Anne,

Why do you insist on calling me a liar and a poster of sins? 

Sandy, with a black mother, would not necessarily mean that he was ALL black
(a Jefferson was possibly his father), or that lighter slaves at Monticello
were necessarily descendants of this man (there was no identification as to
which children were considered light skinned except Eston and his family).
Every description of a person nicknamed Sandy were just that.......sandy
colored (reddish/brownish) hair. The lighter skinned slaves could very well
be Sally's (remember Randolph was between wives when she had ALL of her
children....some white, Eston and Harriet specifically. Some of Sally's
children on the mountain could have been fathered by the claimed Carr
brothers also........we only tested ONE Hemings.

In my second "sin" you mention that the test could be either Thomas or
Randolph.......YES, however the man tested had a long line of oral family
claims that they descended from Randolph NOT Thomas. 

Your next paragraph of thinking as to why Sally was later given her time
after TJ's death and her children before his death make you wonder, WHY. As
you may or may not know the Hemings, inherited by TJ's wife Martha, had the
experience and just moved on up to Monticello with her. They were suited to
housework NOT field work. Through the years they proved themselves to be
faithful and trustworthy to assume this particular work. It was this
closeness and familiarity that led to their being freed while, NOT kinship,
no field slaves were. These Hemings had a "trade" and could better survive
in the world while the field hands could not. 

Herb Barger    

  

Herbert you commit two sin in your post.

First of all, you insist that it is possible for a son of Sandy to have been

the father of Sally Hemings. Inasmuch as Sandy would have had a black 
mother, he would have carried more dark color than is evident from the 
eyewitness descriptions of Sally's children. Therefore, your Sandy theory is

down the tubes, even if you can prove that the Sandy listed in the Farm Book

did indeed have red or reddish hair. Just because sometimes slaves with red 
hair were named Sandy does not lead to the conclusion that ANY slave named 
Sandy MUST have had red hair.

The second is to assume that based on the DNA tests that the father of Eston

was Jefferson's brother. All the test did was establish that Eston was in 
the Jefferson line. It could be that Eston was fathered by Thomas and the 
oral history used a different definition for "uncle" than you are assuming. 
So, that contention has not been "proven" as you suggest. It is still as 
much in the air as are all the other contentions.

What I find hard to swallow in your assumptions and conclusions is that 
Jefferson freed only specific slaves - only the Hemings, including Sally 
(who was given her time because of her age), and Sally's children. Do you 
think Jefferson made this decision on a whim? Do you think he randomly chose

the Hemings for freedom among the 200 slaves he owned? If not, we must 
assume that Jefferson had a reason he chose not to divulge to the ages. Is 
it more logical that his reason was his own paternity of these children, or 
the paternity of his brother? In all your esteemed knowledge of Jefferson, 
which choice makes most seense to you?

Anne



Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org 

______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html

______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html