The laws of France in the 1770s and 1780s did not allow people to keep slaves in France (they could keep slaves in France's colonies). People who brought slaves to France had to either send them away or free them within a certain time. Enslaved people who knew about the law sometimes went to the admiralty court and asked the French government to say they were free. Sally Hemings and her brother could have done this. Gordon-Reed notes that this would have made Jefferson and the United States look bad to the French. She also notes that if Jefferson had freed James and Sally Hemings, it would have made Jefferson and the United States look good to the French.