Neil,

First of all, I never, ever said that I think less of Tom Jefferson for his 
behavior/misbehavior with the women in his life. I just want to learn more 
about the man - which is the same reason that I have a number of volume on 
or by him in my library. So, no, finding out that Kennedy was a womanizer 
made no difference in my perception of him, and I really did think that 
Clinton's impeachment was a big deal over nothing. George Washington was 
also said to be quite a ladies' man!

As to the "political agenda" to ascribe to some group you call "academic 
elites", I have no earthly idea what you are talking about. I've heard these 
charges made by the Jefferson apologizers, but have never seen anything from 
the "academic elites" to indicate that there is anything to it but swirls of 
gossip aka that would make James Callendar jump for joy!

When I told my brother-in-law that research into a civil war battle that 
took place near where I lived led me to knowledge of black confederate 
troops that fought in some of the last battles in the Appomattox Campaign, 
he became very angry, said it was nothing but the "lies" I'd learned in 
school "up north", was merely "revisionist" history, and so on, and so on. 
The immediate source of my information was one Chris Calkins of the 
Petersburg Battlefield Park! I later found the information available in a 
number of books, pictures in the Richmond Newspaper on April 1, 1865, and 
other sources. So, to me, "revisionist history" is a rather overused term 
for "historical discoveries I don't know about and don't want to know 
about".

Other than Jefferson's affair with Sally Hemings, which I am inclined to 
believe just on the fact that Jefferson was a man and a Virginian, I also do 
a lot of reading on the others who "discovered America" long before 
Columbus. If you look at my web page on Columbus, you will see that I do not 
say he "discovered" anything, just that he "landed" in America in 1492. 
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org/famamer/CColumbus.html
Because my Famous Americans are intended for elementary students there is no 
mention of the controvery on my page for Jefferson: 
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org/famamer/TJefferson.html

Whether or not it will go on a under-construction page on slavery, is 
uncertain. It would be more of  statement that masters often deliberately 
fathered children by their slaves, not necessarily naming Jefferson 
until/unless there is some scientific proof.

P 230-231 are the pages in Kukla's book regarding pages 35-40. References to 
the Commonplace Book seem to come from two published sources: Douglas L. 
Wilson and Kenneth A. Lockridge. Kukla pulls his information from a lot of 
entries from both examinations of the Jefferson notebook. A Wilson source 
also listed is the Memorandum Book, "Descriptive Notes" xxxvii-xl, 154.

You could also just ask Jon Kukla, who is a member of this list, to find out 
where in the Commonplace Book he located the sources used in that section of 
his book.

And, I will again suggest that instead of taking the word of others, you 
actually read the book and see if YOU think it is some sort of "communist 
plot".

Anne



Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org 

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