by proxy for people who did not participate when they were alive.

• Typically, these rites are performed by church members on behalf of their own ancestors, to allow families to reunite after death under the church's teachings.

The intrigue: "In the spirit world, deceased persons can choose to accept or reject ordinances that have been performed for them," the church writes.

• That means, per church teachings, Hemings would at least be able to opt out of the connection to Jefferson in the afterlife.

Context: Slate's report emerged shortly after the church threatened to suspend members' access to its massive genealogical databases if they performed proxy ordinances for Holocaust victims.

• A month earlier, a member had baptized Anne Frank at a temple in the Dominican Republic.
• For years, Holocaust survivors and descendants of victims decried the practice, while Latter-day Saint leaders tried to modify its record-creation protocols to prevent members from taking non-Mormon names into their own hands.

The latest: The church did not respond to Axios' query as to whether the posthumous sealing of Hemings and Jefferson was still documented or considered valid.

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• "Emergency" ban on tall hats
• We're No. 1 ... for forced sterilizations