Enough of this foolery! Please no more of Sally and Thomas. We've heard
enough.
Kevin Hardwick wrote:
> Mr. Dixon--
>
> As an attorney, do you think you could persuade a jury to believe the
> allegations against Jefferson? In as much as the most persuasive arguments
> on the issue on both sides have been produced by lawyers and not academic
> historians, my guess is that it is not entirely implausible to imagine
> juries that *would* convict. If so, are academic historians any worse than
> Americans in general?
>
> While the particular question of whether or not Jefferson had a liason with
> Hemings has obvious interest to Jefferson and Hemings decendents, I find it
> a distraction from the larger issue of Jefferson's moral complicity with
> slavery itself. We have a great deal of information, much of it quite
> direct and incontrovertible, that on the larger issue of slavery,
> Jefferson's behavior was in direct contradiction with his own principles.
> The proper historical standard by which to judge Jefferson, after all, is
> the standard he himself established. But here, he was *at best* a
> hypocrite (in a way, for example, that can not be said of either Patrick
> Henry or George Washington). This remains true whether or not Jefferson
> had sex with Sally Hemings.
>
> Best,
> Kevin
>
> --On Thursday, March 28, 2002 12:26 PM +0000 "Richard E. Dixon"
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > In a message dated 3/28/02 11:20:05 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> > [log in to unmask] writes:
> >
> > << Jefferson never
> > really went public in his denials, so is that any more misleading than
> > any other presidential philanderer >>
> >
> > My goodness, Jefferson did not publish a full page denial of the third
> > party hearsay that plagued him about Sally Hemings. Would that have made a
> > difference in the predisposition of many academics unaffected by the
> > absence of any direct evidence?
> > _____________________________________________________________________
> > Richard E. Dixon
> > Attorney at Law
> > 4122 Leonard Drive
> > Fairfax, VA 22030
> > 703-691-0770
> > fax 703-691-0978
> > ______________________________________________________________________
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
> --
> Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of History, MSC 2001
> James Madison University
> Harrisonburg VA 22807
> Phone: 540/568-6306
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
--
~~~
Ray Bonis
Special Collections and Archives
James Branch Cabell Library
901 Park Ave. VCU Box 842033
Richmond, VA 23284-2033
Phone: (804) 828-1108
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/speccoll.html
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