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Fri, 10 Dec 2004 10:40:16 -0500 |
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Does anyone know of sources about the history of balloon ascents in Virginia?
I'm at work on a book about Jefferson and his slaves, and I'm trying to
track down information about a balloon ascent in Petersburg mentioned in a
memoir by Isaac Jefferson, former slave of TJ. Isaac stated in 1847:
"Sally [Hemings] had a son named Madison, who learned to be a great
fiddler. He has been in Petersburg twice: was here when the balloon went
up--the balloon that Beverly sent off."
Isaac Jefferson was in the Richmond/Petersburg area beginning in the mid
1820s. In her book on TJ and Hemings, Annette Gordon-Reed writes that a
balloon ascent took place in Petersburg July 4, 1834, citing "The Eagle
Aloft : Two Centuries of the Balloon in America" by Tom Crouch (1983).
I'm wondering if there are other sources.
Many thanks,
Henry Wiencek
Charlottesville
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